Big brat bunny, how to tame?

[Lita]

So I am a bit lost on how to teach my baby Flemmie, Voldemort, that its ok to be picked up and moved. Out of all our buns he kicks the most, I have a lot of scratches just from his light kicks. He is about 9/10 wks old, and already the largest in size out of our 9 buns. I am pretty sure his bouncyness is a baby thing, Susu is a week older and she kicks a bit but she is a lionhead mix so she is really little. Voldemort also seems immune to trancing. While the other buns all go under fairly easily, or dont seem to mind being held on their backs, he just wont. Which is fine but I am worried with how big he will get, if he doesn’t learn to be handled then it could cause problems in the future with vet visits and other times he has to be moved. Also he needs his nails cut, and our vet is a bit far for just a nail trim.

So basically, any suggestion on hand taming him? Should I just continue to handle him bits at a time? Or will he mellow out with age? Again I am just worried with how big he can get, he needs to at least tolerate handling. My coworker trained her show buns to tolerate trancing and that made most of them easy to handle. Even our 2yr old unfixed rescue Mochi, who was barely handled his whole life, is easier to handle. Thanks for the advice

[Sarita]

I would only handle a rabbit this big on the ground. I’ve never had a Flemmie but have had a few large New Zealands and found that it just wasn’t possible to pick them up for anything. I just sat on the ground and did anything I needed to with them that way. For me that is really the best way to handle a large to very large rabbit.

For the nails, here is a good video that may have a technique that would work for you:

http://www.howcast.com/videos/514678-How-to-Trim-Your-Rabbits-Nails-Pet-Rabbits

For carriers – I always corralled them into the carrier to get them to the vets.

[Aeyja]

http://www.howcast.com/videos/51467…et-Rabbits

If I tried this there would be blood

My bunny hates to be restrained in any way, and he’s a flemmie too so I have the same problem as you Lita! Except he’s nearly 5 months old, so even bigger than your boy. It’s been suggested to me to try sitting on the floor with him, putting him on my lap and then letting him go straight away so that he is free to hop off when he wants to, and try to give him a treat each time he is there to build a good association with being held. Before we got him, every time he was picked up he was force fed yoghurt which he despised, so I think that is why he is so against it.

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