Question:

I was watching your videos with my daughter who is getting a bunny.  She is 12 and very excited to get a bunny.
I myself have had hamsters, hedgehogs and guniea pigs, but never a bunny.

After watching a lot of videos, I noticed that a lot say to sit on your floor with a new bunny and let them come to you and not lift them up.  What I am wondering though, is if you have a cage that is not sitting on the floor, should we put it on the floor and then let the bunny hop out and when they are new, will they allow you to pick them up to put them back in the cage when they need to go back?  We have watched videos on how to handle a bunny and pick it up which I was worried about, but it looks like if you are firm without hurting them, it is not too hard. I want the bunny to get used to my daughter but we will have to pick it back up to put it back in the cage.

Thanks so much,
J

Answer:

Hi J,

If you can, it is preferred to have the rabbit’s cage on the floor so the bunny can hop in and out when it wants. This makes the bunny feel safe as it never has to leave the ground and bunny can also retreat to it’s cage when it wants to. It is always good to let them be able to go to their safe place (the cage) when it is feeling wary or threatened. Rabbits in the wild tend to always stay near their warren or have an escape route planned to get them back home when they need to.

As for picking the bunny up, I always snuggled with our rabbits from the moment we brought them home so I don’t find any of them to be particularly bad with being picked up. You must hold them very securely against your body though and support their back legs so they feel as safe as possible and so they can’t kick out their legs and break their back.  The problem with trying to pick up a rabbit during their exercise time is that their instincts quickly take over as they feel like you’re swooping in on them, will panic and begin running and hiding places. This is terrifying for your rabbit, frustrating for you, and can damage the bond you’ve been working on with bunny.  My suggestion is to leave the cage door open and wait for your rabbit to hop in it, then close the cage door. This may or may not be on your schedule but it’s easy and less stressful on bunny.  Now that I’ve had my rabbits for so long, what I do is sit on the floor, wait until one approaches me for a snuggle, pet them for a few minutes so they feel nice and calm, and then scoop them up and bring them back to their cage.  It’s important to note that you don’t want to be doing this every time your bunny comes over to be pet, otherwise they’re going to associate that behaviour with being picked up and locked away again.