New baby bunny

[Philippe.P]

Hi yall, me again. Three days ago I just got my new baby bunny. I named him junior.

Unfortunatly, I lost my Maui to due to a big fracture… Operation here in Canada would have been more than 3000$ which I could not afford …

But Junior is my first baby bunny since I adopted Maui from a shelter when he was older.

Few questions here: I’ve heard lots of story about bonding and picking him up. Some people say you have to handle him a lot and he’ll get used to it, but I feel like it could be a double sidded knife. I prefer to sit next to him, not reach and let him come to me.

When he does come close and snif around, I try to gently pet him on the forehead, he seems to not be so sure be appreciate at the same time. If he doesn’t run away I guess it’s not a bad sign ? Or is it too soon and should I only sit there for a few more days witouth touching him?

Also, he has quite a big pen. Something like 25-30 squared foot. But he looks outside often. My previous bunny was free roamed, and Junior will be eventually. But, the place where I took him suggest that I wait somewhere around a month before trying to getting him out of the pen. According to her, it will be easier to create a bond inside the pen where he cannot run away very far. Well not only that but exploring the whole appartment would be way funnir than sitting around a strange giant no ? What do you think ?

Today, he was so cute that I could let the pen closed. So I opened the pen and let him run. Of course I want to wait for him to be clean before free roaming him, but when I can watch, I feel comfortable to let him run around. But will he feel sad that he sometime can round around, and that sometime he’s confine in his pen ? If yes, I’ll just wait until he’s ready to free roam 🙂 But once he got back in the pen, he ran to the litter and pied, I was so proud :’)! Only day 3 and almost all the pee in the litter, he’s such a big boy <3

So I’m waiting for your insights on this 🙂

Thanks yall!

Philippe and Junior <3

[talesOfTybalt]

Hi Philippe and Junior 🙂

If he’s hesitant about petting or human contact, I would spend some time in his pen just letting him feel your presence and get used to you – if he’s not running away when you pet him that’s great he probably just needs a bit of time to settle into his new home and understand his surroundings. Even just spending time around him doing your own thing will let him learn to trust you and once you’ve worked your way up to confidently petting him you can try picking him up.

I think it’s fine to have a pen set up for him because that can be his “home base” even if he is free roaming – it’s nice for him to have his own space the same way we have spaces like our bedrooms. It also doesn’t need to be an all or nothing situation so don’t feel bad if he has playtime around the apartment and you have to put him back in his pen after. I used to do this with my bunny when he was younger and even now he chooses to go inside his pen on his own to sleep. That’s good he’s using his litter box already! Just beware that as he’s a baby, when puberty hits his litter habits might not be as good and the hormones might make him a little wild so you may not feel as comfortable letting him go everywhere in the apartment especially when you’re sleeping and can’t keep an eye on him.

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