Our Aria is very Timid and Shy!

[AriaAndCirce]

So we have two bunnies, Aria and Circe. They are 6 month old Netherland Dwarfs. Circle loves lot’s of attention and loves to play with us. However, Aria is the complete opposite! She always avoids us, and tries to run as far away as possible! She hates to be pet (well very rarely). She will never eat from my hand (Circe doesn’t mind at all) and most times she won’t even eat if she knows she is being watched!! I am wondering if this can be changed. Is it just part of her personality? Is there a way that we can bond better with her?

Also, when we first got them, we had a little accident  My boyfriend who was not used to handling rabbits, accidentally dropped Aria and she sprained her poor little leg . She healed pretty fast but could this maybe be why she is so wary of us? Even though it was 5 months ago? I would really like her to trust us!!

[CinnabunMom]

First, welcome to BB! You should introduce yourself and your buns over in the welcome thread! We love (insist upon) pictures.

All bunnies have their own personalities. Some are very cuddly and snuggly, and some prefer to keep their human’s at a distance, but that doesn’t mean they dont love you! Is Aria spayed yet? It might be hormones, and once you get her fixed her true personality shines through and she might become more of a snuggly bun. If not, that’s ok. Have you tried getting down to her level? Lay on the floor and play the “ignore” game where you do anything but look at her, watch her, talk to her. Bunnies are naturally curious and eventually will venture over to see what you’re doing. If she currently hates being pet or being hand fed, don’t force it! This will just instill greater mistrust, hesitation in her.

[Stickerbunny]

Sounds like you named her right – Aria was never one to be pet and coddled like a girl

Some bunnies are just stand offish. Stickers, my rex, has to be handled on her own terms. If she wants pets it’s like one day out of 10 and a very short window (usually right before bed, or right as she wakes up). Rest of the time it’s HANDS OFF for her. And she’s always wary, watching for sudden movements, even after having her so long. Only thing she’ll eat from my hand is craisins, but when I have a craisin bag she forgets she’s skittish and climbs all over me. lol If I ignore her she’ll sniff me, put her paws up on me, run up and nip my jeans etc. She was abused as a baby so it could be part of her reasoning for being skittish. I just do things at her speed.

[AriaAndCirce]

Thanks guys!
We will try the ignore game with her and i guess you guys are right about the different personalities! I suppose Aria is just like that but i will do things are her speed and get her to trust us. Good to know that its not just Aria tho!

P.S will introduce our bunnies on the welcome page

[tanlover14]

As a little tip — when you’re playing the ignore game try putting some really YUMMY treats in a line following up to you. This may entice her to come check you out or at least get closer. She gets a treat for coming closer and closer to you! But it still lets her feel it’s on HER terms. Bunnies like this need things to be on THEIR terms. When we first got my girl she was very skittish and you could barely touch her much less do any sort of playing with her. She also wasn’t very good about taking treats out of our hands and usually made us feel bad because she always just wanted to be alone. But with time and patience (and her spay) she has FINALLY come out of her shell and is one of our goofiest and friendliest girls. Just remember, TIME and PATIENCE with her!

Also, have you tried craisins as treats? It was the treat that my buns go NUTS over, as do a ton of bunnies here on BB. Something like this could easily become her favorite treat and make her WANT to come see you to get one! Just a thought Hope it helps!

[AriaAndCirce]

thanks for the great tip!! i will try that.. im just waiting for her to heal from her spay..she just got spayed this wednesday.
I have not let them out since that in order to limit their space! the cage is also divided. How long do you guys think i have to keep them separated and limit their space?
Tomorrow i will go out for some craisins! havent tried those yet..hope she loves em and i can win her over !

[tanlover14]

My little girl really calmed down after her spay and began interacting with us more than she even came close to doing before. Just give her lots of time and attention and eventually you will be able to see her personality and feel her out and feel how she WANTS you to interact with her! So hopefully you have the same success after your girl heals!

If I remember correctly, my vet told me about 7-10 days. Do you know what kind of stitching they got? And how are they doing with the incision? No problems with either pulling at it or anything??? You should also be checking the incision and after about 7-10 days it will physically LOOK healed, more like a scar almost. At least my girls did. I never had any trouble with them yanking on the stitches or bothering the incision point though so if they do it could potentially be a longer time period. Limiting space only needs to be about 4 days unless of course she’s messing with it. If she’s messing with it they could take longer to heal in which case I wouldn’t push it and may even add a day or two on. How much have you been limiting their space so far?? I kept my girl confined to her cage for 2 days and then slowly gave her more room to expand. The confinement is more to limit any binkying and jumping around they might do. At that point in our bond with her, she was very cautious and not very active so we gave her a little more lee-way whereas our boy was HYPER and wouldn’t stop trying to binky so we gave him a more limited space to play in until fully healed.

[AriaAndCirce]

nice! i hope she warms up to us..i will def let her do it at her own pace tho.. im looking forward to seeing what sort of changes will happen with the spay..
The vet used the internal stitches that you cannot see and dissolve. I havent seen them really pull at the stitches,, well i guess they cant. they do lick them tho, but not too much just when they are cleaning themselves all over. i check the incision daily and it seems okay.. still red but nothing out of the ordinary.
well they are basically in a pretty large pet store cage right now that is divided into two sections so that they are separated… yeah they love to binky and jump on things. shud i keep their space limited then? what about keeping them apart? I could remove the divider. The vet said to keep them separated just in case they try to do naughty things to each other lol and hurt one another.. what do you think?

[tanlover14]

I would definitely keep them separated for 7-10 days. My vet used the same thing and they seemed to heal very quickly! I would keep them in there for say about 2 days and then let them have a small area to move around in for every day up til the 4th or 5th day. If the stitches seem to be healing fine then I don’t think much longer than that is necessary but you can always call your vet and check what they say too! Some vets give different lengths of time for each of those questions. Since they have the internal stitches it would harder for another to tear the incision open but I still wouldn’t take any chances…

Have you had any bonding with them before this? If they haven’t had any successful bonding time before hand than I would definitely wait 14 days to make SURE they are completely healed just in case there is any fighting.

[AriaAndCirce]

okay sounds good.. we are at the third day right now..so tomorrow i will give them a little more space for a bit I shouldn’t let them do it together tho right.?

and oh yeah they love each other!! always snugggling and kissingg. If one leaves the cage, the other one will get up and look for other until they are satisfied that they are in sight! Its pretty cute. Plus, they are from the same litter, so they are sisters Weird, they look so diff..

[tanlover14]

Mine did the same thing! And that’s soooo awesome! Mine are all siblings too!!!!!! Sometimes I wonder if it makes the bond easier because mine were EXTREMELY easy to bond and loved on each other before they were even bonded. It was torture for me keeping them all separated during their healing time but they were all done at the same time so it worked out well.. besides the 2nd boy who already came done. But he was done at the same time just not with us! LOL.

Anyways, definitely don’t let them out together yet. You don’t want them bothering each others incisions while grooming and sometimes the bun will smell differently after a spay so re-introducing them can be a little different than expected even if they were almost fully bonded before. You should monitor them for a day or two of outside time just to make sure they are perfectly comfortable with the changes in the other. My buns however took right away and seemed to get comfort from each other. So it worked out well getting them done at the same time.

We went on vacation so our time-table was exactly — we kept them completely separated with very small play area for 4 days (with all incisions looking very good!). We spent the next 3 days giving them back their big play area. And on day 7 we let them all play together for a small amount of time to make sure there would be no fighting over the new smells and such from having the procedure done. It went well (and we ended up going on vacation so they were separated for 5 days) but as soon as we got back we gave them one more play time out where everyone seemed perfectly fine and so we used that night to FINALLY put them together and slept out with them to make sure there was no fighting. And they’ve been bonded and living together ever since!

If they were bonded before, I don’t think you’ll have any trouble but you should always take precaution with re-introducing since if they DO fight then you wanna end it quickly so they will still be bondable again. From the sounds of it — they are still very interested in the other though which is a very good sign. You could also take these next few days to put a towel in eachs cage and then switch it the next day. It will get there scent on it and by switching it you can easily see how the other will react to any new smells the other may have acquired.

[AriaAndCirce]

yeahhh ive been wondering the exact same..do they get along soooo well becuz they are sisters?? lol.. well as long as they do thats all that matters to me !
butyeah sounds good thanks for the advice will def take that all into account! im going to switch up their towels today..good thing you told me that i really didnt think about the fact that they would smell diff after their spays and this could now affect their bonding..good tthing to know!!

[peppypoo]

Yep, it’s just all in the personality. My Peppy girl is a snuggle bun, always begging for attention and giving me kisses. Remi, on the other hand, is a skittish little thing. When we first got him, he would bolt whenever someone reached a hand toward him. But now, 2 years later, he’s a lot less nervous and tolerates (and I daresay enjoys!) pets…sometimes. He’ll never be a snuggle bun like Peppy, but with time and patience they do come around to some extent .

Glad they’re doing well after their spay!  Usually, being siblings doesn’t really affect how well a pair of bunnies gets along.  It tends to be pretty random, and young immature buns do get along better in general regardless of relation.  But it’s great they they’re buddies!

[AriaAndCirce]

ohhh thats good to know that it doesnt matter whether they are siblings or not..im glad they get along so well then!! poor guys are dying to be together right now..i feel so bad seperating em..they got about 5 more days to go till they can be together again lol

[tanlover14]

Mine literally would gnaw on the others cage door when we would let one out to play during healing and I swear — I’ve never felt so mean to them in my life!

[AriaAndCirce]

same!! i let them out today together as i was cleaning their cage and omosh the mounting started again..i had to seperate them asap..but it was so cute when they first got together.. they were kissing n licking each otherrr..poor cuties ..
tanlover, i tried the craisins, didnt work so welll on aria but it did work on circe ahah not that we had an issue with her before..but she def loves em..
i discovered that aria is a big fan of parsely tho! she even takes it from my hand

[tanlover14]

Hahahaha, it took a few tries with my buns to get them to eat them. But once they had a small nibble it was all over. They are all such picky eaters! I have to annoy them so much with new foods that they’ll eventually get a munch when they try yanking it out of my hand and throwing it on the floor. LOL.

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