Trancing a Rabbit

nessar said:

Horses are similar to rabbits behaviourally and many are abused and beaten but still are good for their owners.

Humans too, you'd think we were smarter than that but ask a woman who is beaten by her husband if she still loves him and the answer will likely be yes.

Abuse makes people/animals more dependant and submissive....


Plus, how can you tell if the rabbit loves their owners? When rabbits groom, it isn't just a sign of affection it is also a sign of submission. When they come to the bars when the owner comes out maybe they are just hoping for food.

Trancing is scientifically proven to make the rabbit terrified. The stress hormone in their bodies has been measured and it matches the reaction to an extremely stressful event.

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fizabella said:

What you've said about dependance and submission does make sense

As for being able to tell, I can't, I just assume :lol: but I just wonder because some rabbits who've been tranced still seem very relaxed (binkying, belly flopping etc) and it seems strange to me. Also, wouldn't the rabbit show some signs of trust issues with humans after being tranced a lot (some people do it every time they groom their bunnies! :shock, like running away maybe, or not wanting to be held?

Please don't think badly of me, I'm asking purely out of curiosity

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nessar said:

Perhaps, but in my experience some rabbits will submit to being picked up etc eventually if they know they have no choice. Some won't and will continue to struggle, but some will just put up with it because they know they aren't going to win. Sad really.

If you ever watch a video on rabbits being shown, you'll see that the rabbits mostly just stay where they are and let themselves be examined with no trouble - try doing that to most pet rabbits and it would be a different story. They are just used to it and know they have no choice.

For instance, my Annabella doesn't like being touched really and hates being picked up. But if she is in a small space and knows she can't escape - i.e. at the vets or cornered somewhere, she will let me stroke, groom and pick her up. It doesn't mean she likes it, she just tolerates it because she knows it is hopeless. Luckily for her I don't take advantage of that and don't do it unless necessary, but some owners would.

My Barney had incontinence and needed to be bathed every other day or daily and groomed daily, which also involved getting matts out of the fur on his bum. He hated both and I know that teasing out the matts must have hurt. He is very strong willed and so always struggled but got more used to it and although he'd try to hop off or sometimes bite when I was pulling matts out, he still would come to me, groom me etc as usual, although he was more wary of me picking him up and to this day he dislikes his bottom fur being touched. But he didn't hate me for it, even though I caused him stress and hurt every day.

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fizabella said:

Thanks for telling me in such great detail. I think I understand better now - it's really sad now that I think about it. As you compared it before, much like an abusive relationship between humans :shock:

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nessar said:

Yep, I think so.

The thing is, although trancing is very stressful it can also be very useful. Barney was sedated and then tranced for an xray once, as his breathing isn't great due to snuffles, which means that anaesthetic is more risky for him. He was also tranced when the vet took out the stitches from his neuter (no idea why they didn't use glue or disolvable stitches :roll as he wouldn't stay still otherwise. Annabella was tranced for the vet to trim her bottom fur, as it was getting long which made her a risk for fly-strike and was getting matts in it. I made the decision that, rather than stress her out everyday grooming her which she hated, I'd rather her have 5 mins of stress and then be fine for the whole summer.

Some people believe it should never be used, but personally I think that in some situations (usually medical ones) it can be the preferable option.

Interestingly, Barney is very hard to trance. He panics and twists when you tip him back, keeping his head up and to the side. He has done backflips and all sorts trying to escape the vet from trancing him when he was having his stitches out. This seems to stop him being tranced at all or not as much. It took a long time for him to trust me with picking him up when I got him and I believe that at his previous home he was tranced often, leading to him developing the twisting method to stop himself trancing as easily.

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