How to Handle a Pet Rabbit | Pet Rabbits

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Mary: How to handle your pet rabbit. This is a big deal. I see people all the time mishandling the rabbits so tell me. How do I, what's the appropriate way?

Amy: Okay. Well when you first bring a rabbit into your home you want to give him time to chill. Most people don't do that. They're so excited about getting a rabbit. They want to pick him up. They want to cuddle him. They want to put him on their lap. But these are prey animals and anything grabbing a rabbit is a predator to a rabbit.

Mary: Right.

Amy: Nothing in nature picks up a rabbit. Not even its own mother in this kind of rabbit.

Mary: Okay.

Amy: They just don't, they're not easy creatures to handle. That isn't to say that you can't and that isn't to say that they can't be cuddled and all that. But you have to take it a little slowly with them.

Mary: Right.

Amy: So the best thing to do is set up the rabbit in a good sized cage like a puppy exercise pen. Give him room to move around. Give him a nice big litter box. This is before you handle him. And give him a couple days to chill out and get to know the environment. Get to know what it's like when you walk by.

Mary: Okay.

Amy: Then, by the time you're ready to handle him, he'll be familiar with you.

Mary: Right.

Amy: Now, the best thing to do is to sit down in his cage with him, in his puppy pen with him. Read a book. Make a phone call. Text somebody.

Mary: Jeeze!

Amy: Just do things that have nothing to do with the rabbit so he has the opportunity to come over and sniff at you and climb into your lap if he wants to without hands grabbing him. Many of these animals, especially really little rabbits like this one, have been picked up so often that after awhile they just start to snark at your hands and nip at them because that's the only way they can keep hands away from them.

Mary: Okay.

Amy: And then we work with them a long time to calm them down. So what you want to do when they're accepting of handling is to take your hand and really slowly, bring it in from the side rather than from the front, rather than . . .

Mary: Because you want to approach on the side always.

Amy: Where the eye is because . . .

Mary: Where they can't see, their eye is . . .

Amy: Because they can't see directly in front of themselves. Rabbits have not a true blind spot but a functional blind spot right in front of them. And if you do this with your fist and put them between your eyes and look around you'll get an impression. You won't be able to see anything ahead of you. And that's how rabbits are naturally. So you want to bring your hand in from the side, pause for a minute to give your rabbit a chance to decide whether he wants to be touched. If he doesn't, move away. You move away.

Mary: You mean out of the house?

Amy: Move out of the house. Just move your hand away.

Mary: Okay.

Amy: That teaches your rabbit that you're going to respect his space. That if he needs more space and more distance you will respect that. If you don't do that the rabbit will develop a habit of moving away from you to get that distance.

Mary: Okay.

Amy: Once you persuade him that you will move away when you're respecting his signals you remove his need to move away from you. Which is really great because you want him ultimately to come to you. So when you go to pick him up, what do you do? I'm going to take him out of here. This is a small rabbit and I have rather long fingers so I'm going to pick him up just this way to get him this far and put him here.

But when you're picking up to carry him the safest way to carry him is what we call the football hold. Never pick up a rabbit by the ears. A lot of people years ago used to do that. Many people still grab them by the scruff and dangle them. But that skin wasn't designed to hold the weight of a rabbit. It just wasn't. It's not comfortable for the rabbit. When you're picking up a rabbit comfortably

[blazingdawn]

At 0:39 it looks like the bunny is saying, "Excuse me, do you NEED something??"
Omg that's absolutely adorable <3

[MoistCrumpet]

I don't feel comfortable holding my rabbit like that.

[flowergreeeeed]

That's a one patient rabbit... My bunny would slap the shit out of me if i try something like that.

[Kayonaluna]

LOL I think my rabbit needs to watch this cause I have tried the foot ball hold and it was not fun

[megalodon]

The rabbit is all like: "Well... Another weird day with my humanz"

[realracheal]

As a bunny foster parent I can say that Bunnies, especially those from the shelter that may have been abandoned, LOVE when you read to them!

[makeupholism]

Ok, that works for picking up a bunny that is small and on a table. How about bigger rabbits who are on the floor?

[Cascadesbmx]

I don't even have a rabbit, why am I watching this?

[YourLocalHero]

The rabbit is so patient when being handled! Such a good bunno :) You can tell they trust their handlers too with how relaxed they are- They just go with the flow!

I plan on adopting a rabbit soon, and I've been binging videos to get to know rabbits and learn how to handle and care for them- This was very helpful! I've also seen a couple other videos of yours on rabbits and they gave some good insights. Thank you for making them!

[startingatzer]

The bunny looks more frightened than relaxed.. when I pick up my bunny, I place him on my chest and he burrows his head under my chin. I can go and sit down and then he gets onto my shoulder, puts his head behind my neck and gently grinds his teeth when I reach back to pet him!

[ellamccarville]

The way you are holding the rabbit looks very uncomfortable

[wonderstruck]

Why are the rabbits in these videos so calm!! I have a hard time handling my really active lop):

[linadowd]

I love these women explaining how to handle and care for rabbits! Entertaining yet informative.

[seensnakes]

Rabbit are magical creatures.  if you treat them right they will give you a lot of good luck.

[kathy-leew]

I actually laughed when she used the football grip it looked so wierd hahahahaha

He is so relaxed hahaha my bunny would never let me pick him up

[daaben]

so now i should watch the video to how to get my rabbit on the table? i mean its totally logical my rabbit is on a table all the time in fact i built him an entire little city so he can play godzilla.

[humanbeing]

The rabbit was so sweet, this video lifted my mood ♡

[Spleenzorio]

I used to hold my bunny the same way you would hold a baby to burp him over your shoulder. He would even hop up from the table onto me into that position :)

[LonerDonor]

I think she watched football before making this video

[leahdunn]

5:41 - “i corner mine and grab it. Is that okay?” 😂😂😂😂