This, is Coco. 6 months old (just under)
We picked up Coco from the local Petstock store when she was only a few weeks old. We were told she was a dwarf bunny but turns out she’s a normal bun. No biggie.
Coming from a pet store we assumed she was handled a lot with so many customers in and out. She was ok as a little bun but as she got older she liked being picked up and being affectionate less and less. Now she won’t let us pick her up unless we catch her quickly before she runs off.
I get up at 5am and she comes to her cage and will lick us heaps until I few her, and she has quite a bit of open space. My partner is home most of each day and spends a lot of time sitting in the cage with her. We can’t work out how to make her like pats more or allow us to pick her up. She does do binkies and does play on her own when we are around the lounge/dining. We used to let her roam the house but became impossible to catch her to get her in the cage again.
What should we do? Ideally we wanted a bunny to cuddle on the couch or sit on our lap while we work. She is super spoilt on food and space and we feel bad if we don’t pay her attention every hour yet she doesn’t care for most of it. want to let her out more.
by Puls4te
28 Comments
Sorry I should add that she doesn’t like heaps of pats and doesn’t want cuddles ever. Hence wondering what to do to cheer her up and make her feel loved and more affectionate 🙁
Sounds like normal bunny behavior to me! They don’t like being picked up because it reminds them of being scooped up by a bird of prey or other predator. While we see bunnies being picked up on social media, it’s the rare bunny who actually likes it or even tolerates it regularly without it damaging the human-animal bond. Babies just go along with it but they grow out of it, usually.
My bunny also doesn’t like cuddling on the couch. He’ll only sit on my lap if food is involved. But if I go on the floor, I can pet him forever, particularly if he’s drowsy or mellow.
Please try to appreciate this little creature for what she is. If she’s binkying and flopping that means she’s happy. It’s a small miracle that these babies at the bottom of the food chain can become comfortable in our homes around huge predators like us at all. If you stop trying to pick her up she may grow to like your company even more, over months.
PS I shake a treat bag to get my bunny to come back upstairs or go into his pen. I don’t have to usually, because he eventually goes there around our bedtime to start eating hay.
Leave a used tshirt or pillowcase in her area for a few nights.
Spend an hour or so a day on the floor, and don’t pick her up. Put some herbs or pellets on/around you, but you play hard to get and be busy. Ignore her the first few days, take a book and read to her but don’t touch her. She will get the message that you are not interested in her as a predator would.
At some point she will climb on you or ask for attention, then you can pat the forehead as a bunny would.
Just be patient, play **very** hard to get, let her be the one to ask for pets and attention.
My rabbit is pretty affectionate as rabbits go .. but he will not sit on my lap (except to quickly grab a treat), and he hates being picked up.
Rabbits are not really lap animals like cats. They show their affection by sitting with you, eating with you, and grooming/licking you.
neither of my buns really like to be picked up or cuddled but they love scratches and will headbutt and even dig on me if i do not provide. they both love to piss so we don’t really let them on furniture anyway haha.
one of mine is old & small so she is easy to grab. but she loves to play hide & seek under furniture so if she goes under something, we have to get a broom and shoo her out. other one is young & large and REALLY hates being picked up so it is very difficult to move her in that way. usually we can just herd her in the right direction, or poke and nudge her.
thats normal bun behavior, sometimes they just dont like cuddling and thats okay 🙂
Cover your entire body in bananas.
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don’t really do this.
Honestly you need to be more patient. She’s only 6 months old. That’s very young. She doesn’t know you that well yet.
For our first bunny, it literally took years for him to trust us. But once he did it was game over, he would follow us around constantly, lying in our arms peacefully.
Everything worth having is not easy to get!
Golden rule is – let them come to you.
Don’t run after them. Bribe with a treat if you need to catch them.
Start with sitting near them, in their space without touching them, so they get used to your presence.
You need to let her roam the house, just bunny proof it first. Keeping her cooped up is not good for her or your relationship. She will also get used to your scent that way.
Once our first bunny became fully free roam our relationship strengthened massively. Our current bunny has been free roam from the beginning, and has benefitted massively.
Being handled in a pet shop doesn’t mean she would be OK with being handled forever after that. It wouldn’t be the nicest experience, being touched by random customers all the time, who may not be familiar with rabbits and their unique personality traits.
Rabbits are all individuals. I work at a humane society and I’ve seen well over 300 rabbits in the last year or so, and I can confidently tell you even the SWEETEST rabbits, 9 times out of 10 will HATE being picked up.
Rabbits are prey animals and being picked up is like a predator snatching them up, that’s terrifying!
Cats are more suitable for “come sit in the couch and snuggle me” pets. Rabbits are more “sit on the floor with them and watch tv, they might come over”. Everything your rabbit is doing is normal and there’s no way to really “fix” it
Coming from a humane society we’re different than a pet store but just because it may appear that we have more time to spend and socialize babies, but I certainly don’t! There’s a ton of paperwork, semi-feral rabbits, odd animals like snakes and ferrets that come in as strays, medical emergencies etc. I spend as much time as possible socializing out bunnies but semi-feral and fearful rabbits are priority, so more friendly, easy going babies (like yours it sounds lile) maybe wasn’t handled and snuggled like you thought.
She sounds pretty happy. Licking you is a sign of affection. So good job with raising a happy child. But you wanting her to be a lap bunny is just your own wish. Accept her for who she is and if it changes that’s cool but don’t force it. Assume 99% of rabbits don’t like being picked up! And if you stop grabbing her to pick her up she may like being around you more. If you want her to go in your lap sit on the floor and bring a treat.
I do have a cuddly rabbit and she hates being picked up. When she wants to cuddle while I work, she comes by my feet and looks at me, then I kneel on the floor so she can press against my leg and I reach up to keep typing and pet her one handed. No picking up required. It is less ergonomic for me but an uncomfortable rabbit is not going to want to cuddle!
Check out Bunnylady.com. Tons of valuable information, and there’s an article about bonding with your rabbit. These delicate little prey animals display their affection differently from a cat or dog.
Just came here to compliment you of this absolutely beautiful void.
You love bunny for how bunny is, because that’s bunnies personality:)
sounds like youve got a super normal, totally affectionate bunny!
Bunnies generally don’t enjoy being picked up. Don’t do that to her. Learn to show affection in a bunny way: treats, pet her in a way that resembles bunny kisses, learn to make purring sounds with your teeth. Bunnies aren’t dogs. It takes a lot of work to make them trust you.
Let her out more. I lore my bunny into the cage with treats. I also noticed that my bunny does not personally like to be pet while I’m sitting at the entrance of her cage because I think she feels trapped. Hand feed her veggies in the morning and before bed. There’s some really good Oxbow strawberry banana treats I just cut them in half and they smell really good so bunny nose from across the room that I’ve opened the bag.
Also if she roams around more then she will be able to go in her cage whenever she wants and not just when she’s forced to. Leave the door open while she’s roaming and she will go back into use her litter box and that’s another time that you can collect her in there if you need to leave or something
put her in a room with plenty of space and just lay on the floor. She’ll eventually come up to you.
It takes time. I’ve had my baby boy Momiji since he was born. I’ve handled him every day and picked him up all the time. The bigger he got the more he didn’t like it. He’s almost 4 months old now and hates being picked up. But when I’m sitting with him when I’m letting him out to play, he jumps right into my arms, and it’s the best feeling in the world 🥰
Feed curly Kale to the bun out your hand. They love this stuff.
Patience and time.
My bunny doesn’t like being picked up or lying in my lap for snuggles. But he accepts forehead pets and cheek rubs and slowly melt into the floor. And because he’s picky, pets can only happen if he’s sitting on the kitchen mat or in the door of his cage before bedtime.
We’ve had him for about a year and a half and only within the last little bit has he started to “ask” us to play with him. And “playing” to him is bopping our ankles and then running away to do something he knows he’s not suppose to do (like chew a door frame and attempt to bulldoze through the box barricade in our kitchen) and when we come to stop him, he’ll run away like a thief and binky!
Now he knows to bop us when he wants our attention, whether it’s mischief, snuggles, or a snack reminder.
She probably just need time, but there’s a chance she might never be affectionate.
I have four buns and one absolutely hate being touched but has no problem touching me or eat from my hand.
She will allow sometimes a couple of pets on the head if I ask nicely but otherwise touching is forbidden.
Whenever I have to pick her up to move her (mostly to clean) I put her tunnel in front of her and tell her to hop in and off we go~ 😆
Bunnies are not “lap” animals or even cuddle animals. It’s irritating reading that pet stores are still selling rabbits. Jesus Christ. Do your research on rabbits before adopting and don’t buy from pet stores. All I can say is you need to accept your rabbit for how they are and learn all about them. It’s not about what YOU want and fulfilling your idea of a pet. It’s about meeting their needs and providing a high quality of life for them. Understand that your rabbit may never show you the kind of idealized dog/cat type fantasy you have rattling around up in that empty space between your ears and just be the best rabbit expert parent you can be.
How do you have such an impeccable carpet without your rabbit chewing it to bits? Mine love destroying the carpet when she thinks I’m not paying attention.
Bunnies don’t like to be caught or picked up but it’s pretty easy to get them to go back into the pen their own.
Make a sound that the bunny associates with treats. Only give her treats when she is in her pen. Soon, you will be able to let her out to roam around the house and then she will run back to her pen when you make the treat sound.
You have a nice set-up for the bunny there!
Try and bunnyproof any wires with some cord protectors and leave all of their favorite things in their pen, along with their litter box, food and water, any cooling plates or ice bottles, etc. This should keep them in the general area if you don’t have doors to close.
As for the cuddling, it really comes down to the bun, I get that you want specific things from them and that’s normal, but you also need to understand they’re a little living creature with their own thoughts and wants. Respect them by not doing things they don’t want unless it’s for their safety or well-being, and they’ll grow attached. Once their hooked then you can pick them up more, but generally try to avoid it if you can or at least squat down and pick them up about a foot off the ground for some quick kisses before putting them back down.
Each bun is different, just like people. My little guy is real chill with being picked up, but you can tell he doesnt like it so i try to not do it and just let him come to me when he wants attention or I lay on the floor and he’ll climb all over me.
Another thing is age. Coco is pretty young still and will have a lot more energy. My guy didn’t start to calm down until he was about 3, but generally, the older they are, the more chill they’ll be.
They also have good memories, so be prepared for some stink eye for a bit if you mess up lol.
TLDR: Every bunny is different, respect their likes and dislikes, and they’ll get more affectionate.
Never chase her and never force picking her up. This is going to make her dislike it even more! And even worse if she happens to jump from your arms and falls to the ground, you could break her back.
Let her out more once you have bunny proof the room so she doesn’t kill herself chewing a cord. Buy some gates to confine her to the living room, let her be part of the family hanging out evenings with. I would do this every evening!
Keep the door open when she’s out.. when you want her back in the exercise pen PLAN AHEAD so there’s not any stress getting her back in!
I clang two bowls together, two bowls that are in his pen and place a piece of carrot in his bowl. My bun comes every time. On the rare occasion he doesn’t come I take the carrot to him. Let him have one nibble and then gently with a quiet voice coerce him back in the pen. If a carrot doesn’t work, try cilantro.
The more time she spends outside her pen, relaxing evenings being part of the family… she will slowly gradually warm up more and more.
And I agree with a lot of posts here. .All animals are individuals and you may never get your wish.. but the more time she is out of her pen hanging out with everyone the better chance you have of her being more affectionate.
Time is the answer, the more time she is out of her pen the more she’ll feel part of the family and want to interact.
You have a beautiful bunny that loves you in her own special way. ❤️
My bunny was like this when we first got her but now 4 months later, she’s warmed up to us a lot and actually cuddles with my boyfriend on her own . Give her time to get used to you, she may have been abused previously like my rabbit.
Hang out on the ground with her. Get a book or a game and grab a pillow and lay down in her area. Just hang out with her and try doing your own thing near her. She’ll get curious. When she comes up to you don’t pick her up, no bunny enjoys that naturally, perhaps some do after a lot of socializing but it will be very uncommon. Pet her on spots they actually enjoy. Let her receive love the way she wants and needs to. They love forehead / head strokes and my guy likes his ears rubbed gently. Gentle grooming might be appreciated as well. Mine doesn’t mind his body pet as well.