Holding my bunny without breaking our bond?

[I love bunnies!]

Hi! So my rabbit doesn’t like being picked up or pet, and I know bunnies are not known to like being held, but sometimes I have to becuse I need to pick her up to bring her to her cage. But that leads to another problem where i try to pick her up but she slips out of my arms and runs away. I’m afraid that if I grab her too hard we will loose our bond together. And also, when I do manage to pick her up she kicks in my arms. So I would really appreciate if anyone has any experience with trying to pick up your bunny without running away and being to harsh and hard, and how to easily get her into her cage. By the way, I’ve tried treats and they don’t work so I’m stumped. Thank you!

[Sirius&Luna]

Most bunnies don’t like being picked up, so avoid it where possible. It’s good to be able to pick them up, eg. to administer medicine or cut their nails, but you don’t want to create a situation where she’s always terrified of being picked up.You shouldn’t be scaring her multiple times a day.

Can you try to herd her into the hutch instead? When it’s time for my bunnies to go away, I put their evening veg in their hutch, and they go in, excited to get the snack. This means I don’t have to pick them up, and going back to their hutch isn’t a negative experience.

Someone recently got a lot of responses here that might be useful for you:
https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/164790/Default.aspx

[Heaven]

In my experience, taking small steps with Sam he’s gone from from sniffing me but running away if I pet him, to tolerating being pet next to me, to sitting on my lap to eat his veggies hand feeding has helped me a LOT with getting him comfortable approaching me. I even hand feed him hay!

Also second Sirius&Luna, I’ll save his serving of pellets or veggies when it’s time to go back in his cage. It also has the dual positive benefit of teaching him that he will be routinely put back in his cage if I go out, & therefore doesn’t resist it as much.

You said you tried treats & they don’t work? What method did you try? It often helps me to coax Sam nearer the cage with treats first rather than putting them straight inside.

[joea64]

I also try to pick up my own two as little as possible; coaxing them where I want to go with treats, or gently herding them/chivvying them in the right direction generally works well. Panda and Fernando are getting trained to know they should go into their cage in the mornings when it’s breakfast time and I’m preparing to leave the apartment to go to work. They’re starting to get pretty good about being in their condo on their own, or scamper inside when I gently shoo them in, but occasionally they’ll scoot into the big hidey box set up in the X-pen enclosure. That’s easy to fix, though, I just pick up the box and turn it sideways and herd them inside their condo. Rabbits have quite the highly developed sense of time, particularly when it comes to treats; P&F always congregate at the X-pen fence at 7:30 pm or thereabouts every night when it’s time for their evening snack!

[Muchelle]

I’ve trained my bun that if I am by his cage with my hand inside (from the upper opening) he’s getting a treat, so he immediately comes inside. It wasn’t a quick training and it took a lot of repetition (shake the treat bag, call him, get in position, give him treat), I started doing it when he was already inside and just chilling, then kept repeating over and over. He’s a smart guy so he soon knew that treat bag shake + me close to the cage = treat time.
I’m using sugar-less pellets with vitamins and a bit of fruit inside, so he can have a few of them without getting fat ^^

Maybe not an immediate solution to your problem, but you can think about it for the future

[Author]

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