The New BunnyBuilding Trust to get to Acceptance
Getting your rabbit to accept you may feel like a losing battle in the beginning if you don’t have a very laid back rabbit. Rabbits that feel threatened will take on the “fight or flight” attitude, and may either attack YOU or just flee. Scared rabbits that attack are often labeled aggressive, but in fact they just need reassurance and time to adapt.
Many rabbits end up dumped because they weren’t given time to accept their new areas, or people just did not take time to build trust in their rabbits. Rabbits that did not get human interaction when they were small or rabbits that had bad experiences with humans are the ones that need more time to adapt and to learn to trust.
So, how do we get to the Acceptance phase? We start off like in the previous article, TRUST, by not smelling of strange things, and not making lots of noise.
Now to start interacting with your bunny:
Go and sit in the middle of his enclosure or play area with your cell phone or a book. Bonding cannot happen when they are in a hutch or a small cage and your rabbit does not deserve a caged life. Not talking of temporary cage time (overnight for example) when the bun has ample playtime outside of the confined space, but of people that permanently want to keep the rabbit(s) in a confined space. A rabbit must be able to run at least 4 jump- lengths if they are only in one area.
So, it is Playtime, and you let the bun out into the playpen. Go and sit right in the middle of the pen, talk softly to the bun, sing softly, read out loud, or do anything that will make the rabbit used to your voice. Do not attempt to touch the rabbit at all, don’t even make direct eye contact. The rabbit will then sense you are not a threat and will start to investigate you – come to sniff you, even jump on top of you. Don’t make sudden movements; don’t raise your voice at all.
Your VOICE is the key to building trust up to acceptance and love. The tone of your voice will tell a rabbit immediately what you feel, and how they need to react in the future. If you yell at your rabbit – or even a housemate – your rabbit will sense the anger and frustration and will hide from you.
When your rabbit starts to accept you, he/she will not run away or get aggressive the moment you get close but will start letting you touch him/her.
A rabbit that gets the chance to gain acceptance of his/her new environment, will soon be a joyful rabbit!