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Rabbit 'whispering'...

woodstock

Mama Doe
So how many of you do it?

I suppose I'd better explain... because I don't mean talking to them. I'm talking about copying the behaviour of a rabbit to put your pet bun at ease... :oops:

For me it all started last year - we were living in a rented house that happened to have a 6 foot brick wall all around the garden, so it was very secure, and we often opened the bottom door on the buns hutch to let them play in the garden.
However, they got so comfortable with the garden, that it became a nightmare to put them away again!

Donut never really liked being picked up that much, and catching her was always trouble - you'd have to try and corner her, and then grab her before she ran away :( which wasn't very nice for her, or me- usually it'd take me 30mins or so of chasing just to get her!

I got fed up of this, and tried what i call 'rabbit whispering' - The idea being that you approach your bun by crawling along the ground. When you get close, you bow your head, put your hand out so it's 10cm or so away from them, and allow them to sniff your hand. If that goes ok, then you can try and stroke them and crawl a bit closer.

This worked wonders with Donut - but i never quite got the hang of it with Egg (she'd just sniff my hand - lick it, and run away!). Made bedtime so much easier with donut though, less aggressive (although she did sometimes lunge at my hand when i put it infront of her - so you have to have some nerves to hold your ground (she never bit)). After a couple of strokes, she was more than happy to let me pick her up...

Does anyone else do it, or am i the only one crazy enough to go crawling around the back garden after my buns! :oops:

Has anyone else got any other 'whispering' techniques?
 
Well having read a lot abuot natural horsemanship techniques (the horse is a prey animal too), I would imagine that you are making your body language to be softer and less dominate, so more inviting..

I know maintaining direct contact is a predator/ intimidation position, so again dropping you eyes would make you seem less threatening..

Jx
 
I lie on the ground with my buns and wiggle my nose and top lip really slowly until their nose wiggles slow down to the same speed as mine. Then just to check they are copying me, I speed up and they do too :lol: Hours of fun.

I don't have problems getting any of mine to go home after run time, I just rattle the food tin and they barge past me and are sitting waiting at the bowl by the time I get there :lol:
 
Horse whispering and dog whispering I have seen and is awesome! What I have always done with any animal is to breathe through my nostrils into their nostrils....works for me and I can be friends from the word go :wink: If anyone tries this...please let me know how you get on
 
The food bag usually works well for me too!! I heard that stoking in circles on a cat's head calms them down - it seems to work on our cat but not the buns!! I've wondered about his for rabbits too - I might try some of what's been suggested - OH already thinks I'm weird when it comes to the rabbits anyway!! :lol: :lol:

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Whenever I get a scared bunny due to them being new or because of a dog barking etc, I pretend to wash my face bunny style, to show there's nothing to be worried about, they just think I'm nuts!
 
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