First time rabbit owner. advice please

[dellyx 10]

I have a female rabbit who is around 20 weeks old. We got her from graves park when she was around 8 weeks old. Shes incredibly nervous and she kicks ferociously when we try to pick her up and i'm worrying she may hurt her back. Since we got her, we've been letting her out for around half an hour everyday, but picking her up without her almost injuring herself and even trying to get her used to me is getting increasingly difficult.

 

She was originally bought for my younger siblings (11 and 3) but they are too scared to hold her or even stroke her as she is so panicky and

Shes due for her first vet appointment for a claw trim soon and will also be spayed so i would like her to be as calm as possible, but i'm not surr that it will be safe to do so with how afraid and timid she is now.

 

I'm aware she is young and they are quite boistrous and excitable, but she doesnt seem to be improving with all the time i am spending with her 1 to 1

 

Any advice would be great. Thanks

[nox2693 10]

I'm afraid that's what I hear from most people who have obtained their bunnies from places such as Graves. They are bred purely to meet demand and I'm afraid thought isn't put into it when they bung a male and a female in together for the sole purpose of producing babies, without considering health and personalities etc. They are often bred from the bunnies handed in from the public, whereby no real health status is known and most of the hand ins are from people that got bored of the rabbit, therefore won't have had much handling themselves

 

Ideally baby rabbits should be handled from when they are fully furred, as long as mum is happy with this at about 8 days old. Therefore they will become used to human handling and be more than happy to accept it as they become older. The problem with getting them from places where they are mass produced is that they are lucky to get any sort of handling whatsoever, and so you the poor unsuspecting new owner end up with a rabbit that isn't far off wild

 

Like you say, stressing bunny up isn't the answer both mentally and to avoid injury. Ideally you could build her up to accepting human company by sitting quietly in a secure area with her, with a selection of tasty veggies around you and allowing her to approach you in her own time. It's not a quick fix solution and will take time and effort on your part, but it would be worth it to see her transform from a terrified little thing into a relaxed bunny. If you ever do decide to have another rabbit in the future, there are usually litters of baby rabbits in rescues (mum will have come in pregnant) that will be used to being handled and socialised on a regular basis or otherwise a good breeder, where you can see all the adults are more than happy to be handled and babies are alert and wanting human interaction

 

Good luck with your bunny, we once rescued one from a meat market that wasn't used to human contact - he would physically scream whenever you went near him and do somersaults in order to get away, now he's quite happy to sit and be cuddled. I think what did help him was to bond him with a younger male who was used to regular handling and sought out interaction from us, Domino then learnt from him that we weren't THAT scary

 

I do know that Graves Park havn't got a fantastic reputation at correctly sexing bunnies, so you could be in for a suprise when you take her in to be neutered :hihi:

[teeny 10]

Shes due for her first vet appointment for a claw trim soon and will also be spayed so i would like her to be as calm as possible, but i'm not surr that it will be safe to do so with how afraid and timid she is now.

 

I'm aware she is young and they are quite boistrous and excitable, but she doesnt seem to be improving with all the time i am spending with her 1 to 1

 

Any advice would be great. Thanks

 

Which vets are you using for her? rabbit savvy vet here are Peak vets, huntersbar vet Anita fox are the only 2 places i would recommend as they understand rabbits needs

Edited June 8, 2012 by Moonbird
Fixing quote

[dellyx 10]

Ah, i had a feeling that would be the case nox. I wasnt the one who purchased her, but when i looked at pictures of the place on the graves park website, i saw how overrun the enclosures were with rabbits and now it looks obvious theres very little hands on attention involved. I will carry on with what i'm doing, but literally start from basics by starting in the cage before taking her out. We're thinking about getting another, but not for a while so hopefully she'll be more perky as well!

 

And teeny, we wanted to go with one closer to home as we dont have our own car, its called abbeymoor vets on halifax road. Its said to be specialised with small animals but nothing has been booked yet so if you have any recommendations around the sheffield 5 area, or if you know of abbeymoor, please let me know

[teeny 10]

Ah, i had a feeling that would be the case nox. I wasnt the one who purchased her, but when i looked at pictures of the place on the graves park website, i saw how overrun the enclosures were with rabbits and now it looks obvious theres very little hands on attention involved. I will carry on with what i'm doing, but literally start from basics by starting in the cage before taking her out. We're thinking about getting another, but not for a while so hopefully she'll be more perky as well!

 

And teeny, we wanted to go with one closer to home as we dont have our own car, its called abbeymoor vets on halifax road. Its said to be specialised with small animals but nothing has been booked yet so if you have any recommendations around the sheffield 5 area, or if you know of abbeymoor, please let me know

 

sadly the only ones i personally would use are the 2 recomended as i know them to be rabbit savvy however you could as other bunny people on here to say how they have found abbeymoor vets or if there is somewhere better , a number of my customers who live in s5 travel to the 2 mentioned as they felt the vets in this area weren't rabbit savvy.

[angel22 10]

I had a rabbit for ten years. He was very friendly, loved to be stroked and loved being around people. However, in all the time we had him, he always kicked like crazy when we picked him up. He hated it. Never improved. Only my Dad ever picked him up as i was scared of dropping him. He lived outside in a hutch and my Dad used to bring him inside the house to have a run around and once he was in, he was brilliant. Climbed on our knee, came for cuddles, loved having the hair dryer pointed at him!! But no matter what we tried he still NEVER wanted to be picked up.

[DaisyBoo 10]

I had a rabbit for ten years. He was very friendly, loved to be stroked and loved being around people. However, in all the time we had him, he always kicked like crazy when we picked him up. He hated it. Never improved. Only my Dad ever picked him up as i was scared of dropping him. He lived outside in a hutch and my Dad used to bring him inside the house to have a run around and once he was in, he was brilliant. Climbed on our knee, came for cuddles, loved having the hair dryer pointed at him!! But no matter what we tried he still NEVER wanted to be picked up.

 

thats the same with my 2, most rabbits dont actually like being picked up. its totally un natural for them

[katkin 10]

thats the same with my 2, most rabbits dont actually like being picked up. its totally un natural for them

 

Our rescue bunny Caramel is the same: hates being picked up but once she is indoors she chills out - she is sprawled out on the back of the sofa at the moment with the idiot dobermann only inches away

[dellyx 10]

I had a rabbit for ten years. He was very friendly, loved to be stroked and loved being around people. However, in all the time we had him, he always kicked like crazy when we picked him up. He hated it. Never improved. Only my Dad ever picked him up as i was scared of dropping him. He lived outside in a hutch and my Dad used to bring him inside the house to have a run around and once he was in, he was brilliant. Climbed on our knee, came for cuddles, loved having the hair dryer pointed at him!! But no matter what we tried he still NEVER wanted to be picked up.

 

 

yeah, i totally understand as they are very grounded animals.

but once she's out of the cage and running around the house, shes very nervy and doesn't like her head being touched and still flinches when she's being stroked. she'd much rather try and get back in her cage or try and squeeze behind the sofa away from us.

 

i've started to give her a lots of attention, offering her yummy carrots while stroking her "sensitive areas"

i'm starting to see some progress which i'm happy about (:

[JarvisCocker 10]

yeah, i totally understand as they are very grounded animals.

but once she's out of the cage and running around the house, shes very nervy and doesn't like her head being touched and still flinches when she's being stroked. she'd much rather try and get back in her cage or try and squeeze behind the sofa away from us.

 

i've started to give her a lots of attention, offering her yummy carrots while stroking her "sensitive areas"

i'm starting to see some progress which i'm happy about (:

 

Sounds like you are doing all the right things. Keep doing what you are doing. I've had (and got now) both male and female rabbits and I've generally found the females to be much more nervous and skittish than the males. I think it's just how they are.