Two vets have told me and shown me this so I thought I would pass it on. Applies to picking up, holding, and carrying. Don’t know if it would work with larger breeds, but my buns have yet to fight the vets when handled like this (they fight the vet techs like crazy if *not* handled like this so its not just them being afraid at the vet office!). Here goes:

Holding hand like a gun (pointer finger and thumb), pointer finger goes between bun’s head and arm, middle finger, ring finger, and pinky finger all go behind that bunny arm so that bunny’s arm is between your pointer finger and the rest of your fingers. Your palm will be underneath bunny’s chest. Your thumb goes behind the bunny’s other arm. Your other hand should support the bunny’s rear end and back legs. When carrying the bunny, you can move the bunny toward your side so that your arm and elbow hold bunny close to your body to support the bunny’s rear end and prevent bunny from kicking out with it’s back legs.

The purpose of having your pointer finger (and *only* your pointer finger) in front of one bunny arm is to prevent bunny from moving forward and jumping out of your arms, and having your thumb *behind* the other bunny arm is to force your palm to be under the bunny for support and to prevent you from squeezing bunny around its neck.

Takes close-to-the-floor practice to perfect it.

Anyway, I’m sure there are lots of safe ways to pick up and hold a bunny, but I thought I’d pass this on. Will try to take pics when I get used to it, but I’m going yo continue to only pick up my buns when necessary and get them where they need to go on their own whenever possible!