My bunny absolutely detests being carried/picked up too.The previous bunnies that I had were all the snuggly type, so I’m still not used to having a no-pick-up bunny yet. If you’ve read many of the threads around here, you would notice that generally people would say that bunnies don’t like being held. That said, of course there are snuggly exceptions and some bunnies do tolerate it better than others.

Kurotta kicks and squirms and even squeaks a little when we try to pick him up. Other than that, he is perfectly fine with EVERYTHING else. Every bunny’s personality is different – something that us as owners learn and accept Mid-February isn’t a long time so your bunny may not have adapted yet. Plus you got him at a rescue so he may have gone through some things that made him a little more reserved towards you.

Give yourself and give him some time to know each other better – I’m sure you’ll come to love him for who he is!

Hang in there Loppyflop! If you’ve only had him 6 weeks or so, it will take longer than that for him to warm up to you, especially if he’s a rescue & you’re not sure of his background. I second giving it some more time for him to love you & trust you.

Also as Kurotta says, many buns do not like being picked up at all. Mine will let you snuggle him for a while on the floor, but he will not tolerate being picked up. Rabbits are prey animals, so they prefer to have all 4 feet on their floor, or their instincts kick in & they think they’re being trapped by a predator.

Hi! Agree with the others that he probably just needs more time to settle in. However, if he does not like being picked up now, it is doubtful that he will ever like being picked up in the future. For now, it is best to not pick him up except in emergency situations because he might start running away from you or become fearful if he starts associating you with being picked up.

Your bun can show signs of affection without being picked up and carried around . Luna hates being picked up. But she follows me around, begs for pets and treats, lays next to me on the floor, runs circles around my feet when I come home from work, etc.

Following a neuter, there’s a hormonal spike that can erase/make litter training very difficult. You seem to be at a good mark that it’s probably started to regulate, so don’t give up litter training. Wick was a class A jerk following his neuter, but after a month or so he went back to usual.

And as stated above, a very small number of rabbits enjoy being picked up. Of those you see on social media sites, you’re probably witnessing mainly rabbits who tolerate being picked up since they know squirming would endanger them. Add on filters, effects, and priming from props and lighting and the cute caption on the photo, and we suddenly read the rabbit’s facial expression as happy, when that’s probably not true in majority of situations.

Wick is a rabbit who can be held without squirming for what I’ve experienced at least as long as 20min (had to keep him out of the way while maintenance was walking around the small apartment). He definitely does not like it though, and his tolerance resulted from very constant subjugation to being handled and forced to take a lot of medical interventions, like oral medications and shots from me. So… Stockholm syndrome? It’s not common for rabbits to like being held, and I don’t think it’s even a good way to interact with your rabbit in the first place! Hand feeding, occasional pets, etc are much better

Neither Panda nor Fernando really enjoys being picked up, and they’ll always kick a bit when it happens. They settle down once they’re securely held in my arms, but that being said, I always try to keep the occasions when I need to do so limited, generally to when I’m getting them into their carrier for one reason or another (or when I have to retrieve Fernando when he’s staged another of his “jailbreaks” ).

Honestly, the majority of bunnies do not enjoy being picked up. They tolerate it when it’s absolutely necessary, but they don’t enjoy it. They’re prey animals and that fear instinct kicks in when their feet leave the ground. Some bunnies also don’t like to be pet or snuggled. Some bunnies are very much a love from afar kind of bunny. I have one that loves laying next to me and leaning in for as many cuddles and kisses as I will give him, and I have another bunny who would much rather prefer I give him snoot rubs, at his request, not really much of a cuddler. It depends on your bunny and their personality. Instagram is, quite frankly, sometimes a facade. You let people only see the good things. You have high expectations for you bunny. Let him warm up to you on his time schedule, not yours. If he ends up never wanting cuddles, then don’t force it on him. Don’t force pets, cuddles, or picking up on him. It’ll only teach him to fear you. Stop holding him if he doesn’t like it, and only pet him as long as he wants.

Don’t believe everything you see on Instagram or Youtube. Videos can be cropped to the best parts, and you can take a 1000 photos to get the perfect shot. Both of mine hate being picked up, but i can make them look like the most well trained snuggle bunnies anyone ever come across 

Rabbits are not a snuggle pet — its a bit like getting a Goldfish expecting to take it for a walk. Hence why they are more an adult pet as you need a ton of patience! Myrtle is still weary of me and I have had her nearly 3 months. Finn has started trusting me more now, yet when i got him he hated me. I have had him since July last year. So it takes a while.

The key thing is to lay down either while they are out, or in their pen and allow them to explore you. DO NOT reach out to grab them unless you have too. Just allow them to sniff you, jump on you and so on. Its not that they hate you, its more to do with the fact that they are independent.

Most of the more tame bunnies are older rabbits. Hence why i love older bunnies 

I use a small velour blanket to pick up the bunny. Wrap her up like a lil burrito and cuddle her..When she gets tired of it, she kicks up and it’s put me back in the bunny run. Sometimes it’s 5 minutes and sometimes 20 minutes

Here’s what it looks like, crappy pic, trying to cuddle and shoot the pic.