Did you recently get the male rabbit?

The nervousness may be stemming from a new rabbit. Even if you were not actively bonding them yet, she most likely immediately sensed and smelled once he entered her space. If you have been trying to pick her up every day to put her in a shared run for bonding, I can definitely imagine she’d want to run away from you now — while we have good intentions when trying to bond rabbits, it is very often a pretty stressful experience for two rabbits to work out a relationship.

There is a template created by BB Forum Leader DanaNM which can give us a better idea of the dynamic between the two. If you’d like some guidance on bonding, it would be helpful to have that information. You’ll find it pinned at the top of the BONDING forum section. Depending on how this topic progresses, I may move it over to that forum section, but we’ll leave it here for now!

So yes, my inkling is that nervousness stems from the male rabbit. Remember that even if they are not physically together, rabbit senses are crazy good.

For regaining her trust, I’d say just continue carrying on as you do, keeping in mind that every time you approach her, try not to limit it to only times you pick her up.

I agree with Wick. This probably has nothing to do with you (“personally”) or the fact she is deaf. Sensing an unfamiliar rabbit is enough to put a bunny of edge. In fact, there have even been stories of a bonded pair suddenly fighting because a new bunny was brought home.

Agree with other’s that her nervousness was likely due to the smell of the new rabbit! I actually just had something similar happen with my rabbit Myra. We are fostering another rabbit, so she has been kind of on edge already. Then I had left a cat bed in an area that was close to her condo door (actually to block her line of sight to the new rabbit), and for whatever reason she became terrified of my husband! Any move he made would spook her. I had no idea what was going on until I noticed the bed. Moved it somewhere else and she was back to normal. So yes, rabbits are very smell oriented!

It sounds like your bonding process is coming along well given that they are calm and laying near each other. The only thing I might do is start swapping litter boxes or cages every day or two. This can help the rabbits get REALLY used to each other’s scents and lose track of who’s territory is who’s. This might help with her nervousness too (although she might be MORE nervous for a couple days).