Need advice human-rabbit bonding

[ktrab3296]

Hi everyone,

Long time lurker, I just adopted my first rabbits after researching for over a year. I think I may have gotten in over my head. I adopted a bonded mother daughter pair of rabbits that have been in a small cage for most of their life. They are 2 and 2.5 years old and are inseparable.They live in a converted rabbit room and have free roam of the house when I am here but they prefer staying in their room. I have had them for a couple months and nothing I can do seems to make them warm up to me. They run immediately upon seeing me, do not like any contact. They wont even accept treats, as I have to leave it on the ground and walk away. I have a lot of patience I just don’t know how to continue from here. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Terra]

I’m sorry to hear about your situation. Do you know their history before you adopted them? If they were in a traumatic situation they may have a residual fear of humans, even though you’ve done nothing wrong yourself.

Do you spend time just sitting quietly on the floor in their room? If you’re able to do that for a while every day, maybe reading or using your phone but not doing anything in particular to get them to interact with you, that would allow them to feel like things are progressing on their terms.

[Nutmeg]

Hi Ktrab3296 – I am so sorry to hear that, and can understand your frustration and sadness.
It doesn’t sound like they had the best life before you adopted them… that means they are going to take longer than most to get over that – same as when you adopt any other abused animal… and for them, living in a small cage was horrible.

I will also suggest the same as Terra – Sit on the floor in the room with them and just IGNORE them. Read a book, play on your phone, watch a movie… let them come up and sniff at you (may take a few times) but don’t react and don’t even try to pet them yet.
Then slowly start having food for them with you… start by putting it on the ground closer to you and work at getting it closer and closer…

Please know that its not you – they are just scared. Even when a bunny lunges or tries to bite, its because they are scared.

It’s just going to take time and lots and lots of patience.
And at the end of the day, just know, you are giving them a WAY better life then they would have had with out! So good job!

[ktrab3296]

Thanks so much for both of your advice! I had not thought of that before as I thought my presence just freaked them out too much. From what I understand they came from a bad home and have been cage bound for most of their life. I will give it some more time and see if they can eventually get used to my presence!

[kurottabun]

In addition to what the others have said, you can also try limiting their space for now. I’m not sure how big the rabbit room is, but sometimes bunnies are more keen to explore in a smaller space because they may feel intimidated by a big one. The given space shouldn’t be as small as a single cage, but more like a pen or maybe half the room.

[Author]

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