Maybe approach with the back of your hand and touch her whiskers first? I’m finding this works ok with Rumball, who tenses up when hands approach. BT mentioned a verbal cue helped her. Saying “Pick Up” right before. It’s only a few months since Sammy’s spay isn’t it. I found it a good 6 month until I found Jersey a bit calmer and accepting and even then, it was subtle.

What we do at the rescue for bunnies who don’t want to be picked up is hold them down firmly by the shoulders in a submissive position then start stroking them so that the “correction” to the boxing ends on a good note. Eventually the stop running from our hands when the light bulb goes off and they realize we aren’t going to hurt them.

Oh, i meant to come back to this earliler…
So what does Sammy do when you go to pick her up? Do you hace to corner her to attempt this?
Maybe try sqat down next to her, give head pets, then go in to pick her up. If you are on her side, it may be easiier. Either pet head or pin shoulders down a bit then scoop hand behind her rear and bring her in towards you. How do you hold her once you do have her?

If you are needing to pick her up for maintance in the future, or putting her back in her cage, I think it’d be good to work on this with her daily. She may lose some trust toward you initially, but she should come around. I’d do the pick up, hold for short time, many head pets, then put her down and reward her. Once she becomes familiar with it and realises your going to persist, hopefully she’ll be more accepting. It’s probably something you want to assert your dominance in. I try now only pick Jersey up when I have to, but am guilty of doing it just for a cuddle sometimes.

I think she and Sammy are similar in a way, seem a bit higher strung – super alert sometimes. I noticed a change in Jers about 4-5 month mark, she would hide away and growl and box if I attempted to get her out of these places. That’s when I booked her in for her spay, to ward of any aggressiveness……ha ha!  Well, maybe it did some, but her attitude remained and it wasn’t until she was 10 months or so that she was a bit more settled and accepting. Whether this is still the hormones in the system of their coming into adulthood after 1 year, I’m not sure. Perhaps with Sammy, time is going to make the difference too.

In the meantime, if you need to find something that works for you both, so you can get her back into her cage pronto, try using your carrier. Does it open at both ends? Or have a window at one end? Put a treat in at one end then once she goes in, flip up the open ends and take her over to her cage. If both ends of the carrier are open, she’s more likely to go into it then stop and have the treat.

I do think you’d both benefit from practicing the picking up. Even if your down on the floor, can pick her up then release her down at that level. She may not be so frightened if the floor is not so far away. Do you know, the last 2 nights when I’ve gone to herd Jersey out from a spot to take her to her area, she’s growled a bit then run out there herself. Not laps around the room, no detours to other rooms. No me having to carry her there. I think being persistant in these things really helps. She seems to know this is the drill now and just goes. Lets hope it lasts!
 

Don’t feel bad- I’ve had my girl bun Nelli since last August and still can’t pick her up . If I even try to brush her she grunts, stomps, snorts and tries to bite me- funny that holding a bunny down by the shoulders is used in shelters cuz I instinctively did it out of desperation with Nell. It was either that or lose a finger- she’s such an animal. And ya, she was fixed before we got her from the shelter. She just turned 1 in March and she has mellowed- when we got her she couldn’t even be touched and the mere shadow of a human sent her in fits- I thought she was gonna knock herself on a wall trying to run from us.
What scares me is that their spines can break if you pick em up wrong- and that fear causes my hubby to refuse to hold her too. Therefore both buns must be driven to the vet every other month for their manicures/pedicures- the boy bun, Ludicris, won’t eat or speak to us for at least a day and I feel so guilty.
Keep trying!

Couple other things I thought… Socks on your hands, or mittens etc. Maybe then our hands look less threatening. Rumball is a little wary of hands but happy to be rubbed over with the foot especially if you have socks on.

Also, could you sit a little table over the cage, like those card table with foldable legs. The cage could sit underneath without bearing the weight of the table top and you can put supplies etc on top. It may make her cage seem more enclosed but most rabbits like being under something with cover overhead.

Fiver is still a terror when it comes to lifting him from his pen. (With his continuous sore hock, I have to pull him out each night to medicate his feet.) He always runs around grunting and thumping and sometimes even boxing, and he only becomes somewhat docile in my arms, always squirming to look for a chance at escape. He tuckers himself out, poor thing, and finally just puts up with whatever I’m doing to him. But with my lymphedema issues, I have to be VERY careful he doesn’t injure my left arm.

Was Sammy just a babe at the pet store? Could she have been a ‘return’ like Fiver? (Meaning she’s had problems with a previous home and is traumatized by that in her past rather than anything you have personally done? I ask because you said she boxed you in the store.) Maybe the pet store clerks mishandled her in some way?

Another thing I just thought of… is it possible that Spockie was kind of like that when he was her age, but over the years you simply forgot? ;o) I’m guessing it’s just her personality. I agree that you should work with her, follow the other’s advice, and take it slow.

As far as your decorating… I personally don’t like having stuff “out” Could you get an armoire (or two?) with doors for storage? Maybe one for work stuff, one for personal stuff (movies, or bunny supplies)? It would look a lot cleaner and streamlined. And your bunny proofing would just consist of closing the doors. It doesn’t have to be expensive, you can get ready-to-assemble ones at discount stores. Have you experimented with rearranging the room? When our rooms start to get boring we move furniture around and it makes a world of difference.

IT’S NOT YOU!

Take a deep breath, let it out, and STOP WORRYING!!!

We have two rabbits, Smokey and Fang.  Ask anyone on this site, I’m sure they’re quite sck of hearing me say it, I’ve said it so many times, but Smokey is love itself, and Fang is a little BASTARD.

We got Fang as a baby at a petstore.  Petstores do not know how to acclimate rabbits to life with humans, and rabbits usually come to you as ‘damaged goods.’   Fang bites, scratches, and kicks.  We had him neutered a few months ago, and he’s a little less agressive than he was before it, but he’s still, as my daughter puts it, a ‘d_ck.’

This is just the way he is.  Rabbits have personalities, and I’ve found that of all the animals I’ve ever had, a rabbit has the most distinct and noticeable personality.  I suppose it’s because they can’t express themselves verbally, but a bunny’s personality is larger than life.  It’s almost ridiculous how different Smokey and Fang are!   Smokey loves to be kissed, cuddled, petted, and will sit in plain sight of you or even on you all day.  Fang will pop out only occasionally, preferring to hide under coffee tables and dining room chairs, places where hands can’t reach him .  He will let you pet him once or twice on the top of the head, then headbutt your hand away to warn you that he’s had enough.  If you try to pet him after that, you will be bitten.  He will take food from our hands, as long as we don’t try to touch him.

The point is, your rabbit is who she is.  She will mellow with age, but she may always be similar to the way she is now, and it can’t be helped.  We love Fang anyway, as cantankerous and pissy as he is!

All I can tell you is this….NEVER buy a bunny from a petstore again.  Fang bites, because people were grabbing at him all day in the display case, and he learned that bites keep hands away.  In time, Sammy will learn that not all your touches are harmful, and she’ll allow them.  The picking up thing will be harder, but time handles everything.  The next time you get a bunny, get one from someone who raises them at home, and make sure you see the home environment the bunnies live in.  Smokey was abandoned by his previous owner, but I found out who raised him, and those folks had a great envirnment.  He grew up with parrots, small dogs, and lot s of human contact and petting, so he has absolutely no fear of people.  That’s the way you want to go.  Also, check with your vet’s office, sometimes other patients give away thier bunnies or litters, and who could tell you more about a potential pet than its doctor?

Oh, and Fang is good most of the time when we pick him up, but you have to be gentle, self-confident, and swift.  Good luck!

I’ll have to respectfully disagree with you Iriswarrior. While it is true that petstores are not the ideal place to get a bunny (I recommend adoption over stores OR breeders), there are many buns that come from petstores or bad backyard breeders that are the sweetest bunnies ever. Also, many of our buns have been adopted from shelters as adults. In most cases we have no idea what their life was like before, but sometimes we do know that they were abused or neglected and they are still sweet, loving creatures, despite what life dealt them. It all comes down to each bun being an individual.

this is a random idea just incase it is a phsycological thing and she is scared of being held etc, you could do what you do when you pick her up but immediately put her down and give her a treat and keep repeating and then after a couple of times hold her for litteraly a milisecond longer a few times but put her straight back down and give her a treat and after a while you will be holding her longer and longer and as she will always be put back down and get treat she will begin hopefully to realise that you always put her back where she feels safe. The treat will obviously also make her realise that she is rewarded for being picked up. She might then trust more that she is safe when picked up. Not sure if that makes any sense at all but you could poss try it xxx To begin with you may bearly be able to pick her off the floor completely but should get easier each time i think xx

Does her cage open from the top?

One thing I wanted to just add – the glove wearing thing. Sometimes just wearing the gloves can make you feel more confident that if she decides to nip and scratch that you won’t get hurt and therefore, can handle her without incurring much “tude” damage.

I can tell you that each bunny I have had I have had a slightly different approach. The toughest was Jack to learn the best way cuz he’s so big and has a real back leg punch, and pinchy nip! And Rucy could slice you but good back in the day, but she mellowed with age. I know with all, a little head rub first does make it easier. With my new gal Vivian, after a nose rub, there cannot be ANY hesitation to pick her up, or she will turn her head around like a snapping turtle and get cha! I told my husband, just today, “the way you are trying to pick Vivian up, you are going to get bit!” He was just going a little too slow, and she whipped around and gave him a warning nip. No real damage done. She likes him.

It can take time to find what works for your bunny. The slow methodical way, or the quick firm grip. And like Beka said, it really is an individual thing. I know Vivian has been with Marcy from SaveABunny for almost two years at the shelter and for two years and they have discovered the way she will deal with being picked up. BEFORE that, she was marked as very hard to handle at the humane society, but she really isn’t once I got the hang of “her” style. IF I didn’t have Marcy telling me how to do it then I am sure I would have had to go through a learning period of figuring it out – and some nasty nips and scratches!

Oh, and along the lines of what peppa suggested – will she eat a treat WHILE in your arms? Jack wouldn’t but Rucy would.

True, Beka.  Keep in mind though that Smokey was a ‘toss out’ , the pound is where he would have ended up if I hadn’t taken him.  The only thing that kept me from getting my second rabbit from a shelter was my husband, who didn’t want to drive 40 miles to the nearest shelter.  (I already had two potential bunnies lined up from there, one only had 3 legs, but she was so CUTE!!!!)  In larger cities, or more populated areas, you can find rabbits at local shelters, but for some reason my local shelter almost NEVER has rabbits for adoption.  That’s a subject that keeps me up nights sometimes: the petstore that sold me my Fang just cranks out bunnies, but none of them has ever found their way to the local shelter.  That means that either there are a lot of wonderful rabbit owners in my city, or people are just tossing them out the door when they get tired of them.  Now you know why it keeps me awake.

So, I’ll have to respectfully AGREE with you that the animal shelter is the BEST place to go, because animals don’t put themselves in shelters–people do.  So, it’s up to people to get them out.