How to handle bunny

[Hannasue]

So, i have an almost 9 week old bunny i got her at 7 weeks. For the past two weeks everyday i try to be with her at least 4 hours a day. I have discovered what i am aloud and not aloud to do. I can feed her pellets. I can change her water and clean her cage while she is inside. (As long as she can sniff my dustpan down first of course) now heres my problem. I want her to know being picked up is a-ok. However she will not let me pet her if she does its rare.(if i cant touch her its hard to ya know lift her off the ground) I emailed her previous owner and she said “just hold her a lot”. So i tried. I was able to pick her up for 3 days in a row each day she lost a bit more trust in me. So today i put it aside and gave her some new toys and hand fed her alot. My question is what should i do. Do i get more aggersive with trying to hold her maybe try more fequently, or do i do it maybe once every week or once every two weeks. I want her to be happy but at the same time i dont want her to be terrified of the vet.
Thanks guys

[jerseygirl]

Being a prey animal, I think becoming more aggressive with trying to hold her will make it worse. Your relationship with her is still new and you’ll really want to continue to build her trust in you.
I would actually train her to hop into a carrier. That way you can get her into it with less trouble when it’s time to go to the vet. If you have a top opening carrier, it’s not too hard to pick them up out of that onto the examining table.

[Hannasue]

Thanks! Thats an awesome idea. I’ll work on trust building step by step glad to hear theres alternatives!

[ThorBunny]

I agree that you should focus on building trust rather than trying to pick her up! Spending time with her is definitely good. I would spend time with her, and only pet her when she wants, forgetting about picking her up for now. If you get more aggressive she will continue to associate you with bad things.

My bun also hates to be picked up, so we just never do it. She is trained to hop in her carrier (she gets a treat), and we use this to get her onto the table for grooming and going to the vet. In a pinch we can also lure her onto a towel, wrap her in a tight hammock, and pick her up this way. The vet showed us the towel technique, it works really well but you have to make sure they are contained so they can’t jump out mid lift and hurt themselves.

In general though, we only pick her up for emergencies and transport, we never do this for practice. This way she trusts us more, since we are usually the source of only food and pets It might be counter intuitive, but the more she trusts you, the easier it will be to pick her up in the long run.

[Hannasue]

Thanks I appreciate the ideas

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