How do you catch your bunny?!

[PaaigeyBearr]

Oh my! It’s one in the morning and I have to get my bunny Jack back in his cage for the rest of the night because my kitten gets super hyper at night and I can’t keep her locked in a room. (She bites toes, lol.) How do you catch your rabbit? My other one is so easy to get because she’s a fatty and is so layed back. But Jack is hilarious, he’s so fast and completely black with long hair, I’ll be going after him one second then he’ll run and I’ll turn around and I swear he sticks his tongue out at me! I dont know what he’s technically doing, but he does this all the time.. I think it’s so funny because of how noticeable that pink tongue is outside of his black furr & he’ll be standing on two legs lol! Anyways for future references, how do you catch your rabbit?

[BabyD]

Bribe or entice him with food or treat.
Mine has learnt to go back to her cage, with just a simple verbal command.
But of course positive reinforcement is essential every time they get it right.

[mia]

You can start with a daily routine of getting him into his cage. Every morning I’d tell my buns “go home” and walk towards their area. After they’re in, they get their morning treat. Don’t know how much they really know “go home” but every morning they go into their area by themselves.

When routines change, when “go home” and walking to their area doesn’t work, or an emergency, I keep a few NIC grids zip tied and trap them in an area with the grids, whether its grids all around or wall + grids. Otherwise, they are too small and too fast to catch.

[CheriB603]

My current bun will do ANYTHING for a treat, so getting her back in her cage has been easy (I also say “Go to bed” as I lure her in, so that eventually she’ll learn that Go to bed means go to bed.
My last bun was small, fast and hated going to bed, one day I found a piece of poster board and used it to walk behind him and “shoo” him in . Just slowly walked behind him kind of directing which way he could and couldn’t turn. Eventually all I had to do was pull out the board and he would run to his cage! Good luck!

[Dobby]

I use a blanket or a beach towel to kind of herd him into his cage. Some nights he is very cooperative and other nights he wants to run around for a bit first, so I start the process a little early. Even if he isn’t cooperative I figure he is getting some good exercise!

[Valkyrie]

Bribery which turned into training. Merlin was my husband, Spike’s, first bunny and he loved him so much and Merlin obviously did not have a good life before us, so that turned into spoiling. We kept his treats in a small container and Spike would shake it before giving him one…and this happened a lot! Eventually we trained him to come when called by shaking the treat container and saying his nickname. He was our first furbaby together and it involved profanity, let’s just say it was Little Illegitimate Child (we weren’t living together yet). We would shake the container, say “Come here Little Illegitimate Child!” and he would come running for a treat. It got to the point that we could just shake the container or give the verbal command and he would come running. We then started standing beside his cage and calling him and when he came we would say “in your cage now” and give him a little push into his cage and then give him the treat. Eventually the same thing happened and we could just say “in the cage” from any part of the room and he would run into his cage and wait for his treat.

[Elrohwen]

I don’t even try to catch mine – I bribe them with food. In the evening, they know if they come to their cage they get dinner. At other times, I use craisins or another treat they really love.

[LBJ10]

Bribery is the best way to go. I do like the NIC grid idea for an emergency though.

[kcomstoc]

Maybe Caleb is slow….lol I catch him easily, I don’t try to chase him I just wait until he lays down next to his frozen thing and then I go over and get him. Then I carry him up the stairs (his cage is upstairs so I have to carry him) recently I’ve been letting him climb the stairs with me behind him (very close behind him in case something happens) but it gives him exercise and I don’t have to carry him.

[Baxter n Boos Mom]

We snap our fingers and say man cave…and Baxter knows what he’s supposed to do. When he’s in a “mood” he won’t comply – then I either use a couch pillow to herd him, or Xpen to block his escape route and herd him into the man cave 🙂

[MimiMaryland]

I let our bunnies out daily to get their exercise and today Polly did not want to come out from under the server in the dining room. It was like an episode of Tom and Jerry.

I see I need to be more invested in the bribes. I was giving them dried up small pieces of Papaya’s but read that they can be fattening and to only give them occassionally. Our lil chunky rabbit wud do flips for a treat but Polly isn’t always interested. Do you guys give your bunnies dried pineapples?

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