When will she come around?

[dragonzmyst]

Hi, everyone.

I just adopted a 3 year old female French lop.  I rescued her from an environment that wasn’t good for her — she was outside all the time in a coop with no steady access to people or even sunshine or other animals.  She’d been there from birth, so I guess you can say she had 3 years in a solitary confinement situation.   We’ve had her for about a month now.

Anyway, she has her own room in our house, really nice, expensive hay and timothy pellets that she loves, fresh greens daily, water, love, attention, toys galore.  She’s super sweet and has a lovely personality, but she’s so very reserved.  I taught her how to play with toys and now she does throw them around from time to time, but mostly she just keeps to herself.  We spend a large amount of time each day interacting with her — we play with her, pet her, hand feed her. She doesn’t get upset when we touch her, pettings are allowed as well as hand feeding her dandelion leaves.

Sometimes I see progress like she’s becoming more outgoing, and then a week later, it looks like she’s regressing.  The gate that cordons off her room leads to the living room, and we leave it open but she won’t come out (she used to investigate, but not anymore). 

I wonder if she’s socially stunted b/c of her previous life.  It doesn’t matter, she’s ours forever now, but I’m just wondering if you think she will continue to improve with time or is this the best I can expect from her? 

I’ve never owned a rabbit before so I’m not sure what to expect.  Thanks so much for any input. 

[Gina.Jenny]

Our first rescue rabbit came from a bad situation, and she never really fully recovered, but I think she was happy with us in her own way. She was never curious, never playful, and meticulous about routine, to the point where I wondered if she was autistic. She did allow some minimal petting, but always remained quite aloof. She loved to be out in the garden, preferably with her back to the wind, and she also liked to be out in the rain.

Our second rescue, Gina was a much more active bunny, but it took 8 months of gentle care before she allowed us to pet her.

Our third rescue, Jenny, needed a lot of care after her spay, and so got more used to being handled, and enjoys ear rubs, but not being picked up, or held on a lap.

Our fourth rescue is fairly friendly, and if he is in the mood, will sink down on the floor beside one of us, inviting lengthy ear rubs and back strokes.

Each bunny is different, you may find she doesn’t change much, like our first rescue, or that she warms to you over time, which could be weeks, or months.

[dragonzmyst]

Thanks, Gina.Jenny…I really appreciate you taking the time to respond and share your experiences with me.  I’ll continue to give her time (that’s all we have at this point anyway) and see how she reacts.  I find I get disheartened when I see her looking as though she’s making progress socially only to become skittish again the following week.  But I’m sure it’s a huge adjustment for her, being around people and having other pets in the vicinity that weren’t there before. 

Wishing you the very best with your newest rescue! 

[Bam]

Thank you for taking her in!

My bunny Bam was an adult when I found him, and it took him a year to warm up to his new situation. I’m guessing he’d been sitting in a smallish cage before he was dumped in the woods, because he just sat under the coffea table and didn’t move around much. He didn’t like to be touched and he’d only come out to take a treat, then run away to his safe place under the table again. It changed though. He’s very cuddly now. He really is the sweetest rabbit, I suspect he was dumped because he got fur mites and the owner didn’t want to spend money on a vet visit. He’s a bit of a slow learner but animals that have been caged without much enrichment or company tend to become very passive, they don’t get any reward for trying things so they stop trying. It’s very sad.

If she’s intact, the swings in her behavior could possibly be due to hormonal swings. But it could also be a part of a normal learning-curve. When we mammals learn new things we do it in leaps. It can even seem like it’s going in the wrong direction at times, like you’re not only back to square 1 but on square -3, but then it starts going forward again, and that’s just how the brain processes new things. I think you primarily need to give her time. She’s getting such good care now, now she just needs to learn what it’s like to be a member of a family.

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