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Taming a Frightened Rabbit - Advice Appreciated

C

chinakit

Warren Scout
I rescued 2 female rabbits a couple of weeks ago and posted about them on here. Due to various reasons it was suggested I separate them, which I have done and both girls seem happier without the other!

However I am having problems with one of them, the little Netherland girl. She panics whenever I pick her up ... tries everything she can to get away. At the moment I am trying to build up her confidence by stroking her inside the hutch and attempting to feed her titbits by hand. She won't eat from my hand though, and when I try to stroke her she runs away.

I think this little girl has been treated badly in the past .... I get the feeling she has been used for breeding, just my gut feeling ... I think she had not long had a litter when I got her. I don't think anyone has ever given her any real TLC and now she doesn't know what to do when she gets it!

Has anyone got any ideas about how to win this girl's trust? Any help would be appreciated. I realise that having had her only 2-3 weeks, it is going to be a long haul; I don't expect quick results and I do have plenty of patience.

Thanks in advance.
 
chinakit said:
She panics whenever I pick her up ... tries everything she can to get away. At the moment I am trying to build up her confidence by stroking her inside the hutch and attempting to feed her titbits by hand. She won't eat from my hand though, and when I try to stroke her she runs away.
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That's usually a good way to start out but it sounds like she's so scared you need to go back a step with her. Try getting her used to your scent by leaving an old t-shirt you have slept in in her hutch, get her used to you opening and closing her hutch without doing anything in it e.g. just open it, pause for 5 seconds then close it again. That way she will stop worrying when the hutch is opened. You can then start opening the hutch moving somethnig around or touching the bedding etc. and then closing it again. The idea is to get her comfortable with you having your hands in the hutch so she doesn't automatically think when your hands appear something scary will happen. You can gradually work your way to fiddling with things closer and closer to where she is sitting and then sneak strokes in.

You might want to use a cat carrier to lift/move her for now until she's more confident.

Good luck!

Tam
 
T shirt I have slept in ... right, will do that.

I tend not to pick her up at all, except to move her when I clean out the hutch, then I just put her into a cat carrier, but she does panic all the time I have hold of her.

She seems ok when I open the hutch to put food in, or to clean her toilet corner every day, she just keeps away from me.

By the way, the other bun I got at the same time is mega tame and friendly, I think she must have been very well cared for in the past.

Thanks for your help.

Jane xxx
 
Forgot to say... if she's a chewer you might want to drap the t-shirt over the hutch mesh so she can smell it without eating it ;)

Tam
 
Tamsin said:
Forgot to say... if she's a chewer you might want to drap the t-shirt over the hutch mesh so she can smell it without eating it ;)

Tam
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No, not seen her chewing anything ... she won't even nibble hay while I am there, she's is a real stressed bunny, poor girl. Wonder what's happened to her in the past to make her like this?

Jane xx
 
Aww, poor little bun, she does sound really scared :( It might help to add extra hidy holes e.g. a cardboard box if there is room. sometimes they feel braver if they know a bolt hole is close.

Tam
 
At the moment the hutch she is in isn't very big ... I am waiting for a couple of big (6ft) hutches to be made. The one she is in now is 4ft by about only 18 inches or so, but its all I have until the other hutches are ready. There is a sleeping compartment in it, so in a hutch like this she is never far from safety!

I just hope she will come around, given time. If I am outside she will come out into the open part of the hutch to look at me, and doesn't actually run off when I open the door, unless I try to touch her. I think she has suffered some rough handling ... and I imagine it is hard to get her to unlearn that ...

Jane xx
 
I'm sure with lots of patience and tlc she'll learn to be more confident around you. She's a very lucky bunny to have found a home with you.
 
I have a rescued girl too... and the opposite problem! She wants to be petted ALL THE TIME, begging, pushing her head into my hands, sitting on me.. And if she doens't get it, she pees on me! Quite a nuisance really.

She was quite shy at the beginning too. All I'm saying, careful what you wish for! :lol:
 
HS said:
I'm sure with lots of patience and tlc she'll learn to be more confident around you. She's a very lucky bunny to have found a home with you.
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Thank you :D That's a lovely thing to say ... just hope I can live up to it! I try to spoil all my pets!
 
cheekyMonkey said:
I have a rescued girl too... and the opposite problem! She wants to be petted ALL THE TIME, begging, pushing her head into my hands, sitting on me.. And if she doens't get it, she pees on me! Quite a nuisance really.

She was quite shy at the beginning too. All I'm saying, careful what you wish for! :lol:
Click to expand...

Funny you should say that ... the other bun who I took in at the same time is more like your bunny ... she loves attention and is always trying to get out of her hutch into my arms .... pity they don't like living together as I am sure she would give the other bun more confidence.

The little boy rabbit I have just taken in is also very very friendly, so when I have had him neutered I might see if he will bond with the nervous girl.
 
My Nala is a rescue bunny. She will come up to me to sniff, will take food from my hand but if i attempt to touch/pick her up she runs away. It is horrid to think that someone in the past has scared them so much that they feel like that about humans. I have had Nala now for about 4 months and she is getting there slowly. She sometimes lets me stroke her nose but still runs off if i touch her back/ears as i think she thinks i will pick her up.
Im sure your rabbit will slowly improve too.. just give her plenty of time and attention.
 
Diddeen said:
My Nala is a rescue bunny. She will come up to me to sniff, will take food from my hand but if i attempt to touch/pick her up she runs away. It is horrid to think that someone in the past has scared them so much that they feel like that about humans. I have had Nala now for about 4 months and she is getting there slowly. She sometimes lets me stroke her nose but still runs off if i touch her back/ears as i think she thinks i will pick her up.
Im sure your rabbit will slowly improve too.. just give her plenty of time and attention.
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THANK YOU!!!! I have only had my bun three weeks, so early days yet. Thank you so much for the encouragement!!
 
chinakit said:
She panics whenever I pick her up ... tries everything she can to get away. At the moment I am trying to build up her confidence by stroking her inside the hutch and attempting to feed her titbits by hand. She won't eat from my hand though, and when I try to stroke her she runs away..
Click to expand...

rabbits are timid creature to begin with. My current bunny has been w/ me for 4.5+ yr., but if I hold him up for too long (like more than 1 min or so) he gets nervous, too.

The right thing to do is not to do anything to make her nervous. Time will bond the two of you closer. You can't rush this. I used to try the build up confidence routine, but in the end, I am convinced time is the healing factor.
 
One of our buns is quite nervous, we think he has had a bad experience too. We have found the best thing to do is just to open the pen and be in the room with him as much as we can.

Our fav tactic is to lie on the groung as fla as you can, head on the floor and everything, lie realy still and he comes up to us and sniffes and investigates us. I bet he thinks we are both crazy LOL

After about 3 weeks he now doesn't runa way and back himself into the corner adn he comes and greets us when we get home.

We don't get cuddles and only the smallest of strokes, but that is fine we love just the way he is!!!
 
chinakit said:
Funny you should say that ... the other bun who I took in at the same time is more like your bunny ... she loves attention and is always trying to get out of her hutch into my arms .... pity they don't like living together as I am sure she would give the other bun more confidence.

The little boy rabbit I have just taken in is also very very friendly, so when I have had him neutered I might see if he will bond with the nervous girl.
Click to expand...

This might help her, esp if the new boy is relaxed and friendly. It might help to relax her a bit and she might feel more confident with a friend around. Oli is always much more relaxed with Sylvia nearby. He lets me stroke him now when he is lying with her, but he doesn't like it when he's on his own. I've had him for about 8 months and it's only in the past 6 weeks or so that he's started to let me stroke him. He's still petrified of everyone else!

Is she an indoor rabbit? If not, it would probably help to have her indoors more to let her get used to you and to other humans. b-m
 
Hi Bunny Mad,

No they are not indoor rabbits, but I can bring her indoors more. I might wait until Toby the male bun has been neutered though, and bring them indoors together, because at the moment, bringing her indoors would probably scare her out of her wits. Toby seems to be a very relaxed bun, hardly moves a muscle when you pet and stroke him, he just sits there and takes any amount of fuss! Hope I can get them living together eventually ...

The timing should be right, because I have a couple of huge hutches coming in about 4-6 weeks, so I can get him neutered then, and after a month they can live together in one of them. I also plan to get part of my garden fenced off for the buns to go outside more.

Jane
 
I've not read your previous posting around these bunnies, but where the two females housed/bonded?

Out of interest, we have a very timid female rabbit as well. She was housed with another more dominate female, who was very friendly.

I had wondered if this pairing may have caused ours to be so wary and cautious. I also think that for some rabbits, it's down to their personality. We have three and they are very different to each other.

I had just managed to get her confidence back, but lost if last month when having her spayed. She never liked being picked up and the daily "checks & medicine routines" didn't help!

Cristian
 
Hi Christian

My 2 female bunnies did come together from a rescue centre, but they didn't live together there. The staff there said they would be 'fine' together as neither were nasty rabbits. I wasn't all that knowledgeable about bonding and I thought they would be ok too. However one of them (the very friendly one) behaved dominantly towards the other more timid one, and was forever 'humping' her, and after getting advice from many 'rabbit people', including some on this forum, I decided the best thing would be to split them up. Both are much happier without the other, and are now Eating for England (they are both a bit skinny).

I think I will have some success bonding the nervous bun (Buttercup) with the very laid back boy (Toby) when he's been neutered. Until then, all my bunnies are living separately!

Jane xxx
 
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