Handling Bunny

[Tay]

How did you get your buns used to being held? Charlie used to let me hold her when we first got her and now freaks out every time I try to pick her up. It’s not a big deal at home but the vet said I need to work on getting her comfortable with being held because she was terrible at her appointment – they couldn’t do anything because she wouldn’t let them hold her. 

They said to pick her up and give her a treat but she’s so mad when I pick her up that she won’t even take a treat. Any suggestions? 

[Azerane]

That seems strange to me, it’s a vet’s job to be able to handle an animal to give them a check up, even if they are scared and trying to escape. That’s why they and the nurses are there to handle the animal. I agree that it’s not easy to train since my rabbits also refuse treats when picked up/carried. I suppose just practice at home, picking her up a few cm off the ground for 3 seconds before putting her immediately down again and giving her a treat after she’s back on the ground. As she gets used to that you can increase the length of time she’s off the ground and how high you lift her.

What was your vet trying to check? I would be questioning their ability if they can’t do a basic check on a rabbit because it can’t be held.

[Tay]

so may have not worded t the best. They were able to hold her but when they tried to weigh her she tried to run (which i think seems to be somewhat common), and she would not let them hold her to clip her nails. The tech had a hard time holding her which made me nervous, but the vet was very rabbit savvy and knew how to hold her – she just kept trying to jump. She was pretty stressed from the car so I told them if they thought she would be stressed trying to jump away to just not do it.
I don’t need her to love being held but it would make things much easier if she would let me hold her to move her from place to place in the house and if I could hold her to do her nails.

[Theodorusrex]

I had this problem when I first adopted Theo – he wouldn’t tolerate being held at all. We did manage to train him to tolerate it – and now he will even lick our faces when we hold him.
We started by touching his belly for as long as he would tolerate and rewarding him with a treat. After he started to become okay with that we starting touching his belly and putting upward pressure on him as if we were going to lift him and rewarding him with a treat. We continued this positive reinforcement for the first couple of weeks. Then I would place a towel gently over his head to calm him and bunny burrito him before picking him up. This helped him be less stressed and feel more secure. We did this for another few weeks once a day, always rewarding him with a treat. After this we progressed to picking him straight up without the towel. For the first few times he would kick etc but always once he was up and secure we gave him a treat. We kept practicing with him everyday for I would say maybe 4 months and now a further 8 months down the line he actually likes being picked up. This has helped us a great deal as we have had to syringe feed him and give medication a few times in the past few months and this would have been impossible without the training we put in. It also helps the vet to get a good look at him and he tends to remain calm when the nurses handle him now.

I hope this helps and good luck! It’s a long process but worth it. Truth is, most rabbits will never enjoy being handled but most can learn to tolerate it for a short time- long enough to be examined by a vet or administered food/medication etc

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