Hi All!  I’m fostering my first rabbit and I’m making every effort that I can to make him adoptable.  He used to be pretty aggressive, but I’ve corrected his fear-biting since then.  Now I have a type of behavoir that I can’t seem to figure out or fix.  My foster rabbit loved social interactions in his X-Pen, but could care less outside of it.  For adoptable reasons, that does not work well in his favor.  I also don’t want him to be adopted into a family that will prefer to cage him up for these reasons, espcially since he does so well in rabbit proof rooms.

He’s a neutered 2 y.o. male, was surrendered to the shelter 6 months ago, and has been in foster care for five weeks now.  When he first came, I kept him inside the family room in his 3′ x 8′ X-Pen during the day and let him out for for playtime and socialization (“outside time”) in the evening for several hours.  During the day, he would hop up to the front of the X-Pen and love being pet, I’m assuming it’s because he likes the interaction while being by himself inside the X-Pen for some time.

I’ve come to trust him to a point where I leave his X-Pen open and he can roam around the rabbit-proof rooms freely (family room, kitchen, and hallway).  However, he no longer follows me around like he used to during his “outside time”, he could care less about being pet (I can pet him if I want, but he hops away after a few pats), and he seems to like being more independent than social in comparison to being in his X-Pen for hours. 

He was a marshmellow in his X-Pen, but he now prefers to keep to himself with his new freedom.  The only time he’ll nudge me (even nip me… that’s another issue) is if he wants treats.  (He goes away when I yell “NO!” to stop him from nipping and I’ll give a treat after several minutes if I know he’s got the point, but I’m not sure if yelling at him pushes him into further isolation.)  I don’t have the heart to set up the X-Pen and leave him in there during the day again, but if that’s going to reverse his “outside independence”, I guess I would do it… but I’m not sure if that would even work.  Ideas or experiences?  Anything helps!  Thanks!