Welcome – I just wanted to first of all let you know I deleted your age…

Secondly, I’m sorry you are going through so much and I’m glad that you want to make your rabbits life better and hopefully with some suggestions we can help you and your rabbit.

Rabbits are always territorial in their cage so if you can clean and feed her while she is out and about that would be a good first start.

As for letting her out to play, you know your schedule best and maybe one thing you can do is to let her out when she will have the most time out of her cage and your are home doing homework.

As for food and water is this something you can try to do at least once a day? Maybe make this part of your morning routine or even part of your evening routine – it really only takes a few minutes to do this – maybe once you get home from school just do that right away and it’s done or if you can manage to get up 10 minutes earlier in the morning (I know many people aren’t good in the morning) but if you know that’s done then maybe you won’t have to stress and worry about that so much.

As for having her regain your trust – sometimes just letting her do her thing while you are there is a great way to do this – you don’t have to try to interact with her but just being there can many times be what helps build trust and trying hard to keep a regular routine (if possible).

Having a pet is a huge commitment and responsibility. It requires time on a regular basis. Are you sure this is the right time in your life for this? I can remember being in school and having a crazy and irregular schedule, and there’s no way I could have handled having a bunny back then. If you really want to make it work, I’m sure you’ll find a way, but if you find that you just can’t do it, there’s no shame in saying so and finding a new home for your bunny with someone who has more time on their hands that can provide a good home (maybe even giving you the ability to still visit whenever you can).

Welcome to the forums – I definitely don’t mean to be negative, but I sort of agree with JackRabbit on this one. 

It sounds like you’re going through a tremendous lot – more than a lot of people go through – and this may just not be the right time for you to have another thing that you have to take care of on your plate. As JR said, there’s absolutely no shame whatsoever in finding another great home for her to live in if you feel like you can’t properly take care of her. 

It’s not an easy or flippant decision to re-home a pet… but it may also be the least selfish decision in this case.

I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to pressure or shame you, as I’m sure no one else here would, but my concerns are that you have so much going on right now and you’re under so much pressure and have so much stress that she seems to be serving as another source of stress as opposed to a stress reliever, which is sort of one of the benefits of having a pet in the first place, and that with all you’re experiencing now, it may not be the healthiest or even the safest place for her to live in right now. You mentioned, for example, that she was without food for 24 hours more than once – rabbits can die pretty quickly from not having enough food or water, especially hay. They can die from this much more quickly than other animals like dogs or cats.

As for bonking her on the noggin, well – I’d suggest never doing that again. For starters you might inadvertently harm her, but she also will come to see you as a threat and a predator, and may even resort to biting you out of annoyance or fear.

Otherwise, Sarita gave some great advice and I suggest following those tips.

Good luck!

If you are really committed to giving your bunny a better life, then you will need to make some changes to your routine. I understand that your schedule is hectic, but maybe some of the stress could be alleviated if you learned to manage your time better. You said you suffer from ADHD and it isn’t uncommon for people with ADHD to have time management issues. Even keeping a daily planner can help you stay focused on what needs to be done. If you make it a point to include your bunny in your daily schedule, then (as Sarita suggested) you will be able to get the important rabbit-care things out of the way so you know they are done and you don’t forget. Definitely multi-task with play time. Your bunny can run around while you are doing other things.

For regaining her trust, I would suggest making her interactions with you positive ones. Offer her a treat, hand feed her veggies, etc. Don’t try to grab her or pick her up. Just sit quietly and let her come to you. Bunnies always become curious sooner or later.