Human and rabbit bonding

Hi guys,

I have 2 bonded rabbits, Hiro and Luna. Luna was the addition to the family, we adopted her in January when she was 7 months old. I am finding it incredibly difficult to build a relationship with her and she seems scared/nervous all the time. When we first brought her home and let her explore the house, she would do more walking than hopping, bobbing her head as she goes along and would pause every now and then. Then a noise or something would spook her and she goes running back.

Now that she is bonded with Hiro, she tends to follow him around so I suppose he gives her comfort. They both come to me and jump all over each other when they hear the rustling of a bag coz they know I am bringing them food. I can sometimes stroke her when shes eating or when shes in a calmer mood, but other times she just side steps away and avoids me then runs off. Trying to catch her and put her back in the outside hutch, and vice versa, is not a fun task as I can't even get near her!

I had the daunting task of clipping their nails the other day. Hiro doesn't really like being handled, but I had him since he was 8 weeks old so we have got a good bond. Luna was defiant and actually bit me before running away - I was shocked, she hadn't done that before!

What can I do?! I have been so patient with her and she loves me when I have food, but apart from that, she won't warm to me.
Did getting her at 7 months, and not a baby, prevent her bonding nicely with me??

Any help will be appreciated!

I have the exact same problem! Also with a rabbit named Luna. The behavior you described is almost identical to how mine acts. Mine has slowly gotten better over the last year, before when I couldn't even come near the cage without her running away, I can now approach and she'll come over and sniff me. I can also stroke her when she's eating but that's about it. For the miniscule improvement I've made, I found that just being near her slowly helps. I often just sit next to their cage when she's in it and it seems to help her get a little bit more used to me. I don't have any real suggestions, but I hope we both make some improvement with our Luna's soon

Hey :wave:
Bella treats me like the dominant bunny of the pack and cleans me etc so I dony have a problem with her
But binky doesn't like anything but running around the house- she'd run inside when I went up to her cage etc
Ive had her for a year on june 9th and im JUST making progress-it takes time
I have binky run around and I sit and dont do anything, put toys out for her and food and then she just runs around me because thats what she loves to do.
After afew days she comes to put her paws on my lap, then after about a month of doing that she'd jump on and off cautiously-now she will happily sit on my lap and let me do health checks - we're still working on nail clipping because she will onlly let me do two claws a day untill she gets agitated so we're cutting two a day :lol:
She happily sits on my lap and she was always very confident, but not with people-she was sprawled on my lap yesterday when I was sat next to my dad (he's never held them, he's stroked them once or twice and when I was younger I found him cooing over my rabbit and fussing her, doesn't add up?) apparently he doesnt like the rabbit hair, well binky randomly stood up and put two paws on his arm and then sat back down,next minuite she'd jumped from my lap to his and laid down, she then proceeded to nudge his had asking for strokes (this is the bunny that doesn't like strokes) then she laid and watched the football (or stared at the green grass on the screen, not to sure which one) and fell asleep!
Now thats a big step for the both of them :lol: :lol:

Keep it up everyday and slowly but surley you will begin to see progress in her!
But just to prewarn you dont stroke her until she is ready because whenever I reached out to stroke binky before she was ready she would take a step backwards, she wanted to explore me without feeling under attack or whatever and then once she decided I was safe and not a predator she was more confident, it just took longer to gain her trust!

Goodluck and sorry for the really long post haha x

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I agree about not stroking until she is ready. I made the mistake of stroking my new girl (her son is fine with it and lets me stroke him even when he isnt eating). She let me at first but as she has settled in she has started avoiding me at meal times (when I used to stroke her).

Since I stopped she has begun to approach me and to sit and eat whilst I am around. Only 3 of my 8 allow strokes and only one acutally seems to like them!