Scared Rabbit (he doesn't like to be picked up)

Hello,

I'm after a bit of advice from you guys if thats ok. I've just bought a rabbit (a 1 year old un-neutered (or is it spayed) male blue rex). We bought him from a breeder, and one of the reasons we bought a slightly older rabbit was because the breeder assured us they'd litter trained him / aclimatised him to people.

We've only had him 3 days now, but he REALLY doesn't like being picked out of his hutch. We've tried a few different methods, but mainly the "one hand on his chest, the other under his bum" one. He just fights to get out of your grasp and till you've tucked him right into you, and even then he's been known to struggle. He fights so hard and struggles to get away so much its really quite difficult to get him out of his hutch at all and I get worried that he'll hurt himself. Its about the same going back in, unless he's just been out and on our laps then its a bit of a chase \ struggle. (I've taken to leaving the pet carrier with its door open and when he wanders in lift him up to the door in that...)

I'm guessing that the change of scenary and new people are big factors, but I just wanted to see if there's anything we're doing wrong? Anything to make him more at home?

One thing I've just thought of is that we bought a hutch where the lid opens, we've been getting him out from the top. Is this a mistake, would he be happier if we fetched him out of the cage door instead???

Any advice to some stressed newbie owners would be much appreciated...

Thanks

Luke

have you had him checked by the vets my rabbit hated being touched so we took to the vets and found out he had an absess behind his eye. They had to remove his eye but now he is fine

My big blue rex used to be like this couldn't stand being held, until he was about a year old when I got him castrated and now he does this




Have him castrated would be my advice it calmed smokie down no end.

Also, remember that rabbits are prey animals and the only time they are "picked up" in the wild is if they are being carried off to be eaten! I would make sure that your bunny can see you approaching him before you pick him up. If you are opening the top up and coming at him from above, he may not see you and will struggle more. Changing the way you approach him may help to a certain extent, although a lot of rabbits feel insecure about being picked up anyway. My two certainly do, and I usually coerce them into a carrier if I need to pick them up - to give them a check over I will pick them up in a carrier and let them out on a table. It seems to be a lot less stressful for them and it also means they're less likely to injure themselves!

It may well take a while for him to gain your confidence. Try feeding him from your hand, ideally somewhere you can sit on the floor with him. Let him come to you and take the food from you. Don't make any attempt to grab him or touch him. Once he get used to this, you can put the food in your hand with your other hand above it, so he has to make contact with your hand while he eats. Once he is used to this, you can start to slowly move your top hand, stroking his head and eventually his back. Once they have reached a reasonable level of confidence, I start to move the food nearer to my body so they have to rest on my leg/jump onto my lap to get to the food. Again it teaches them to associate you with nice things and they learn that you won't grab them whenever they come to you.

Hope that helps a bit xx

start off with putting food in your hand and letting the bun eatting out of your hand because then the bunny will pick up your scent! then after that let the bunny come to you and im sure in time the bunny will be more comfy being around you!!!

if this fails get it neutered- this really does calm all animals down (most of the time!!!)
amyxx

I would say that top opening hutches are better .... when we had rabbits in hutches I got my hubby to adapt the hutches so they DID open at the top as i found it easier and stroppy buns seemed to prefer it.

I think maybe your bun needs a little more time to settle and get used to you.

Also as he is un-nuetered he is probably territorial and having him castrated would calm him down a great deal.

Finally it has to be said that bunnies prefer to have their feet firmly on the ground and most of the buns on here dont like to be picked up or held. Buns seem to prefer to come and sit by you and be stroked. Out of my five buns only Bernard seems to like being held.

Good luck

Thanks for the advice, he seems fine with being stroked,I guess it could just be a case of building up his confidence in us. I'll be building him a ramp to get down from his hutch into our living room this weekend, so that could relieve a bit of the pressure (IE he can come to us rather than us having to get him out).

I'll bear in mind the advice about castration.

Does he look like Smokie?

I'd say that castration would definitely be a good thing - particularly because he's been with a breeder, chances are he's had some "action" in his time. Having now been moved away from that, I'd say it's possible he will get very frustrated :wink: and as an indoor bunny, you might find that he will start to spray urine around you and your house - watch out for this as it is a classic sign of an unneutered bunny!

Hope that helps too, xx

SM, he does look like him yes, I've no pictures yet, but I'll take some soon and let you meet the (not so) little fella. His name's Warren (the carrot slayer (my daughter added this bit!))

So castration is looking like a way forward, is it just a case of phoning up the local vet?

Alison, I read your advice on the other post about giving plenty of hay, but only a little of the rabbit food stuff, so they're "hungry" for it when you have it in your hand. This sounds sensible. I'm also a bit concerned we might over feed him, he seems to get through a ramikin sized dish (about 3" diameter by 1.5" deep) mostly full of food in a day. Is that a lot?

Cor this rabbit lark is harder than it looks! I had cats as a child, so I kinda know about them, this is all new learning for me. I did (what I thought) was a fair bit of research before we bought him, but there's a fair few gaps in the knowledge!

Luke

LOL don't worry Luke, we've all been there, and it takes YEARS and you never stop learning :lol:

Love the carrot slayer bit, your daughter obviously has a cracking sense of humour :lol: The castration op is a lot more simple than a female bunny spay but not all vets are very up to date on rabbit medicine, which surprisingly is considered fairly specialist! For example, good vets may use more modern anaesthetics which are less risky for bunnies, will automatically use heat pads to keep the bunny's temperature up (their temperature drops off during the anaesthetic) and will give painkillers as routine. Vet training contains little about rabbits so although all vets have some general grounding, it is really only those who have undertaken extra training who have much specific knowledge. In the right hands though it's a quick and straightforward operation The rabbit welfare association (www.houserabbit.co.uk) hold a list of vets who have been recommended by members, although I'm not sure if the list is openly available or if it is only for members. Whereabouts do you live, someone on here might be able to recommend a good nearby vet? The thing is, most vets probably do some rabbit castrations, so don't get too worried about it, but like anything, some vets are better than others so you might as well hunt out a good one!

It's hard to picture how much food would be in a dish, I think a general rule is about 2oz for an average sized bunny per day. As long as he has plenty of hay, if he's hungry he'll eat the hay so don't worry too much about not feeding him enough. Whether your bunny will take the food from your hand will also depend on how much they like it! Mine go mental for science selective pellets - they act like it's the tastiest treat ever! If Warren is a bit ambivolent about his dried food, you could try other tasty treats like a tiny bit of apple (but only a little as it has too much sugar) or some tasty herbs like parsley or carrot tops.

Sooty hated being picked up before the op and still hates it. I move him in a carrier between house and garden. Even Phill had a problem picking him up. He also has a denim fetish!! dont ask :lol: :lol: :lol:

Thanks for the tips guys.

I live in Sidcup, Kent, if anyone knows a good vet in these parts?

It's coming along quite well, Warren like to take his food out of your hands, he seem to like being stroked, and quite often sits at the door of his hutch as if he wants to join in and come play. I hope it'll just be a matter of time.

Luke

Just to add rexes are pigs! My two eat for england and some and considering I have a giant rabbit too that shows you where I am coming from! They could easily become overweight.

Luckily my rexes seem to love their hay! I give my pair a russel rabbit treat ball and put their pellet ration in that because they have to chase it around it helps them exercise too!

My female rex doesn't mind being held but my male struggles. I use the carrier technique if I need to move them and they usually get in it when I put it down.

I don't know of any rabbit vets in Kent but there are some questions you can ask your local vet to tell if they are up on rabbit medicine:

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/vet.html

http://www.houserabbit.co.uk/rwf/articles/neutleaf.htm

Caz

Evilmonkey said:

I live in Sidcup, Kent, if anyone knows a good vet in these parts?

Click to expand...

My Kent geography isn't great but it looks like there's quite a few rabbit rescues in Kent - might be worth emailing/ringing one near to you and seeing who they use - chances are it'll be a vet who is used to seeing and operating on lots of rabbits! List here: http://www.rabbitrehome.org.uk/centres.asp

Thanks guys, I'll be saving the "snip" option for a last resort, but its good to get the number of a good vet just in case.

I built him a ramp coming down from his hutch today (its about 60cm or so off the floor, so I'm hoping that this will allow him to come and go a little more. Twinned with some good behaviour rewarding I reckon we could turn him around....

Does anyone know where to get good rabbit toys from online, my local places told me that rabbits don't play with toys much....

Is ebay an ok source?

Luke

www.bunnybasics.co.uk is a good place to look

...and www.bunnymail.co.uk

Be warned: these sites are very addictive and you will end up buying all sorts of lovely things for him :lol:

Poundstretcher shops in towns also seems to be a good source of cheap play tents and tunnels at the moment, as long as you don't live near one of the people here who seem to be buying them up in bulk as raffle prizes/christmas presents :lol:

http://www.chinchillas2home.co.uk/storeframe.htm

Great for edible toys!

Caz

Prosthetic Testicles for animals

Let me hijack this topic for a moment, what do you guys think of prosthetic testicles? I read this yesterday at CNN.

You think we should do the same thing for male rabbits?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/06/dog.invention.ap/index.html