Thanks for the tips, everyone. I might try to just pick him up while I’m sitting on the floor and hold him for a few seconds, and then let him go so he knows I’m not trying to eat him or hurt him. Maybe if I do that enough times he will be happy to snuggle. He is just such a sweet boy that I want to cuddle him!  Of course, that’s my idea, not his. Ha ha.

Hi everyone!  Thanks for all the input and comments. I’ve been practicing the "pick up" method in my head so I can do it when the time is right. I haven’t done it yet, but he is still being curious, happy to see me, and enjoying petting, so it will be any time now that I get up the nerve to try it. I just don’t want to try it too soon and upset him and then have to start all over trying to gain his trust.

I also found out that he really likes veggies now!  At first, I was told by the lady I got him from that I couldn’t give him veggies until he was 4 months old, but after input from the forum members I decided I could try a few now.  I started with cilantro and he wasn’t impressed, but after he tried he decided it was pretty good. I’ve slowly added parsley, baby greens, kale, pea pods, celery, carrots and blueberries – his favorite!  I haven’t tried bananas yet, but am going to soon, after I make sure his little tummy is adjusting to all of these. He practically jumps on me when I go into his room with my little bucket of veggies to feed him, and he eats everything out of my hand if that’s where I put it, or if it leave it in the bucket. He has even taken and eaten things I was holding my mouth for him, so I think that’s good?

The article linked here is very good, and it’s funny because I have already been using voice "commands" with him so he is familiar with my voice and associates the things I do with what I say.  So, when I go in his room in the morning I say "Hi Bunneh" in the same tone and cadence every time, and when I pet him I say "Mommy Lovies" over and over, so it will fit right in if I give him a voice cue for picking up too.

I’ll keep you all posted!  It is just such a heartwarming honor to me that these fragile little creatures of prey trust and love us and allow us to get past their inborn fears of being eaten to truly let us know and love them!

Beka, thanks for the tip on the celery. I haven’t been making the pieces that small, but I will start now. I just bought the precut celery and carrots in the little plastic container from the produce aisle at the store, like you would use with dip, so they’re pretty small already, then I break them in half after that. He also eats it from the top down like a straw, so he’s eating the short side, if that makes sense?  Basically, he’s not taking any long pieces into his mouth. That little sucker has a strong mouth too!  I have to hold onto the celery and carrots really hard or else he rips them out of my hand while he’s taking his little bites. It’s a good thing he hasn’t been mad enough at me to bite me!  Ha ha.

As for the picking up, it is going awesome!  For the past couple days, when I give him his veggies, I pet him a lot and talk silly baby talk to him. I rub his ears, nose, cheeks, and stroke his entire body and he could care less. He just goes right on munching.  I make a point to sit in the end of the room with the linoleum so the floor is slippery. When he finishes his veggies, while sitting on the floor, I just scoop him up and put him on my lap with my right arm basically under his chin and along his body and my left arm on his rump. He just sits there. I stroke his ears and face and talk to him and he closes his little eyes and it’s just darn precious!  I offer him his favorite blueberries while he is on my lap and then after a little bit I just move my arm from under his chin to see if he wants to hop away or not. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn’t. I always give him a blueberry when he gets down. Yesterday he just put his front feet on the ground next to my leg and sort of half slid down so his back feet were all stretched out across me and the front of his body was on the floor. I’m telling ya, I love this little fluffy child!!