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Milly - determined little bunny!!

jay

Mama Doe
I want to put Milly outside so she can have some grass and fresh air. She is determined she is not leaving the dining room though! And it impossible to make her. I have tried putting food in the carrier and tempting her in but she's not stupid and just ignores it. I've tried throwing a blanket over her and picking her up but she goes into a panic and I can't do that to her. How else am I going to get her outside? I've even leaft the front door open which the bunnies can see from the dining room but they won't cross the laminate in the kitchen to get from the dining room to the hall! I feel awful for Milly as I can just pick Jack up and pop him outside! I don't want to undo all the good work I've done with Milly as she comes up to me now and lets me touch her nose and even jumps over my legs when i'm sat on the floor which is a vast improvement.
 
how long do you try with the carrier for?

I find if I stand next to them waiting they'll never go in it, but if I walk away and pretend i'm not looking eventually their noseyness will overcome them and they'll jump in!

Another thing to consider is...if they live in a dog crate try putting the carrier in as a permenant shelter/bed for them and you can take her out when she is in there. This way she will not be scared of the carrier.
If you don't have a dog crate I would leave the carrier out permenantly near their food bowls so they are used to it.
 
She will happily go in it if I am not there - as soon as I enter the room she legs it back under the table and then refuses to go back in. The carrier is the dining room all the time for them to run in and out of. In fact if I am there she won't go in any sort of box despite the fact when I go into the dining room she is usually in a box!
 
If the laminade floor is the problem could you put down a rug or maybe some towels, would they walk on that?

follow the towel road Milly...
 
Yes, I have tried lots of towels on the floor but she won't walk any further than about a foot before scampering back to the saftey of the table!
 
My bun used to be like this, I'd stand by the carrier and put my hands over my eyes (and peek through them) he would think I wasn't looking and jump in, or put a tube that leads into the carrier, that always folled one of my buns!
 
From her point of view the outside/the dinning room is a big scary dangerous place. As I'm sure you know, rabbits are prey animals and for them danger comes from all around... foxes, birds of prey etc. You might know the gardens safe but she doesn't.

Rabbits best defence is rapid escape back to a safe bolt hole... like under the table. What you're asking her to do is cross the slippy laminate floor which will slow down an escape and go a long distance from her safe hole into unknown territory. Pretty scary stuff if you're a rabbit.

You need to get her used to things in stages, expand her territory gradually so she can learn where is safe. First you need a perminant safe floor for the dinning room. Towels are great but unless they are always there as far as she's concerned there is no garenteed safe escape. A rug or a strip of carpet would be best. Something you can live with having in your dinning room. She also needs bolt holes like the carrier, tunnels etc. places she can hide and feel safe. Then start feeding her closer to the dinning room, move the bowl an inch further in each day. Leave trails of the yummiest food etc.

Once she's comfortable in the dinning room - think weeks not days. Then you can do the same thing to encourage her outside.
 
Thanks for the advice adele.

I don't want to put anything permenant down because they are kept in the dining room by the invisible force that is the laminate floor!!!!! Can't possibly bunny proof the entire house so they have to stay somewhere. I would rather her get used to being picked up and put into the run. We have specifically build her a tiny run which I sit in with her (ok, so not that tiny :lol: ) which she enjoys. I can now pick her up by throwing a towel over her and carrying her out which she doesn't mind too much.

I have only had her a few months and she has done fantastically well in that time - she now comes when I call her, although she always stops half a foot from me to investigate whether I have food and if not legs it!!!
 
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