Help my rabbit is hiding in a corner and won’t come out

[olliesmama]

Hi, this is my first post and unfortunately, it’s because of a serious concern of mine. My rabbit, Ollie, is just a little over a year old. I just graduated college two days ago so today I brought all of my furniture and belongings home. (Ollie was not at school with me, he was already at my permanent home.) I brought my bedframe upstairs so I could set up my bed and they were clanging together and Ollie got very scared. I tried to be as careful as I could but one of the metal bedframes fell against Ollie’s cage and it made A LOT of noise. (Ollie wasn’t in his cage, but he was kind of near it.) This scared Ollie so much that he jumped up and ran into the wall. Then he squeezed himself into a tiny space between my wall and hamper. Then he moved to the corner of the wall and thumped continuously before moving back to the space between the hamper and the wall. I have never seen Ollie this scared and I’m very concerned. I don’t know if he hurt himself when he ran into the wall and that’s making me nervous. He has been in that small space for about an hour or so now and has not come out. I turned my bedroom light off and put the hallway light on and the tv on low to try to calm him. I don’t know if I’m hearing things or if he is quietly chattering his teeth, which I know in this situation would mean a bad thing. Do rabbits chatter their teeth when they’re scared or does it mean he’s hurt?? He’s peaked his head up a few times but has not made any other movements. I’ve tried to talked to him softly to calm him down but I do not know what else to do. Please help!!!I

I’m scared to try to pet him because I do not want to scare him anymore than he already is. On a normal day, he does usually let me pet him but he is not a very cuddly bunny. He hates to be held. Should I just let him be and wait until he comes out on his own? What if he does not come out? When should I begin to treat this as a serious (in need of emergency care) situation???

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!!

[Mikey]

Rule of thumb: bring the bunny out of room when making loud noises and/or let bunny get babysat at a close, quiet friend’s/family’s house while you move. Stress can kill a rabbit, so you want to make moving as least stressful as possible

Try to bribe him into his cage with treats, greens, pellets, ect. It might be best if you lay a few feet outside of where he is hiding and talk to him softly. Read a book to him in a soft voice, tell him about your day, really anything. Having you nearby talking in a soft voice and food to bribe might help him realize there is no threat. If he comes out, dont reach for him. When he comes out, slowly bribe him into his cage. Once hes in his cage, close up that hiding spot and any others you can see. While doing this, monitor him. Is he still tooth grinding? Thumping? Ect. If he is, check him over. If hes not, monitor him for the next day or two just to be sure

Teeth grinding is one of two things: hes either purring or hes in pain. You cant really tell unless you see his face (winced/glossy/ect eyes = pain; normal eyes = purring). If hes chattering because hes hurt, youll first want to check out his teeth to make sure none of chipped

For what its worth, its not uncommon for one of my rabbits to faceplant the walls from being too excited while running around (physically disabled + cant always balance correctly while running). Hes never had a problem and usually gets right back up to start binkying and running round again

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