MszGenevieve
Active Member
Hi everyone, I hope this is the right area. I just got my first bunny on Monday, he's about 6 weeks old right now & very shy & skittish since I brought him home. I played with him for about an hour before deciding I wanted to bring him to his forever home, he was extremely sweet & playful & even licked my hands and cheek. I won't lie the car ride was probably stressful for him, I ended up getting stuck in traffic & the road was bumpy.
Once I got home I took him out of the carrier & put him in his cage & then went back out to get him some more hay & a couple of chewing toys. When I got home I put some hay in his cage as well as a toy, & then I went to go pet him & he just darted away. I figured he was still just stressed out over the ride & put a blanket over his cage & left him alone for the rest of the night to calm down. Yesterday I decided to try to see if he was calm &/or remembered me, I went to pet him and again he darted so I just opened his cage & let him come out on his own terms & played the "I don't see you & feel you trying to get pet" game until he jumped onto my lap like he had done when I brought him home. The rest of the day he played out of his cage with my boyfriend & I, he had gotten used to his smell and jumped into his lap as well. This morning when I went to change his food & water he seemed okay but when I went to put his food back into his cage & pet him so he can see it as a positive thing he completely darted away from my hand again. So again I did the same thing all morning until about an hr ago but he just seemed more skittish towards me then yesterday, I did the same thing let him come out on his terms, did the ignore game & still nothing, he did eat some treats out of my hand and allowed me to pet him. I let him run around and play & didn't really mind that I didn't get to pet him since I do know not all bunnies like it at all. But are there any other tips to get him to trust me more & not be afraid of me or my boyfriend ? I am being patient but I just don't want to do anything to mess the progress up, so I just need some tips on what not to do & what I can do more to help him realize I'm not going to hurt him.
Also with fruits and veggies, for the life of me & can't figure out what he really CAN eat, most things I read will say they can have this then another says do NOT feed it to them (ie. broccoli & carrots). With the fruits I just don't know what all he can have, I know he can only have limited amounts of fruit because of the sugar, but I don't know all the safe fruits and veggies he can have.
Any help would be appreciated
Once I got home I took him out of the carrier & put him in his cage & then went back out to get him some more hay & a couple of chewing toys. When I got home I put some hay in his cage as well as a toy, & then I went to go pet him & he just darted away. I figured he was still just stressed out over the ride & put a blanket over his cage & left him alone for the rest of the night to calm down. Yesterday I decided to try to see if he was calm &/or remembered me, I went to pet him and again he darted so I just opened his cage & let him come out on his own terms & played the "I don't see you & feel you trying to get pet" game until he jumped onto my lap like he had done when I brought him home. The rest of the day he played out of his cage with my boyfriend & I, he had gotten used to his smell and jumped into his lap as well. This morning when I went to change his food & water he seemed okay but when I went to put his food back into his cage & pet him so he can see it as a positive thing he completely darted away from my hand again. So again I did the same thing all morning until about an hr ago but he just seemed more skittish towards me then yesterday, I did the same thing let him come out on his terms, did the ignore game & still nothing, he did eat some treats out of my hand and allowed me to pet him. I let him run around and play & didn't really mind that I didn't get to pet him since I do know not all bunnies like it at all. But are there any other tips to get him to trust me more & not be afraid of me or my boyfriend ? I am being patient but I just don't want to do anything to mess the progress up, so I just need some tips on what not to do & what I can do more to help him realize I'm not going to hurt him.
Also with fruits and veggies, for the life of me & can't figure out what he really CAN eat, most things I read will say they can have this then another says do NOT feed it to them (ie. broccoli & carrots). With the fruits I just don't know what all he can have, I know he can only have limited amounts of fruit because of the sugar, but I don't know all the safe fruits and veggies he can have.
Any help would be appreciated