I dont think my rabbits likes us! Please help!!!

[Beealexandria]

So we got Doris on 1/5/19 at 12 weeks and she acclimated very well to our home and was potty trained the first weekend. she was binkying and zoomin and seemed to really like her space. the following weekend we started to free roam and she ended up becoming 100% free roam and has been since. One morning at like 6 am she was really energetic and zooming all over our room, under the bed etc and it was bothering my husband so he got up and put her in a big box! i woke up to her trying to get out and she had peed in spite im sure as she never peed outside her litter box before. I took her out and she was obviously upset so i left her alone and gave her some banana. Over the last week, i have noticed she is more standoffish than before. My husband informed me yesterday that he tried to get her to explore the house and she got really scared and she peed on him, like sprayed him in the face! Obviously, we have two very different styles but this is my rabbit and i feel like he is causing her to not want to associate with humans and i know it he is as excited as i am but im sure he is trying to hard and wants her to interact. He says i am allowing her to stay to herself because i really try to give her space but i feel he is scaring her although i probably should not be as intimidated by offending her. her temperament is very calm and still does some zoomies here and there and she is still 100% free roam but I need advice on how to get closer to her

 

[Hermelin]

Your cutie is still a baby, don’t have any experience when having a young rabbit free roaming and bonding.

I had my rabbit in cage in the beginning , he was a really scared rabbit but the cage became his safe place and he could interact with humans but still could hide. When he was safe in the cage I let him out and run around in a fenced area where I was but he could still jump in to the cage and hide or just explore me while I didn’t force anything on him, except forcing him to interact with me while I ignored him.

If I had let my rabbit free roaming in the beginning he would had never been so tame as he is now. But he was a really scared bunny that always hid under the couches and bed, when he was lose.

If you want to interact with your bun do it in a smaller place/ a fenced area.

She need to have her space but will run into you if she want to and just sit with her but don’t force yourself on her. Let her explore and build up confidence and trust towards you. Use pellets as treats when she great you and just let her be. When she jump up on you let her be and don’t pet. The focus is to build her trust towards you. I often feed my rabbits from my hands or in my lap, when I bond with them. Just to let them associate me with something good and positive. When it goes better with interaction, you can pet and later she might seek attention when she want to be petted.

My rabbit built his trust towards me quite fast and he would always seek attention later, never leaving you alone and forcing all your attention on him. He is a free roaming rabbit now and stopped seeking as much attention as he did when he was a baby. But he’s the most spoiled rabbit of all my rabbits.

Hope everything goes well with socializing your cutie and manage to build a great bond with her.




On the picture is my rabbit Odin when he was 4 months old.

 

[Beealexandria]

Your cutie is still a baby, don’t have any experience when having a young rabbit free roaming and bonding.

I had my rabbit in cage in the beginning , he was a really scared rabbit but the cage became his safe place and he could interact with humans but still could hide. When he was safe in the cage I let him out and run around in a fenced area where I was but he could still jump in to the cage and hide or just explore me while I didn’t force anything on him, except forcing him to interact with me while I ignored him.

If I had let my rabbit free roaming in the beginning he would had never been so tame as he is now. But he was a really scared bunny that always hid under the couches and bed, when he was lose.

If you want to interact with your bun do it in a smaller place/ a fenced area.

She need to have her space but will run into you if she want to and just sit with her but don’t force yourself on her. Let her explore and build up confidence and trust towards you. Use pellets as treats when she great you and just let her be. When she jump up on you let her be and don’t pet. The focus is to build her trust towards you. I often feed my rabbits from my hands or in my lap, when I bond with them. Just to let them associate me with something good and positive. When it goes better with interaction, you can pet and later she might seek attention when she want to be petted.

My rabbit built his trust towards me quite fast and he would always seek attention later, never leaving you alone and forcing all your attention on him. He is a free roaming rabbit now and stopped seeking as much attention as he did when he was a baby. But he’s the most spoiled rabbit of all my rabbits.

Hope everything goes well with socializing your cutie and manage to build a great bond with her.



View attachment 39312
On the picture is my rabbit Odin when he was 4 months old.

Thank you so much for you your response. I believe you are right. I am going to scold my husband and maybe but her play pin back up although she doesnt seem to want to stay in it... I will look into a hutch, i have seen really pretty diy furniture transformations that i could fit with my decor and not be to small for her. How long does it take most rabbits to build trust with their humans in your experience? My husband and i both really love her and were thinking of finding her a friend in the future but i really want to build with her first and wait until well after she is spayed. (My husband has fallen in love and wants a bun of his own lol)

 

[Hermelin]

It takes different long time for rabbits to build trust towards humans but the best is to spend a lot of time with your rabbit. Make her associate you and your husband with something positive.

The more time you can spend with your rabbit the faster the bond will build. You will have to feel how much your rabbit can handle and balance how much you interact with her and distance.

In my experience giving a lot of distance take longer time to bond and socialize the rabbit. While forcing yourself on the rabbit will only have the opposite effect.

My experience with bonding are really various: I have a really cowardly/scared rabbit. He has been with me for 5 months but haven’t bonded with him yet. So it’s going slowly for him but he have come a long way. The shortest to bond took only 1 week, that rabbit slept in my bed every night.

 

[JBun]

Your husband likely scared her and broke her trust in him(may even have traumatized her some, which could be why she is peeing on him because she's scared of him now), or he may have just offended her which is a very serious breach of trust in a rabbits eyes. Which means if he wants her to be comfortable with him again he will have to earn her trust back. It sounds like he picks her up, so he'll have to stop doing that for now or it will keep eroding her ability to trust him and making her fearful of him being around. For a lot of rabbits, picking them up can be the absolutely worst thing to do if you want their trust. A rare few are fine with it, some learn to tolerate it on a limited basis, and some will avoid you like the plague if you ever try and do it.

The best way to gain a rabbits trust is to sit with them on their level and not force interaction, like Hermelin has mentioned. That means you just let them approach you when they want to, you are only petting them if they have requested it(they lower their head down on the ground near you like they are waiting for something, or they may nudge you and when you approach with your hand they lay their head down), otherwise you don't pet them and don't even reach towards your bun if it makes them nervous and they run away when you attempt to, and you don't ever try and pick them up except on a very limited basis like for nail trims(and even that might be better done by a vet or someone else while you are trying to build trust), though them deciding to hop on you or in your lap is perfectly fine as long as they aren't made to stay there. Once you have established a trusting relationship, then picking up can be worked on, but usually only as a limited thing. I avoid picking up my rabbits except for nail trims, particularly my two that absolutely hate it.

You don't necessarily need to put her back in her playpen unless she is constantly wanting to run and hide from you, then it would be a good idea so she can't just avoid you and you'll have a more controlled area where you can sit and interact with her. Though if she doesn't have a cage or some other sort of home base(where her litter box is) that she can claim as only her territory, that would be a good idea to give her something. Does't have to be a cage, could just be a rug with her litter box, food and other things so she knows that's her area.

Rabbits require a special understanding. They're different from cats and dogs, they're a prey animal so you have to learn what interaction works with them and how they communicate to better understand them so you can better bond with them. Try looking over these links. There are good tips on bonding with your bun, as well as how to understand how rabbits communicate.
https://flashsplace.webs.com/bondingwithyourbunny.htm
http://language.rabbitspeak.com/