Scared of strangers…

[BodieBun]

Hi everyone!

Just want to say thanks for all the advice on this forum – it’s been invaluable. We adopted Bodie back in April when he was 7 months old; for the first month he was a really nervy wee guy; scared of everything. This wasn’t helped when he had complications with his neutering….so back and forth to the vet for a week 

Fast forward to now and he’s a content wee guy and has really bonded with my partner and I. We get binkies, flops and kisses all the time. He’s happy to get nose rubs (on his terms, of course) but less than happy to be picked up – we’re working on that though. (he seems more irritated by it than scared…or he thinks it’s a game). We don’t want to pick him up for our benefit – we just want to make sure that he doesn’t completely freak out when it has to happen, e.g. nail clipping, ear check etc. He thumps probably every day – anything from being scared of the noise of tinfoil to being irritated that my partner is speaking too much (he has quite a deep voice so we think that’s maybe it). But all in all, he’s a happy little boy. 

Our flat is pretty small but he has free roam in the living room – he has an open cage in there set up as his safe space; and we let him into the bedroom for a bigger runaround in the evenings. Our issue is that he’s really scared of strangers. When anyone else comes into the living room, he instantly bounds into his cage, darts back and forth, then sits in the back corner and thumps. My partner’s parents were round last week and this happened – they persevered and just carried on chatting…Bodie continued to thump but my partner said that after 45 mins or so, the thumps quietened down and he looked more irritated than scared. After an hour he stopped thumping completely and just loafed in his cage. We’re not bothered by the thumping – it’s not that we find it irritating…we just don’t want him to be terrified if guests come in. The reality is, we’re going to sporadically have people over – we don’t need him to be his typical loafy, binkying self with other people – if he wants to stay in his cage and thump, we’re ok with that; we just don’t want him to be terrified and are hoping people had advice on that.

We’d like to socialise him to get him more used to other people, but I really have no clue where to start…do we just have people round and hope Bodie will get used to it, or are there other strategies?

Any tips greatly appreciated! 

*Edit based on responses*

[Asriel and Bombur]

to be honest, I wouldn’t socialize him. If it stresses him out, it’s best to just let him go to his cage and do his own thing. Some bunnies just don’t like new people, and trying to get them used to it will just add unnecessary stress. Yes, I get that the thumping can be annoying. If Bombur smells something weird he goes off on a thumpage. My Asriel isn’t a people bunny, not really with a whole ton and certainly not with newcomers. It’s just how he is. Bunnies can be incredibly shy, and if he took a while for you to earn his trust, he’s not going to be very outgoing with other people. It’s not something you can train into him to not be scared of people, it’s just a part of his personality you might just have to accept.

I’d also stop picking him up unless it’s an absolute emergency. Bunnies in general don’t enjoy being picked up, so it’s understandable he’s irritated, not thinking of it as a game. Some bunnies have seriously injured their backs by kicking while being picked up and handled, so it really isn’t necessary to do it unless there’s an emergency. If you need to carry him somewhere, using his litter box is the safest way to do it.

[Yilina]

Hi! You have such a cute little bunbun! It is completely normal that he’s scared of guests at the beginning. It happened with our Tambor as well, and still does if it’s somebody that he doesn’t know yet.

What we did to make him more comfortable is, at the beginning, to place him somewhere far from where the guests were (even in another room). Then, next time they came, we approached him more. When you feel he’s getting better, make the guests give him treats or his favourite thing (in our bunny’s case to be petted) so that he links the idea of guests with good things.

It worked wonders with Tambor. We’ve had him for 2 years (he was also a rescue) and he’s super comfortable with guests now. We even joke now that Tambor believes to be the alpha of our friends, as all of them have had to pet him and show submission to be accepted to our flat XD.

[kurottabun]

As long as your guests don’t try to do anything scary (like picking him up or trying to grab him etc), I think he can be trained to accept strangers more, albeit maybe just to a certain extent. The rest of it really depends on his personality

Also, I’d like to point out that it’s only been about 5 months since April that you got him, and some bunnies take a far longer time to adapt to a new environment (or people). Give Bodie some time. I got Kurotta when he was 7 months old as well back in March, and it’s only recently that he would approach strangers on his own. He has a curious personality but it did take him months to do that.

Like Yilina said, you could start by placing him in another room when you have guests over. Set up a barrier in the doorway but leave the room door open so that he does hear the noises, but only at a distance. He needs to know that human voices are not threats so make sure he is in a safe environment without any strangers trying to approach him (if anyone tries to touch him it might reinforce his belief that strangers = threat). Then take it at his pace and work it from there slowly. If the situation does not improve after a fair amount of time, then you might have to accept that it’s just his personality like what A&B mentioned.

For the picking up part, have you tried different ways of picking him up? Kurotta kicks and squirms like crazy (sometimes he even lets out a squeak) when we try to pick him up by scooping his rear with one hand and holding his chest/front paws with another. He HATES that method. So we found a way that doesn’t freak him out – doing a quick scoop and then immediately pressing all four of his paws against our chest, firmly holding him there until it’s time to put him back down. It makes so much difference and we use that all the time now with no protest from the little one (unless you hold him way past the duration he’s comfortable with).

That said, again it might work for my bun but not yours – so you’ll have to test it out and if Bodie doesn’t take to it then you’ll have to accept that’s just how his personality is

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