Hello! Around 2 months ago, I got Wig from a rescue and she has a wonderful companion free roaming in my bedroom and bathroom. Learned to potty train quickly and only chews on her toys and treats!
However, she is not a fan of being touched or held. I am completely fine with her not being the touchy type, but due to her fur and just basic bunny upkeep, I will always have times to handle her to make sure her grooming is not neglected and I feel like bonding with her is very 2 steps backwards and 1 step forward right now.
When I first got her I was pretty hands off since she just was at a rescue and I didn’t want to stress her out, and she would run all over when I got her meals ready, sniff my laptop and things when I remote worked, and would seem pretty bubbly to see me if I was gone for a little bit but now that I am trying to get her into the habit of brushing her hair out or removing the dried eye crusties she gets in her fur, she has been much more wary of me, and will only be in her litterbox area or mostly hiding in one of her homes (I remote work so I’m home a lot)
I am not sure what her history was like prior to being at that rescue for 2 weeks, but I finally trimmed her nails last week. I did the burrito method and it went successfully (outside of her not being a fan of that interaction) and I noticed one of her feet is declawed which is obviously pretty concerning and makes me wonder if she has any traumas that get triggered with handling. She hasn’t been very forgiving of me with this interaction in particular compared to when I brush her hair (even when I tried plucking out the lose hairs she notices and gets annoyed) or remove eye crusties from her fur (id like to add those are not directly next to eye, they fall a little bit under her eye and into the fur)
Do you guys think overtime she will become more understanding and this is something we will work through?
by pastramiparty
