Yeah, I try to talk to him and make sure I’m walking loudly so I’m not sneaking up. Sometimes I do think he just doesn’t see me or hear me (his hearing never seemed to be spectacular). But today, he was sitting in his litter box facing me and I was in full view – he must’ve seen me before I reached my hand in the cage and he’s never fussed with me petting him while we was eating or in his litter box before. Usually he thinks the approach of my hand means treats

I’m going to try speaking to him earlier (before I’m even in the dining room) and walking slowly to make sure I get his attention first. It’s the only thing I can think of at the moment! Bunnies can be so confusing.

That’s a possibility. He’s 11 months old at the moment, neutered at 4 or 5, and he’s never shown any type of age related behavior. Maybe he’s just a late bloomer and he’s only starting his teenage period now.

MB, that’s a plausible idea! Definitely possible.

He went into his cage this afternoon so I tried to approach very slowly. I called him from 10-15′ away and let him know I was coming. He stopped and looked up at me, clearly saw me, but looked very nervous. So I just got down on the ground and kind of crawled slowly over and by the time I got to him he was fine. What a weirdo!! Haha. I’m going to be more conscious every time and try to approach like this. I figure each time I can get to him without him freaking out will be helpful for him to get over his phobia.

Pam, I’ll try putting up a sheet tomorrow. There’s absolutely nothing outside that window though – no birds, squirrels, kids, nothing (it’s strange how quiet it is; sometimes I wonder if people even live in half of the other townhouse units). Very quiet. But that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t make him nervous just to be exposed. We’ll see if a sheet helps.

I also wondered if he might see my reflection in the window and get scared with a reflection and a person approaching. Though it is odd how he’ll look right at me very tense and nervous like I have 3 heads – he’s not looking out the window when he gets scared. Maybe I look scarier than I think I do 😛

It mostly confuses me because we’ve had him since April and he’s never shown any skittish-ness until just a few weeks ago. He’s even fine moving to new places and living with new people.

Pam, I was wondering if changing his environment around would help or make it worse – I’m glad you suggested it! Switching things up may throw him off enough that he doesn’t remember he’s supposed to be afraid and will allow him to start fresh.

Also, for flying things, I just remembered that we do live very close to an airport. It’s a tiny airport and only flies ultralights and similar 1 or 2 person planes, but still, they’re constantly flying over at fairly low heights. I would’ve thought he’d get used to them, but there’s a chance he doesn’t like them.

I just thought of something else that may have started this. His only other skittish time is if we go to bed, turn all the lights off, and then come back down later (like if I can’t sleep and want to read). Even though I walk loudly and call his name, he often gets freaked out by the time I turn the lights on (he’ll stay very still until the moment the light goes on, then he’s off like a shot). This might have triggered the response, and now he does it more often? It always made sense that he was afraid if we showed up out of the dark and turned on a light. His current behavior doesn’t make much sense (especially because he’s so laid back most of the time) but maybe they’re linked. He just learned to be on his guard while in his cage.

Hey Jers! I might try taking the top of the cage off for a while and see what he does. And I think there’s something to your thought that he’s started doing this since I’ve been home all day. He was used to everybody leaving by 8am and now when I come down at 8:30 that’s when he seems to freak out the most. Maybe he just liked the idea of being alone to do his thing and eat his breakfast in peace. Now that I think of it, we feed him and then go to bed immediately, so he gets to eat most of that in peace too.

I do think he’s picked up on the shelter bunny smells – I noticed that the first day. I changed all of my clothes and washed up, but he really didn’t want anything to do with me that day. He didn’t seem skittish, just not affectionate. I guess that made sense though.

This morning I came down and he was eating. I called his name and he clearly stopped eating to look at me. I tried to approach very slowly, on the floor, but once I got 5′ away he bolted. ::sigh:: Once he was in his maze he seemed to realize it was me and came over so I could pet him. He still has a lot of breakfast left, so I’ll try some new approaches when he goes back to finish it. I’m going to try approaching the other way around the dining room table. He might be able to see me differently over there as I’ll be approaching from a different angle.

Beka, he has lived in just the xpen whenever we take him somewhere, but I find the blue cage keeps things sooo much cleaner. Without it, he gets hay everywhere and it ends up all over the house. But I can definitely try taking it away. I can also try feeding him out in the xpen to see if he calms down a bit.

I would probably just have to make the pen smaller, but he gets plenty of out of cage time. Technically he can come out any time he wants, but he tends to stay in his cage area all day and come out from 7-10pm. A second xpen would be nice, but is a little expensive so it would probably have to wait until we got a second bun.

I’m definitely trying some of the things you guys suggested! He’s the worst in the mornings, so I’ll see how he is tomorrow morning with a modified cage set up.

Lol, oh my goodness, we never use our patio anymore since the bunny  Grilling is such a pain because one person pretty much has to stay out there while the other one hands things out. Or we just take the pen down altogether, which Otto actually loves because then he can play with (ie chew) on the curtains.

Corpathina, I don’t think we’ve changed any smells. I started staying home all day with him, but that’s the only change we’ve made lately. I also started volunteering with bunnies once a week, but I make sure to wash all of the clothes I wear immediately and wash up, so I’m not sure it would affect him more than that one day a week. Plus, he’s been doing this skittish stuff for a month and I’ve only worked at the rescue a few weeks.

Jers, the patio door is west facing. In the living room there’s a big east facing window. So when I approach him, the east facing window is at my back and it’s very possible I appear just as a sillouette. Yesterday I tried sitting on the ground and letting him see that it was me before approaching. He was able to check me out and figure me out before I went closer and he didn’t bolt once!

Otto seems to be doing a lot better now! In the past two weeks I’ve tried really hard to only approach his cage in a very slow calm manner. I had to go so far as stopping and sitting on the ground (10ft away) until he relaxed, then moving forward again. I also thought about what Jersey said – that the window behind me was creating a silhouette in the morning, so I make sure to turn on the dining room light so he can see my face. Gradually, he’s been a lot better. I’ve also made sure to have more treats when I come to visit, so he started to forget about the fear thing

He still definitely stops and looks nervous when I initially approach, but he gets over it much quicker and then I’m ok to walk up to him. He’s even started coming out into the pen area more (before he stayed mostly in his cage or maze and only travelled between them). Now he’ll even lay out in the middle of the pen! And if he runs away from me, it’s only in a slow “Oh it’s you. I don’t really want to talk to you right now” kind of way  instead of a panicked scramble.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I’m not really sure what his deal was, but having so many different ideas to try really helped me get to the bottom of it and turn it around. I think changing up his routine and the way I did things helped loads.

Our yard has nothing in it, BB, to the point of being odd. Lol. It’s unnaturally quiet. Not to say there aren’t animals wandering at night, but during the day there’s zip. CT is known for lots of coyotes, so there could be anything lurking at night. There are lots of small planes (ultralights, 1 and 2 seaters) from the local airstrip, but he doesn’t seem to notice those. Jersey did aks about backlighting, and that is true – the patio faces west, so there’s a window in the front that faces east. When I approach in the morning, it’s probably tough for Otto to see my face. He seems much more cautious in the morning, so this could be a big reason.

I do have a plastic container of dried papaya and I shake that whenever I’m coming to see him.

That’s hilarious that your raccoons could open doors. Smart little buggers!