bonding with my new bunny

Hi all,

i am new here and i have just bought my first bunny, shes an 9 week old rex when i was shown her she seemed lovely and calm. once i got her home and let her explore her new home she started to become fearful being handled, the routine is i will sit by her cage and then at times i will reach in and stroke her i will then pick her up which she doesnt seem to mind to much. you can stroke her while in your arms and shes fine but then when you put her back in the cage she gets scared and runs to another corner of the cage. she seems to just sit in the corners now and doesn't look like she is having a good time.

what can i do to get her used to me.

after she is used to me i want to try and get her used to my dogs, as she is going to be an indoor bunny. any tips for that would be greatly appreciated.

regards

Jak

Lay down in your bunnys space & let her come to you! When she gets used to you try stroking her nose, cheeks & back. Most bunnies hate being picked up. Think of it from your rabbits perspective, she is a prey animal, having hands come towards her will be scary as is being lifted in to the air. She'll get there. Good luck

ye i assumed that was the case i was just wondering if there was anything else i can do, at the moment she is in a 3ft by 2ft pen with no door so i cant let her just hop out of her cage i have to lift her out, i am going to build her a bigger one out of the cubes soon which will have a floor door but would lifting her out for to put her on the floor be a problem? or will she be ok?

Take things slowly and let her get used to you. Sit quietly, perhaps reading a magazine, and let her hop over to you if she wants to. Perhaps give her a food treat when she does come to you - a bit of parsley or similar. It can take time for your rabbit to get used to you, but with a bit of patience you'll get there. Having to lift her out of her cage each time won't necessarily help as rabbits don't generally like being handled and she'll soon start associating you with the dreaded prospect of being lifted. I was in the same situation when I got my first rabbit as there was no ground level door, so after 2 days (and my rabbit clearly not liking being picked up) I took the hutch back and swapped it for something more suitable. This helped a lot as she was no longer stressed (and I wasn't getting worked up at the prospect of having to lift up a bunny that didn't want to be handled). Good luck :thumb:

i wont handle her until i build the new pen which will have a door on the ground level too, thanks for the advice yesterday i was clearing out her litter tray and she came over to my hand in her pen i gave her a stroke and then she took some food out of my hand for the first time so paitence is the key