What is your definition of friendly? Can you describe what exactly you are looking for in your rabbit?

I believe that all bunnies are interested in your company and will be a life-long furry friend to anyone who is interested. But some are a bit more timid and require patience and time to open up.

Just make sure you always respect your bunny’s boundaries and neuter him, as soon as he sexually matures.

You will find that some rabbits are more trusting than others, some are braver than others. Rabbits just want to be rabbits on their terms.

I know you may feel like you are taking it personally that he is not what you would consider friendly, but because a rabbit does come up to you for pets like a cat of dog, doesn’t mean he’s not content.

I’m pretty certain none of my rabbits really see me as a friend but they are content with my company. Some do want to just be left alone and I’m fine with that – they still get my full attention when it comes to care and stuff and if they don’t want to be touched, I just admire them from afar.

You may just have to adjust what your expectations are for your bunny and realize that he’s content to just be with you.

Well, I just got a bunny recently too. I’ve had him for about a month and a half and he’s around 5/6 months old. I think right around 2 weeks that I’d had him he was acting similarly to how you describe your rabbit. He wasn’t scared of me, and seemed happy, but he didn’t approach me directly as much. It was more me going over to him to interact with him.

I’ve definitely seen a day-by-day and week-by-week progression in how comfortable he is with me. Now he definitely comes over to me himself, licks me a lot, plays more. I think it’s a comfort thing, even with new people in our lives we take time to develop trust and know that they will respect our boundaries right?

He definitely doesn’t lay down right next to me yet, but he went form only ‘flopping’ in his pen, behind the couch or behind my blinds, to flopping much more in plain view and much closer to me.

Definitely give it more time. It’s actually a cool process, every time they do something they haven’t done before around you, which tells you they’re getting more comfortable

I would assume any bunny would be friendly, as long as you approach it correctly, you put in time, and you are gentle.

Posted By Sarita on 08/19/2010 10:22 AM

I’m pretty certain none of my rabbits really see me as a friend 

same with mine. But if I hold still, and don’t move a muscle, they do enjoy investigating me… and tugging at me to see if I can be bullied into submission (I am kidding )

It sounds from this post and others like you’re expecting very specific behavior from your new bun. I can definitely relate, because I also had high expectations for the second rabbit I ever adopted. My first rabbit, Basil, really thought he was a Labrador; while he wouldn’t come sit on your lap, he would (after a few months) run right over to me when I opened his cage and beg for head rubs, happily crunching his teeth all the while. I adopted a friend for him eventually, who was much more shy, but it didn’t matter at the time since Basil was still “my” bunny; his friend was “his” bunny. Then, Basil died unexpectedly, and I was left with his rather asocial roommate as my only rabbit, who despite months of treats and cajoling and kind words still prefers not to associate with people if she has a choice. I was actually MAD at her for a while because she wasn’t acting “friendly” like Basil!!!! On the contrary, I routinely got (and still get) foot thumps and “the butt” whenever I tried to interact with her. It felt like, let’s face it, ingratitude… I was doing all this for her and all I got was a thump?!!

But, time has gone by, and I’ve thought a lot about her perspective on things. She’s a rabbit, which means the only thing lower than her on the food chain is grass- reason enough to be scared of, well, everything. She also came out of a hoarding situation before I got her, and who knows what kind of negative interactions she had with people in her young life. Given all that, I like and respect the way she’s always gentle when handled (for nail trims and transport and such), even though I know she’s probably terrified. I’m honored when she thinks highly enough of me to come up on my knee for a treat, even though this took months to achieve. I like the faces she makes between the cage bars when I’m giving her future a roommate a treat before her (I did adopt her a new friend after some time, knowing how much she loves other buns.) I too hope that she will be more friendly and open someday, but I decided I love her even if she doesn’t… and we both seem happy with that.

I don’t know if you’ve taken in rescue animals of other species before, but if not, it seems the key to doing so is TIME, especially with adult animals. We have no idea what they’ve been through before we got them, or how it affected them, regardless of what species they are. It took my cat (adopted as a 3y.o.) over a year of hiding and litter box infidelities before she decided I was OK, with many MANY moments of “WHAT was I thinking?!” on my part before then. But now, she’s sweet as pie, uses her litter box, and likes to sleep on my bed with me at night. Riesling has also slowly, slowly, slowly come around… she may never be a snuggle-bun like Basil was but she’s much better than when I first got her, and I can already see her confidence increasing when she’s back with a rabbit friend- she’s still not terribly people-oriented, but that’s OK. She has other lovely qualities- and maybe she’ll come around in another year too

In my life so far I’ve adopted 5 rescue animals of varying species (only one of whom was adopted as youngster), and worked with many more through shelters and rescue groups… not a record by any means but I’ve learned a few things along the way When the going gets rough (and it does), I just try to get back to their perspective, and that always gives me a bigger reserve of much-needed patience. There’s a poem that gets tossed around animal rescue circles, that you might like if you’ve never read it- it’s called “Baggage (The Meaning of Rescue)” by Evelyn Colbath: http://www.milwinkennel.com/poems/rescue.html

Just another take on things In my experience, animals pretty much never behave how we expect them to, and it can be incredibly frustrating to the humans trying to work with them. But, you’re not alone, and remember that sometimes good things happen unexpectedly too!

Also, I want to say that just because he doesn’t flinch when you approach doesn’t mean he’s comfortable around you. It takes rabbits a long time to get comfortable around their people to the point where they seek out attention and just being not terrified of you isn’t the same thing as really trusting you and being comfortable. That kind of comfort will take months and potentially years for some bunnies.

My bunny Otto has never been afraid of us – I can stomp all around him and you could set off fireworks and he couldn’t flinch. Doesn’t mean he’s comfortable with us touching him though! It took us 8 long months to get him comfortable with being touched in any way. After bonding with Hannah he went back to disliking touching again and we’ve only just begun to build his trust again. Rabbits move very slowly in their trust of humans and you can’t judge it based on whether or not he runs in fear of you. It’s much more subtle than that. Just be patient! Very few bunnies will be brave enough to approach to and seek attention after only a few weeks or even after a month.

My Hannah is one of the bravest bunnies I’ve met and it took her about 3 months to really settle down and not jump every time we walked around the house. In that time she was fine with us approaching her and petting her, but she was still wary of us and didn’t feel very comfortable approaching us.

Especially for a rabbit who hasn’t had a consistent home with consistent interaction, it will be a new adjustment for your guy to learn how to interact with a human. Just give him lots of time and love. I fell in love with a girl bunny at the shelter (through the internet) before getting Hannah and wanted to meet her. The shelter told me that the previous adopters said she wasn’t what they expected and was much too shy and aloof for them, so they wanted to return her. They held on to her as a foster, since there was no more room at the shelter, but by the time I came along to look at her (a few months later) they had totally fallen in love with her and her personality. They were in a very similar position to you, but after giving her enough time to open up they realize how great she was.

Don’t be worried, if you spend time with the bunny every day he will come around to you! You can’t expect specific behavior from any rabbit (or any animal, or any person!) It just doesn’t work that way, even if we want it to. Even dogs, which to me seem the most malleable of animals, are not 100% predictable, and if you put in the time to train them they still will not act the way you want if they don’t have the right surroundings and support. I was lucky to adopt a very tame bunny, but he doesn’t want to cuddle every day, in fact today he spent almost the whole time rearranging his huge new cage. Then I swept the cage and area for poop, I set the dustpan full of about 20 poops on the floor and turned away to get something, and Bun-Bun saw his chance and playfully leapt onto the the dustpan, sending the poo flying everywhere. He also dumped out one of his newly changed litterpans. I think he thought it was fun, obviously he didn’t realize he was just doubling my chore time.
As a cat person I’m more used to the “I’m ignoring you” form of affection, where the animal shows they like you just by being in the same room. Now I’m trying to get used to a more high-maintenance animal who willfully spills his poo and will drink from my wine glass if I turn away for one second. Any time I take an animal into my life it’s forever, I think the trouble is always worth it. At least you know the animal is properly cared for and will not be neglected or abused, and can have a comfortable life.

Posted By eyorelop on 08/19/2010 10:34 AM
I know some people who adopted rabbits the same week I did and their experience seems to be much different from mine but they also adopted younger bunnies.

How much younger are you talking?  Because these people may have an interactive young bunny now but they may also be approaching bunny teenhood and that can be a whole different ball game!  Many people become disappointed that their rabbit is no longer “affectionate”  or easy like it was as a baby – but it’s not until they’re adults that we can learn what their true personality will be like. Some traits carry through from babyhood but many are left (like accepting being held) and that’s typical of rabbits. 
 

Is your rabbits name Eeyore by the way?

Even a neutered 1-year-old may still be more rambunctious than a bun at 2-3 years old. I actually prefer the older, more calm bunnies. They tend to be less “inquisitive” (READ: destructive), better littertrained, and more trustworthy unsupervised in a home.

What is your long-term goal with Eeyore? Are you considering doing free-range eventually? If so, from what you’ve mentioned so far, he sounds like a good candidate.

It’s hard to herd animals back into cages, of course they don’t want to go. I feed my bunny fresh veggies in and out of his cage, but he never gets pellets out of his cage. If I want him to go back in I just put a small amount of pellets in the bowl and he’ll run back in. If he’s in a different part of the house, I show him the bowl with pellets and he’ll follow the bowl all the way back to his cage.

Most bunnies hate getting picked up, all 3 of mine included.

Smudge, my newest, is the most pettable of the bunch. She adores attention, and will come demand pets from me. But does not like getting picked up for them. She is happy to climb into my lap though.

Moose, my boy, is somewhat pettable, he takes a long time to relax with new people, and has bonded more with my hubby than he has with me. He will play more with my hubby, and let my hubby pet him more. He’s a Daddy’s Boy

Monkey… she is No Touchy Bunny. Can’t pet her, can’t hold her, can’t even touch her. But, if you sit still and don’t try to reach for her, she’ll climb all over you

All bunnies are different, some take alot longer than others to adjust to new surroundings and allow you to interact with them. Just takes time and patience.

Another thing I remember about both Remy and Momo is that when they were not yet free-roaming, they came to associate me with being caged… not a positive association! If your bunny sees you as jail master, he will probably be less likely to want to get near you, for fear of being locked up back in the cage.

Now that both of our buns are free-roaming, they associate me with pets, kisses, treats, food, and butt scratches. Positive associations! So now they follow me around half the time and let me come up to them and pet them and play with them just about as much as I want to.

I’m a big fan of the “on the floor, ignore” trick. I don’t remember where I learned it, but it was somewhere on this marvelous website which I love.

Lie on the floor and stay extremely still. Maybe read a book so you don’t get bored (lol). When your bunny comes up to you, don’t reach out, even if you reeeeeeeeeeally want to. Let your bunny sniff you and check you out as much as he wants without moving or trying to interact with him. He may even jump on your back!

If you do this everyday, he will come to associate you with safety and become more and more comfortable with you!

I apologize if someone else already suggested this on one of your threads (or this one…).

: )

I would recommend that you relocate his cage or pen to where he is allowed free roam. It’s too stressful for him to be carried downstairs for playtime and then carried back upstairs to go in his cage. You may inadvertently be doing more harm than good. The first step to free roam (and getting bunny to trust you) is having a set-up that allows them the option to hop in and out of their cage.

In your other thread, you mentioned concern that you don’t think he exercises enough.  If his cage was in his exercise space, there would be more opportunity for him to come out and play when HE was ready, not necessarily just when your schedule allowed.  His exercise time would probably increase a great deal.  I think a good general rule is to house the bunny in one of the areas where YOU spend the most time (awake).  For most people, this is the living or family room.  This way they get very used to your presence, your smell, the sound of your voice in normal, everyday scenarios.

Rabbits tolerate cooler temperatures more than hot. As long as you’re comfortable, he should be too.

Yes, downstairs might be a good solution for you. Your not having to carry him each time would be better.  He might even be more active in the cooler temperature. Would there be room in your office or living room to set him up? Then it’s just a matter or opening cage or pen when you want to allow him more roaming room. Much less stress for you and him!

I second these suggestions to keep the cage where he’s usually roaming. My bun can run around when I’m home, but half the time he hangs out in his cage anyway, or lays right by the front door, and anytime he feels threatened at all he can run right back in. A cage on a different floor might work only for a completely bunny-proofed house where the bunnies are 100% in charge. At this point I still like to think I’m a little bit in charge…

Rabbits tolerate cold better than warmth.

My rabbit is on the bottom floor of my house – which gets cold during the winter time. As long as the place doesn’t get too warm, it should be fine. Rabbits have lots of fur to make themselves warm I only turn on the heater for myself because it gets cold downstairs, lol.

Rabbits are quite messy with their hay I would try for the living room, if you can, but beware, you willl need to bunny proof it.