RE: Why do my bunnies hate me?

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RE: Why do my bunnies hate me?

01/30/2017 at 5:09 PM

Danielle

Participant

13 posts

Were they with any other owners besides you, or have you had them since they were kits?

I think a lot of it comes down to personality and prior circumstances, especially if the animal is a rescue and/or came from bad prior circumstances.

I have more experience with guinea pigs, Finn is my first bun, but I feel like similar “prey animal” rules apply. None of my pigs enjoy being picked up and I’ve had them for varying amounts of time from 8 months to almost 4 months. 3 of them, I’m the only “mum” they’ve known and have been with me since they were young. 3 of them had prior homes, one of which I’m fairly certain either didn’t socialize the pig, or the more likely scenerio…handled him roughly. He is 3 and honestly was kind of feral when I adopted him. I’ve never had a pig actually turn on me violently until Gus. He’s taken a long time to even remotely trust that I am not going to harm him, and it’s limited to nose petting in the cage and short cuddle sessions. He runs and chatters his teeth angrily at me when I attempt to pick him up. The other two that came from a prior home were dumped at the feed supply store because their owners “didn’t want them anymore.” They are both extremely skittish, and it’s taken 4 months for them to willingly take food from me.

Basically, long story short…I do not think your buns hate you. They interact with you in their own way, ie the climbing on you and running around you. Prey animals just take a lot of time and patience to earn their trust, and even then…sometimes just merely being in your presence is about as close as some will get to.