The Beginners Guide to How to get your bunny rabbit to bond with you.
Some bunnies it is very easy to bond with them. But others it can take a bit of time, weeks, months even. Our sweet bunny came from a home where she was very neglected and we kind of in hesitated her by accident. We knew absolutely NOTHING about bunnies. Luckily I have a friend who is very knowledgable about bunnies and helped correct us in the error of our ways LOL. We really are grateful to her. Now our sweet button finally is happy and she trusts us completely.
It took Button over a year to trust us, especially men. Her prior owners just ignored her days at a time and the boys bullied and picked on her. It was very sad and for so long she did not like us. We just were patient and showed her love when ever we could. My oldest daughter is the one who truly got through to her first then one by one she has let each of us “into her circle of trust”. How did we get this poor sweet girl to trust us you ask?? I will tell you what we did and I am sure with patients and love it will work for you. Probably much faster.
In most cases it takes a week or a few weeks, in extreme cases like ours it took well-over a year. Animals are just like us, they need to know they are loved and wanted and they deserve to be treated with love, kindness, and attention. If you can’t do that DON’T get one and the bond will never be there. If you can, well then, you can totally get your bunny to love you so much!
1. Use a soft kind voice
Now that your sweet bunny is getting use to its new home, it is important that you treat it gently. By nature, rabbits have an extensive sense of hearing. If you don’t want your bunny to shy away as much, you’ll need to make sure you keep your voice low and soft around it.
In fact, many owners of bunnies have reported that their bunnies seemed to respond positively to you speaking to them by jumping up, purring, and licking their owners. It is also worthy to note that bunnies are sensitive animals and can often sense how we, humans, are feeling. This means that if you talk in loud angry voices, this can/will frighten them and scare them away so keep you voice sweet and soft.
2. Let Your Bunny Rabbit Come to You
You should never force your attention onto your bunny, or any other pets for that matter. Pets may become agitated and irritated if you try to force your love onto them. Like you and I we are often just like that, sometimes we just want to be alone.
The best way to familiarize your bunny with you as their new owner is simply by being present and patient enough. Bunnies (and other pets) are curious creatures by nature, if you simply sit in an enclosed room with them and are patient, your rabbit would most likely come to you with no extra prompting, this is what my husband had to do for over a year. He would try and give her treats and pet her and she would growl at him, even nipped at him several times. He learned he needed to just go out there and be by her and he’d have a treat in hand in hopes she’d come to him and not growl or nip. Eventually she finally did. Now she loves him.
If you’re comfortable laying down in a room with your rabbit, you’ll often find that they’ll end up hopping over you and exploring their surroundings. For a prey animal like a rabbit – that truly is a gesture of trust.
3. Hold your bunny rabbit properly
Hold your rabbit properly and bear in mind that rabbits generally dislike being held. However our bunny seems to love it now, so you never know. Usually rabbits are ground-dwelling animals who naturally fear being lifted from the ground by predators. Lifting and holding should be kept to a minimum, for most bunnies. Although they don’t like to be picked up, most rabbits do desire physical affection. Most find petting, snuggling, nuzzling, and sitting companionably beside each other pleasurable activities, but again some bunnies like mine don’t mind being held at all.
4. Know who your bunny is
Just like us we need to know our bunnies personalities and how to best handle them based on their personalities. You handle certain friends certain ways, same with your animals.
Outgoing rabbits will easily adapt to new environments, it will be less effort to make them trust you.
Funny rabbits love attention and will play games with you. If your bunny does these things, they probably already trust you!
Shy rabbits will be more nervous when you approach them, but normally come around with time, if you follow the advice in this article.
Scared rabbits will run away from you, you’ll need to use a gentler approach to get scared rabbits to trust you. Rather than approaching your rabbit, put a big emphasis on being patient with your rabbit here.
Withdrawn rabbits, that is, rabbits who do not seem to act “naturally” are often ill. You’ll need to get them to a vet before even thinking about how to get them to trust you!
Aggressive rabbits show gestures of hostility towards you or other rabbits. Since the behavior is usually caused by hormones, you’ll fine that bonding your bunny with another rabbits will often improve the aggression. Furthermore, it may be time for your rabbit to be de-sexed. You can find out more about the right time to de-sex your rabbit here.
5. Living Environment
When we first got our bunny she was a big fat bunny in a small wire cage, wire all the way around the cage. Again I knew nothing and growing up bunnies I knew had similar cages out side. Little did I know that this was a terrible place for a bunny, yes there was a time I was truly this clueless and again we never planned to have bunnies. Thanks to my friend who in a very round about way told us Um this cage sucks and its cruel to put a bunny in here you need a better HOME for her. LOL she didn’t word it like that but that was the underlining message in a loving way lol. The picture of the cage home is great for inside. The Chicken coop one is what we use for Button outside.
We immediately got her a new home one more like a chicken coop, and well surprise, surprise she loved it! We do keep her out side but in the winter we wrap the sides with a tarp so the wind doesn’t get her and she has an electric heated bed (like you see in the pic below) that she loves.
Now here is something interesting, the bottom of the cage was just dirt, she kept digging her way out, so we tried putting chicken wire on the bottom on the dirt she ate through it twice! and again dug her way out. We moved the cage on to harder ground put the wire again on the dirt and thought we had it covered, well after a while we noticed she was gone. She dug throw the wire, through the hard ground and was gone. Well by the end of the day she was back and eating in her cage. No idea where she was during the day. Well turns out the kids who take care of her noticed she was doing it again but didn’t stop her for days. Later we discovered that she had been digging a burrow in the rocks in our yard. She we realized at night while we slept she was working on a second home! A burrow. If you don’t want the bunny getting out make sure the house has a good solid floor like the picture above that look like a chicken coop.
Well for the last year we have allowed her to have both her homes. She now romes free in the yard at all time. By day she is with us in the back yard just hanging up and moving through the yard or in her cage eating and getting a brake from the dogs (yes they do play and chase each other) and by night she goes up in her burrow and sleeps. If she gets cold she comes on her heat pad but usually we don’t see her again until the morning.
In side sleeping If the bunny sleeps inside you will want to make sure it is potty trained and that they have a nice comfy cage they are safe in.
This might freak some people out, letting their bunny live like this, and if so its simple, don’t do it. But our Button is so happy and loves life and loves to hang out with all of us all day so it definitely works for us.
6. Play with your bunny
Bunnies are extremely sociable animals and generally love to be played with. Petting and stroking are great if you simply want to show some love and affection towards your rabbit. However, to make your bunny the happiest they can be, it is best to give them a little bit of something to play with
Some great toys for your bunny are the Original Activity-Zone Rabbit Toy, which is a small table-like structure with yarn and other pieces hanging down which the rabbit can chew on and play in between. Since the price often changes and depends on your location check it out here for current pricing. Another great item for your rabbit is the “Bunny Fun Tree”, a smaller toy that your rabbit can chew, shake, throw, and flip. If you’re worried about your budget taking a blow, you can also try stacking a few small plastic boxes which your rabbit can knock over or toss.
The Last Thing You Need to Know about Bonding with your bunny…
Be Patient, it will happen and you will love each other so much! Don’t give up, they really are so sweet and kind and such good pets. You will be bonding in no time (or eventually if you have a rescue bunny like us, but it WILL happen)
