First baby bunny owner

[Philippe.P]

Hi everyone. I have a few questions regarding bonding with my baby bunny and some of his behaviors.

You have to know it’s the second bunny I owned, but I rescued the last one when he was older so I feel like it’s different, a lot.

First the health question. My bunny seems to leave a lot of cecotropes on the floor. Il happens more often during the night is this something you had witness with your baby bunny ? Also I’ve had him for close to two weeks now and even though 80% of his poop are in the litter, he still leaves quite a few around is this something normal ?

My other questions are regarding bonding. The breeder sugested that I should handle him a lot, lift his up and everything caus otherwise he’s remain scared. Since I never owned a baby, I tough maybe younger bunny were young enough that they could indeed learn to love to be cuddle that way. Since I started this, I don’t feel like I’ve made lots of progress if not regress. I’m really looking foward to your experience and the process you guys went through.

My bunny doesn’t mind to be petted when he’s eating. He climbs on me to get his pellets and doesn’t mind to be petted but once there’s no more food he’s like scared ( ish). If I put my hand in from of him, he often lower his head which with my previous bunny meant he wanted to be petted. He often accepts a few pets but the either move his head, or move away but he doesn’t run in a scared way. He just moves and go either hide and sit away from me…. He gave me a few kisses here and there but not everyday, he seems to have his days. I don’t remember how the bond went with my previous one … You have to know I spend a lot of time sitting in his pen, like a lot. I study there, watch youtube and all. He doesn’t seem to curious, he comes when I have food, then he goes to his hiddey place. I often try to go give him a few pets here and there, but as I said, he’s like 50-50 liking it…

At this point I don’t know if I f-ed up too much trying to pick him up, or reaching out to him sometimes so he learns I’m not a treath, or maybe it’s just how bond goes and he’ll get less and less scared. In your opinion, should I completly stop petting him until et comes to me ? And continue to go in his pen ? And his pen is enormous, but should I let him out to go around, or does it fortifies the fact that he can go hide even further from me ?

 

I just looked and my previous bunny was letting me pet him quite easly 6-7 days after I had him. He flopped next to me and was ok with being petted… But he was older and maybe more accustomed to humain …

 

 

[Wick & Fable]

Cecotropes: If on a young rabbit diet (i.e., primarily alfalfa), excessive cecotrope production is not inherently concerning. Alfalfa is very nutrient dense, which is why we want younger rabbits on it so they grow properly. That being said, it can lead to them producing more cecotropes than they actually need, so them leaving many behind can be common. It becomes problematic in the cases of poopy butt, in which case you can switch off alfalfa hay, but stick with alfalfa pellets to retain a high amount of nutrients in daily diet: https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Cecotropes

Bonding: In my experience and in reviewing a lot of online rabbit community experiences, it is very much a myth that directly handling a rabbit since young will shape their agreeableness to handling later in life. What appears much more consistent to me is getting a rabbit to trust you (and human bodies/body language). This trust can be gained without interaction, and forcing interaction when unwanted is likely going to harm relations. Every rabbit will have their own threshold for handling tolerance, and what will get any owner to reach the “peak” of a rabbit’s specific threshold is going to be the rabbit’s trust with that owner, rather than how often they were handled.

Ultimately, he’s young and a couple forced interactions is not going to permanently scar him or anything like that. I’d forget what the breeder told you and just go to basics with “passive attention” and “ignoring” your rabbit and reacting to the body language and signals he’s giving you. If he approaches you, you can try a pet and see where it goes. It’s a learning experience for both of you, and you have the powerful tool of food on your side as well, so by baseline, you will at least always gain “brownie” points by being his source of food, haha.

Also, note that if he is indeed young (<6mo), his hormones are going to be a new experience for you that may include heightened territorialness of his space as he approaches puberty. If/when that comes, you will want to avoid reaching into his space and erring more towards giving him space as to not activate what are natural reactions to “invaders” of his territory.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

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