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Rabit not going down ramp!!!

rosiered2

New Kit
can any one help. Have just got a resued rabbit it is an english lop and has a double chin as she was overweight. we have just got a rydedale hutch and bonded her with our male rabbit. everything should be perfect, but she can go up the ramp ok but is too scared to come down, and we have left her there with hay and water of course but she just will not come down to go outside etc. in the end we have to pick her up and get her out the door. we have tried tempting her with food etc but she has not idea how to get down and even looks down the wrong way. has any one got any idea? we have to block the whole up at night as done want her up there and unable to get down to her mate.
 
can any one help. Have just got a resued rabbit it is an english lop and has a double chin as she was overweight. we have just got a rydedale hutch and bonded her with our male rabbit. everything should be perfect, but she can go up the ramp ok but is too scared to come down, and we have left her there with hay and water of course but she just will not come down to go outside etc. in the end we have to pick her up and get her out the door. we have tried tempting her with food etc but she has not idea how to get down and even looks down the wrong way. has any one got any idea? we have to block the whole up at night as done want her up there and unable to get down to her mate.

It could be too steep?! Some buns take a while getting used to new things, they can usually learn things eventually just given time. I would be inclined to either glue some rungs onto the ramp (thin batons of wood using wood glue and sand the edges so not sharp) or glue/velcro (B&Q do strong self-adhesive velcro) on some carpet for more grip. Ours have a carpeted ladder :)

Edited to say I would get some thin ply and make a strip to go along the side of the ramp too....to stop her falling off and act like a banister? We have done this also, except our girl just leaps over the top of it and jumps up and down - she rarely actually uses the ladder properly! But our male bun couldn't cope with a bare ladder at all. He also got stuck once in his old hutch up the ramp! :roll:
 
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Like this: :wave:
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thanks for your ideas, the ramp has wooden batons but will try the banister idea
and put carpet between batons. just dont want her to get upset when she is upstairs in her warren, dont know how long to leave her
 
thanks for your ideas, the ramp has wooden batons but will try the banister idea
and put carpet between batons. just dont want her to get upset when she is upstairs in her warren, dont know how long to leave her

We had batons first - the carpet was laid on top of them! She may just need some more time and more encouragement using treats as a reward. We live in a house full of stairs - split over 3 levels and ours are house buns. Our boy couldn't go up and especially down stairs. Not the most conventional method but we used to one of us sit behind him holding his back feet and the other one tempt him with treats and teach him to drop onto his front paws, which he could do if we held his back feet for him, we didn't push it, just practised every day and rewarded him every time. He flies up and down them now! :D

Perhaps you could put them out in the garden for a play whilst you make any changes to the hutch so as not to upset them? Is that what you meant? As long as she has food and water upstairs, curiosity might finally get the better of her. She may also learn from her bonded partner - ours always learn from each other.
 
Another option is to provide shelves or boxes that the bun can stand on to use as steps between the levels :)
 
I find its easier to get them to go up first rather than down.

Put the bunny in the bottom section with plenty of hay and water so they are ok if they are to stubborn to use the ramp.

Put their pellets upstairs.

Normally this is enough to tempt them. Once they've realised they can go up ok they are normally a bit more confident about going back down again.
 
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