Our skatty scaredy little bunny Bonnie

[MrBilboBagginsMammy]

I have had Bonnie for about a couple of months now. She’s a house bunny and I got her as a companion for my current house bunny Bilbo. She’s 3 months old so still a little-un. Anyway I am just wondering if anyone might have any suggestions or advice as whenever I or my partner try to approach her for a cuddle, stroke or some food or something she just runs off like she’s really scared but we have no idea why. She’s good as gold with Bilbo, has loads of cuddles with him which is really sweet and after all what I wanted for Bilbo but we cannot help feeling bad and sorry for her that she feels the need to be timid towards ourselves. She follows Bilbo around everywhere he goes which is also adorable. She will let us stroke her when she is occupied with food but that is more or less the only time. She doesn’t like to be picked up either but once we do have her in our arms she seems calm and content to be there. It’s almost the anticipation of being picked up that she runs from. Sometimes if she comes towards us she will quickly run back off again and we feel almost like on egg shells around her as we are so gentle and soft around her, and don’t think we’ve ever done anything to make her feels scared.

 Ultimately it’s the bunnies happiness I am after so for her to be friendly and lovey-dovey with Bilbo is most important but as owners / mummy + daddy we like our cuddles too. Bilbo has always been such a gorgeous friendly character from day 1, loves his cuddles, licks us all the time and follows us about etc etc. Maybe it is just the different characters and Bilbo is the different one being so so friendly? I don’t know? I’d just love for Bonnie to not be as timid around us as we see her everyday and she has free roam just like Bilbo. 

I’ll leave a photo of the beautiful pair for you to see. Bilbo is the bigger one now being 17months old and Bonnie is the goldeny coloured smaller bun:

chilling on mammy’s ottoman box – (copy & paste link into new url)  http://s1295.photobucket.com/user/xbrownxeyedxgirlyx/media/Bilbo%20and%20Bonnie%202013/20131130_113849_zpse5270aa0.jpg.html

[Peony]

3 months old is what stuck out at me.

How long did you have her for?

Did you ever try letting her explore at her own pace?

This means just laying on the floor and letting her come up to you. When you have a new rabbit, that tends to be important.

Don’t pick her up, if you have to carry her, let her go in the litterbox and carry that.

Very few rabbits like being picked up and I would only try finding out if she does or not after she feels comfortable with you touching her (petting)

 

Cute pictures~

[MrBilboBagginsMammy]

Hi.. yeah we have done all that and still do now. We are so gentle around her, she’ll approach us then run off. Sometimes if we do go to stroke her when she’s come up to us, then she runs off. I have decided to not pick her up anymore which is hard but am willing to try it it might help her. I think it’s just new as Bilbo has been so good from the off when I started looking after him at a similar age to what Bonnie was when she came along. 

[Peony]

I would not try to pet her then. What I would do when she gets close is simply show your head to her. When I do this to my rabbit she smells it then I let her run off (She tends to when in an open area anyway.)

I would try this if she stands still after you present your hand:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1abIFF_fgpY
I say start at 2:00 because I found that part funny but the important petting part starts at 3:00. I know the title is not fitting but I think you can apply this for your petting trust issue.

[Author]

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