Are rabbits, particularly baby rabbits forgetful?

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babymor81

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Ipicked my cookie up last nightand he struggled but i brought him close and stroke him. he was able to be like this for 10 mins !!!



1) His ears are still up and hence i can safely assume he is still because he enjoys and not because he is terrified right?



2) this morning i tried to stroke him and he ran into his "home" has he forgotten about me? just one night?



Cookie is 10 weeks old. ( p/s sorry for all the "stupid" qns. i am totally new and i want the best for cookie )
 
Nah, he hasn't forgotten about you. He's just settling down. My rabbit was the same way when I brought him home from the pet hospital (for his GI stasis).

Also, try not to force bunnies to be close to you. They'll go near you at their own will.

He just wants some time alone back in his home.
 
I also asked a similar question to yous yesterday, and I got a great answer from a user.

Let the Bunny out in a small Bunny Proof Room and sit with it. Let it walk around and when it is ready it will come and sniff you and hopefully it will jump on your leg. Don't froce him to come like geabbing him or start petting him or it will get frustrated and nervous.
 
Rabbits tend to live in the moment. They may be content to just sit and be pet or held at one time, but other times will have noting to do with it. It's not that he has forgotten you, it is that he is just not wanting to be held at pet at that time. If you give him time, he should come around and want to interact with you more. It may not be that he wants to be held, but he may want to be pet or just be with you. Some rabbits are really into their people and are up for some petting anytime, while others are more reserved and require you to be more patient.

As for the peeing and pooping around you, that is pretty normal for a young rabbit. Young rabbits can't really control when and where they pee and poop, so they just do it when they need to. Litter box training as well and giving it some time will help. Put down some blankets or something to make cleaning easy when he does pee or poop out of the cage.
 
I'm working on litter training my newest rabbit. He's 3 but he came from a horrible situation where he was stuck in his own filth because of neglect. He is slowly getting the hang of it. Until then to protect my carpet I put down a shower cutain with a sheet over it. I can easily wash the sheets daily so the floor area is always clean. It's much easier wiping off the plastic than cleaning carpet.

This gives him enough room in his house that I can lay on the floor and be a speed bump without worrying about the floor. :)
 
Don't be frustrated when your rabbit pees and poops, it is normal for them to do this. My rabbit pooped 8 times in my room and since their little pellet poops they are particularly easy to pick up with making a mess.
 
Rabbits also treat peeing and pooping outside their litter box as territory marking, so it's not unusual for a rabbit which had perfect litter habits in one environment to suddenly (to us) seem to lose those habits in a new environment.

When Natasha Rabbitova came to live with me, she was constantly peeing on me, on the couch, and all over the back room. It isn't that she didnt' know how to use a litter box - she did, and was perfectly content using it. She was just making sure that the Other Bunny she could smell, but never met (Scone, who passed away a few months earlier) was under no misconceptions that this was now Natasha's House.

As time went on, the territory marking became less common, until her litter habits today are perfect once again.
 
If you can, sit in your rabbits enclosure and wait for him to come to you. Hershey thinks it's a HUGE treat when I sit in his enclosure and pet him, instead of taking him into my "enclosure"!

(He likes to sit on the floor next to me and have me pet him rather than holding him in my lap.)
 

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