New Bunny Parent. I Need Help

[Grace]

Hello everyone,

I need advice from long term bunny parents. My holland lop (10.5 weeks) has been home with me for close to 3 weeks now, and she’s really opened up a lot. Binkying, running around, putting her paws on my lap while eating from my hand and circling around me when I enter her play area. However, as soon as I might slowly try to pet her, she hops away lightly or ducks her head so I can’t touch her at all. Otherwise, she is fine with me and I can stay in close proximity to her. How will I ever be able to groom her or trim her nails if I can’t touch her at ALL? (Her nails are getting pretty long and sharp). If she feels like I might even try and pet her, she ducks her head and hops away. She will only come to me and tolerate 2 second pets if I am hand feeding her pellets.

What do I do?? She is starting to molt her baby hair and I need to be able to touch her for general reasons. Also, I just really want to pet her to be affectionate with her anyways ): it’s killing me!! Please give me advice. Any advice is appreciated!!! 

[sarahthegemini]

Three weeks really isn’t long. Your bunny needs to develop trust for you before she will feel comfortable being touched. I’m surprised her claws are already in need of trimming. I’d probably get a vet to do them the first few times simply because they tend to be better behaved (the rabbit not the vet!) So less chance of an injury with the clippers occurring.

[Luna]

She is probably still getting used to you and her new home – less than 3 weeks is typically a short time for a bun to get fully adjusted. It was months and months before Luna bonded with me. Keep petting her, but only when she hops up to you or asks to be petted. When she doesn’t want to be petted or when she is just sitting in her cage or lying around, sit or lay near her and just talk to her.

Unless she is a lot older than the age you were told (10.5 weeks), she shouldn’t start molting her baby fur until 3 months old at the very earliest, so you shouldn’t have to worry about brushing her just yet .

[Luna]

She is probably still getting used to you and her new home – less than 3 weeks is typically a short time for a bun to get fully adjusted. It was months and months before Luna bonded with me. Keep petting her, but only when she hops up to you or asks to be petted. When she doesn’t want to be petted or when she is just sitting in her cage or lying around, sit or lay near her and just talk to her.

Unless she is a lot older than the age you were told (10.5 weeks), she shouldn’t start molting her baby fur until 3 months old at the very earliest, so you shouldn’t have to worry about brushing her just yet .

[Grace]

Posted By Luna on 5/22/2017 1:25 PM

She is probably still getting used to you and her new home – less than 3 weeks is typically a short time for a bun to get fully adjusted. It was months and months before Luna bonded with me. Keep petting her, but only when she hops up to you or asks to be petted. When she doesn’t want to be petted or when she is just sitting in her cage or lying around, sit or lay near her and just talk to her.

Unless she is a lot older than the age you were told (10.5 weeks), she shouldn’t start molting her baby fur until 3 months old at the very earliest, so you shouldn’t have to worry about brushing her just yet .

How long does it usually take for a bun to get fully adjusted? Also, I don’t think she ever comes up to me for pets ): only food

[Luna]

If she comes up to you for food I’d count that as coming up to you for pets , as long as she doesn’t mind you petting her while she’s eating. Some buns here have bonded/adjusted in very short times (1-2 weeks), though this is less common. Generally, it seems most buns here take 1-3 months. Though 5 or more months for some buns to be fully comfortable with their human/new home is not uncommon either.

Luna took a long time to bond/adjust (5-8 months?). I don’t think she ever fully bonded with my sister, her first human. When Luna was over 1 year old, I ended up adopting her and moving her in with me . Even though she knew me, she wasn’t bonded to me and she was now living in a new place. From the time she moved in with me, it took about 2-3 months for her to want to be out of her cage (ie. explore without being coaxed with food), then another 2 months for her to not shift or hop away when someone came in the room. She would always love being petted, but it probably wasn’t until about another 3 months where she would ask for pets (ie. hop up to me and nudge, lower head). Now she comes when I call her, explores a lot, snuggles, and even grooms me (but only my knee for some reason).

All the things you mentioned are good signs that she is adjusting – binkying, playing, circling you, paws in your lap. The rest just depends on the bun, and how much time/patience you put in . Also, next time you try to pet her, try having your hand approach from the side of her head instead of infront or behind her head. If she doesn’t duck or hop away, then you might have been in her blind spot before and your hand coming at her just surprised her. If she still ducks or hops away, then she still needs more time to feel secure.

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

Don’t be disheartened: rabbits are a lot more complex than people expect. She’s already showing a lot of good signs of getting comfortable around you. It can be several months until rabbits are fully comfortable with being petted. They’re easily frightened, and tend to want things only on their terms. Throughout the whole process, keep in mind that they’re still relatively wild as far as pets go and that their prey instincts are strong. All rabbits are easily startled, and they need comfort, stability, security and a nice hidey-hole. Nearly all absolutely *hate* to be picked up, because it triggers an “Oh sh!t, I’m dead!!!”-instinct. Lifting rabbits has to be done with great care, because rabbits can hurt themselves when they freak out.

Their temperament itself varies strongly with age, breed and individual bun. Hormonal status is also important, an unaltered rabbit is more wild in its behaviour. In general, smaller breeds and younger animals are more skittish than large breeds or older animals. Holland lops are a dwarf breed if I’m correct. Dwarf breeds are a class on their own within rabbits: they do have a tendency to be more hyperactive, more skittish and more opinionated about what they want and don’t want. They look terribly cute but they can be really stubborn and cheeky little buggers. Great fun, but you’ll need some patience! ^_^
Also: read up on rabbit body language, this was a tremendous help for me. Rabbits are social animals who use a lot of body language and can be offended if you do something wrong. Failing to spot that they’re offended is even more offensive, and they may even shun you for it, so read up on body language. I found that this was a great site: http://language.rabbitspeak.com/

My advice for those little balls of energy: take it slow with dwarfs, study and respect their daily schedule, study their body language and act on those cues, give them their space and their privacy. About privacy: I strongly recommend a hiding box near the place where you sit often, so she can study your behaviour while feeling safe herself. She’ll take their time, but she will bond to you if you show kindness and respect If you’re interested, I’ve written about our bun’s quirks down below. Getting to know about your bun’s “user manual” will help tremendously with your bond.

In the meantime it may be great fun to start training with her. Seeing that she comes to you for food: try training her to respond to her name. Give very small bits of age-appropriate treats (not an expert on young rabbits’ food, sorry, but you can find guidelines online). Rabbits usually enjoy training and it can build a bond without her being touched. She’ll learn to associate you and your voice with good stuff. Reading to her or just talking to her also helps.

Here’s our story: our Netherland Dwarf Breintje was brought into my life when I met my BF about 2,5 years ago. Breintje was 2 at that time, and still unneutered. It took Breintje about 2-3 months to be comfortable enough to not run away all the time when I approached him for pettings on the ground. He was neutered 10 months after he started living with me, this made him a lot calmer. Less destruction, more relaxing, more cuddles. Training also went a lot better: he goes in a potty, will come when called, jumps into his cage on command and knows the word for: enough now! (He gets a bit overexcited when someone is eating fruit. After the first nibble he gets, he sometimes gets cheeky and tries to steal more.)
On body language: our rabbit likes to “loaf”, sitting with all his limbs tucked underneath like a loaf of bread. He only wants to be petted when he’s in this position. My health deteriorated over the year and I couldn’t pet him on the ground anymore. I lured him onto the couch with treats daily, and soon this became our new cuddle spot. Don’t think that I can cuddle him all day though: he’ll come by as HE pleases. He has a daily schedule and gets quite upset if that’s disturbed:

10:00 Breakfast
10:15 Loafing around and digesting his meal
11:00 Running through the house, being very active and playful. Absolutely no time for pettings!
13:00-18:00 Naptime in his hiding box underneath the coffee table. Prefers to be left alone unless he wakes up and seeks me out.
18:00 Pop out to say “hi!” to my BF when he gets home, walk around the house a bit until we’re finished eating dinner
19:00 Breintjes dinner, followed by a lot of contented loafing
22:00 Cuddle time! What do you mean “I’m busy”??? *Hops on couch and thumps*

He’s asleep or busy during daytime, but in the evenings he’ll sit next to me on the couch as long as he can. This has become such a ritual that he gets upset when I’m not sitting there ready to pet him: he’ll be thumping until I give him attention. I often do some embroidery or knitting, and he’ll happily lay next to me while we watch the hours fly by. During this time he also grooms me a lot: licking my face, hands, legs and even items where my scent is on. It’s very cute ^_^
I have connected to Breintje, but he also has connected to me: when I’m feeling very ill or had a rough treatment for my illness that day, he’ll follow me around all day to care for me. Trying to groom painful joints and muscles, laying next to me to check on me. Really sweet So yes, bonding with a dwarf may be more difficult than bonding with a larger breed, but I found it totally worth it.

[Author]

Messages