My Rabbit Has Problems

[DaisyBun]

Hello everybody! I’ve had Daisy, and English spotted rabbit cross (I don’t really know what kind of cross she is, I got her from a farm store when she was a few weeks old), and I have a raised her outside her whole life. She is used to humans and she loves cuddling and she doesn’t really mind when we pick her up and she gets tons of greens and is cared well for, but she does not like coming out of her shell. I’m not really sure if she’s 100% litter trained, only because in the shop/shed where she’s been housed had a few droppings here and there. She has a medium size cage which she can go into anytime with shavings and she pees in one corner, which is what I expect of her, and we even tried having her very own litter box but I’ve always been sketched out about rabbit litter because people have always given bad reviews to it on Amazon. She’s a very good rabbit and she loves animals, she also had a sister that passed sadly and ever since she’s been acting a little weirder. It’s not because of her sister passing, it is because she’s used to social interaction with another animal and she doesn’t get the same kind of interaction from dogs so I decided to move her inside to my room. It’s only been a few days inside my room and I decided to ditch the cage and just laid out a blanket with her litter box and greens and her food and water and a box for her to go if she wants to feel safe. The only problem is, she doesn’t want to interact with me and she doesn’t come out to pee or poop in the litter box I just don’t know how to get her out of her box without making her feel unsafe. All I’m asking is if someone has me tips for me to bond her to me. I love her very much and I don’t want to have to give her to a family who has the effort for her, I do online school so I have plenty of time to socialize with her and give her as much love as she wants but I don’t want to make her feel unsafe or mad. Any tips help!

Also, she runs around our yard daily and eats greens there. She’s healthy and very cute!!

[Sirius&Luna]

I think it would be helpful if she still had a cage in your room, even if the door is always open. It really helps rabbits to feel secure if they have a space that is their own, with all their stuff in it. A whole room can be quite overwhelming for a shy bunny at first.

If you sit on the floor, eventually she’ll come out to investigate. She’s probably just a bit disoriented by the move. You could also try scattering treats over the floor to see if that would entice her out, but it’s still quite recent since the move, so it could just be that. Also what’s your flooring like? Some bunnies struggle with slippery flooring, so putting rugs down if it’s tiles or shiny wood might help.

As for litter, it really helps to litter train them if there’s a separate substance in the litter tray. I use paper based pellets (back2nature, which I think are Yesterdays News in the US) that are great, and lots of people use non-clumping pine pellets too.

[DaisyBun]

Last night went really well! She loves boxes, so I gave her one of those, and she slept in it. I also just put a wide and thin bin with shavings in a corner and she pooped/peed in there, which worked perfectly. I’ll try to find pellets at my local farm store for her litter. She ended up tipping her food bowl over at around 2am which woke me up, and began getting naughty. I sat down next to her and pet her and she sat on my lap and then I went back to bed. I had to cage her because she kept trying to get into things and I was too tired to keep an eye on her, so i’ll probably put her in a cage at night but during the evening when she comes inside, she can hop around her area. Thank you so much!!

[Author]

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