Settling into a new home

[Jo]

I moved house about a month and a half ago, with my dogs and rabbit.  Bluebell (rabbit) hasn’t seemed to settle in well at all.  Previously it was just my friend and I with our dogs, and Bluebell.  Now we are living in a house with three more people and another dog.  It’s quite a bit noisier in this house, what with there being more people around and all.

She has her own room, and places to hide and climb in there.  The big difference is that in  our previous house we had exposed floorboards throughout the house whereas this house is carpeted.  She is so much more jumpy here, and has started to get really territorial.  We were wondering if the carpets make her feel less safe becasue she can’t hear when people are coming in.  (apart from the obvious thing of settling into a new house with new people and a new dog)

She is spayed, and has definitely placed herself as Queen, but she was kind of treating us as equals on the whole… even grooming us from time to time.  Now she charges if we go near her and has boxed a couple of times, as well as the odd nip here and there.  She wasn’t doing this before, and so we were wondering if you have any advice??

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Bunnies have a hard time with change. My suggestion would be to get into the best routine you can think of. If you have no control over your surroundings (like animals don’t) then it’s easier to cope with that if you have a routine. Give her her privacy and lots of spots to hide. She’s likely boxing because she feels a bit insecure. Approach her slower when you think she’s going to box, and maybe even play a radio during the day for company to relax her.

[Jo]

those are some good ideas – thanks! Yeah we figured it might be that she was just feeling a bit insecure. Poor baby hehe!

[Gravehearted]

it can be hard for bunnies when their home changes. It’s good that she has her own space – but may actually need some kind of home base. did she have a pen or cage before you moved? it might be that she’s feeling her territory is so large that she can’t protect it. since it sounds like she’s having some aggression around her boxes – it sounds to me like she is feeling somewhat insecure. you may consider putting her cage back in – even if it’s open all the time, so she has a space that feels like hers exclusively.

i agree with Kokaneeandkahlua about giving her lots of hidey-spots and trying to get some amount of daily routine for her.

[Jo]

yeah she has a cage and has always had a cage in her room. We found that was important for her.

We thought about the cage thing actually, since posting here… and wondered if maybe it would be worth trying what we did when we first got her – having her shut in her cage for a little while til she feels secure in the room and then let her be out all the time after a while. So we’ve gone back to putting her in her cage overnight and it seems to be working pretty well!

She has even been putting herself ‘to bed’ in her cage when it gets dark lol, so I think maybe that is helping a lot. She seems much more settled and less aggressive already.

I’ll keep you posted.

[Jo]

Oh and yeah, we do have a daily routine already because we know how important that is. I think the putting her to bed each night for now is a good addition to the routine… adds a little bit of extra structure on top of the already existing one?

[Author]

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