You’ve just adopted a few small rabbits as your pets from a rabbit care facility, and now you’re confused about why they’re scared of you when you get close and what you’ve done wrong. You tried petting them, but they’re constantly rejecting you.
It’s natural to be confused about how to bond with your rabbit. You should prepare yourself mentally to put a lot of effort into them and resist the urge to cuddle them until they accept you properly.
There are great bunny bonding tips that you can apply now. Read along to find what you need to do!
Great Tips for Bonding With Your Bunny
You can use the following twelve tips to establish a successful, deep, and meaningful bond with your rabbit. Just remember, have a routine, be consistent with that routine, and be patient with your loving rabbits. With love and care, you can get your rabbit’s love in no time.
1. Figure Out Your Rabbit’s Personality
If you adopted your rabbit from a breeder, then they will know the personality of your pet well enough. Know your rabbit’s personality well enough to understand how to navigate your way into your pet’s heart and care for it properly.
Personality can differ across pets, especially rabbits. If you have a few rabbits as your pet, then one piece of advice I’d give is to be careful not to mix things up.
2. Spay or Neuter Your Rabbit
If your rabbits are still sexually active, then they’ll have a lot of behavioral issues. Your presence will automatically make them hostile and they’ll try to attack you. This slims down your chance to bond well with them.
Spaying does (female rabbits) or neutering bucks (male rabbits) can solve a lot of behavioral problems. They’ll be less aggressive and may become less protective of their boundaries. You can approach them slowly and steadily and build a good connection quickly enough.
3. Do a Thorough Study on Rabbit Body Language
Rabbits are notorious for giving off confusing signals. That’s why it’s important for you to know the generic body language of the rabbits and connect them with your pet to understand what it’s trying to tell you.
Rabbits exhibit their happiness in one way and show their anger in another way. Then again, rabbits give off signs that may confuse you into thinking, “are they annoyed with me? Can they hear me?” and what not!
If you’re still confused about your pet’s body language, then one thing you can do is reach out to the breeder for help on rabbit body language.
4. Give Your Pet Some Treats
There’s a common saying for human beings, “the tummy is the way to someone’s heart.” The same is true for rabbits!
After you’re done with the steps to understand your pet, you need to get your way to its heart through its tummy.
Lay some delicious treats for your rabbit in a line. It can lead the rabbit to you. You can use carrots, lettuce, or some special bunny treats.
But be careful not to overdo it, as too much of a good thing can be bad for rabbits, even though you’re giving it with care.
5. Be Calm and Quiet Around Your Pet
Noise can scare rabbits very easily. That’s why, if you want your rabbit to bond with you easily, you need to be calm and quiet around it. Rabbits feel scared of sudden movements or loud noises.
Also, remember that rabbits have very active senses and can hear sounds of a wide range of frequencies. They are natural prey, which makes them alert about everything around them.
If they’re getting scared of you, they may not want to be around you anymore and will show signs of hostility.
6. Play With Your Rabbits
Pet animals absolutely love games and getting attention from their owners, and rabbits are no exception in this case. A house rabbit, before bonding to its owner, loves to get attention and affection through playing fun games and rabbit toys.
No matter how busy you are, give some time to your rabbit every day and play as much as you can. They are social animals and adore having company. They need to let out their energy in a healthy way, otherwise, they’ll become aggressive and may fall into depression.
7. Reciprocate Their Behavior
Another way for getting rabbits to grow fond of you is by reciprocating their behavior.
If they’re excited, show excitement. When they do something good, praise them and give them treats. If they’re sad, lay down by them. And if they’re acting aggressive, be calm and patient.
Reciprocating and handling their behavior with care will show them your empathy, and it’ll help rabbits bond with you properly.
8. Respect Their Boundaries
Rabbits are protective of their space, doesn’t matter if they’re small and domestic or wild rabbits. Make them a big cage with enough exercising and playing accessories, so that it can be their safe house.
Only enter it when your pet allows you to. However, leave it alone if you see it resting inside.
Don’t make its hutch too small, otherwise, they become bored and stressed with excess energy. Let them come out for some training, sprinting around, and playtime with you.
Let them feel at home in their territory. Interact with them when they leave their territory for a while.
9. Don’t Hold Your Bunny for Too Long
Our subconscious mind always wants to pick up and hold cute rabbits very frequently and for a long time. While you’re thinking that it’s okay and they’ll love it, this can be harmful to them.
Don’t pick your rabbit up before you bond with it properly. You may want to cuddle it, but resist that urge for now. Holding and picking it up is one of the things that rabbits associate with predators, so it can put your pet in distress.
Train your pet to not be afraid of hands, only then can you pick it up without sending it into panic mode. Also, having an escape route for your rabbit to hide can be useful. Let it know of that path and train for it.
10. Let Your Rabbit Come to You
Don’t force your rabbit to play with you. Instead, allow it to decide whether it wants to come to you, be near you, or stay somewhere far by itself.
You can gain the trust of rabbits with a bit of patience. Sit on the ground or lay down on their level, be still and calm, and look at them with a calm, cheerful expression. Rabbits will come to you when you’re not looking intimidating.
You can even lay some treats on their ramp and lay in front of it to make rabbits come to you while following the trail. And if your pet animals nudge you a little, try petting them gently, like giving them a good massage. They may love it more than getting treats!
11. Be Consistent With Your Rabbit Care
Let’s be honest, you can’t bond with your pet properly if you have a messy routine. Besides, small, domestic rabbits can fall ill if they don’t have consistent playing and feeding time.
Connecting properly needs consistency. Try to build a daily routine for your pets, when you want to feed them, play with them, take them outdoors for exercise, etc.
This way, rabbits don’t need to wait for their next meal and become impatient since they know when they’ll get it. They can also get excited and start sprinting around you when they know it’s their playtime with you and they’re about to go outdoors.
Rabbits do well when they know all their routine activities, as unpredictability makes them nervous.
12. Bond With Patience and Time
It takes time and a seriously hefty amount of patience to bond with rabbits. It’s not as easy as bonding with a dog, where just giving snacks and patting them on the head will do the job.
Don’t do anything that can be intimidating for your rabbit. Know its personality and behavioral clues very well, and how you’re supposed to act when it’s acting aggressively. Rabbits will be attracted to you only when they know that they’re safe around you.
Time is all they need, and patience is all you need to have cute rabbits to play with all the time.
Conclusion
As cute as rabbits are, they’re also one of the most sensitive creatures to have as pets. Although domesticated, being fearful is in their genes, as rabbits are naturally the target of many predators. Due to that, it’ll take you a lot of time, patience, and work to bond well with rabbits.
Follow these twelve tips carefully, and you’ll be able to make a lifelong bond with your pets in no time.