Hi y’all. Just a quick update and a couple questions. After being home with us now for 3 weeks (and 2 days), Bumpy (holland lop about 14weeks old) is finally litter-trained, 100% pee and 90% poo! So now I’m not forced to invade his space so often. I have added romaine to his diet, and he gets mostly raisins as treats. I did try him on banana earlier on, but he didn’t seem impressed. Craisins he likes, but he totally goes nuts for raisins. I tried again yesterday with a small taste of banana and he thoroughly enjoyed it. He STILL hasn’t come out of his cage, I have not yet put down a surface that would be less scary though. My x-pen should be here tomorrow, and then I’ll roll out the carpet!
Since he hasn’t come out and is still new, I haven’t been handling him. I’ve literally only picked him up 3 times since he’s been here. He’ll come sit next to me on his ramp to get raisins (while I am also sharing with the two little dogs), and has let me stroke his head lightly, but after only a few strokes he turns and slow hops away when he’s figured out my hand isn’t holding a raisin. But, I’m concerned about grooming now. I figured I’d wait til the x-pen is in place before I forced the issue, let him come out to explore it, or make him come out and close his cage door so he HAS to be outside of it.
Does that sound ok? And once he is out, should I let a little time for him to adjust to the enlarged area before I attempt to groom him? He doesn’t appear to get stressed when I try to pet him, just doesn’t want to interact. Should I sit in the pen on the floor with raisins beside me? How long should I wait to try to force him?
I’m being very patient now (unbelievably), but once he starts shedding, I’ll need to be able to brush out that extra hair, and I would hate for that to be his first time being brushed. I know there will be a lot of hair at that point and grooming time would be longer than just a normal weekly touch up. I’m afraid that my lack of handling him, coupled with actual grooming will make him associate one with the other and make it something he hates. And I need to trim his nails! He digs in his crate, but I know at minimum that the back feet need to be done. I hate to just grab him, but I’m begining to think I’ll have to do so, if I want to keep him properly cared for.
Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!
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