Handling baby rabbits

[ladysown]

Most of my bunnies go to pet homes and breeder homes.

I find it a big irritation when I buy adult stock and find them next to impossible to handle for doing necessary tasks ...aka nail trims.

ERGO I don't want to raise rabbits like that. I also want them fairly bomb proof for the pet buyers.

My handling of baby bunnies is such
1. handle them twice a day when wee littles (eyes close in box) I pick them up. Turn them over, hold them at various angles, and put them back. Screamers get held til they stop screaming.
2. from day 10 on, they held twice a day, but I'll up the ante a bit. I'll hold them longer, I'll play with their ears, their feet, tickle their tummies.
3. from about 2 weeks. Box is tipped. I'll pull them out and do step two.
4. 2.5/3 weeks old. I'll treat them like a three year old does but in a safe controlled manner. Pick them up by their butt hair (one-two seconds NO screaming/pain/deliberate hurt) just more of a "this is what it feels like.. RELAX". takes two times and they don't fight or freak. WHY do I do this? three year olds are ROUGH on bunnies and want the bunny to NOT freak out if it happens so their back doesn't break if they struggle. I continue to hold them every which way I can think of. Not for long periods of time, but long enough to them to realize I will not hurt them or allow them to hurt themselves.
5. starting week four they come in the house for an hour here and there, they explore, my boy picks them up both hands around the tummy. They start to learn what it means to be tranced. They get forehead kisses. I learn how they like to be pet - some like nose rubs, others hard back rubs, others light tickles. They learn the basics of being set up, nail trims and holding still, getting teeth checked, and so forth.
6. step 5 continues until they are sold or eight weeks old. by then they know the ropes.
Then it's just a matter of reminding them once in a while.

I end up 95% of the time with adults I have No problems with doing feet trims, basic care with and so forth. I'm been told by other breeders they appreciate the time I take teaching these skills to young bunnies.

what do you all do with your babies to help them be easy to handle adults?

 

[Secuono]

Too many animals of all kinds, have a job and not enough time for me to bother that much. But tiny ones I always kiss, hug, rub, carry them around, etc. I love to "trance" the little rabbits. Just flip them on their backs until the slowly relax and look like they are sleeping. I do that first with any that fight me, then it's far easier to sex them, look them over and the such. It's like the trance makes their bodies release a calming chemical and it usually lasts long enough for what I need to do. I also sit them up in my hand on their bums or lay them in my arm after a trance. I just love to mess with them, lol. No weird lifting or anything.
But once they get 'less cute' I only handle when needed and again, I trance them first, so they are calm.

 

[skysthelimit]

The nest box has never been in the cage longer than 15 minutes. The babies come in with me after they are born, they get used to the sounds I make, the TV, radio, Phoenix the dog in the bedroom with me. I handle them a lot, turning them over, kissing their faces, rubbing their heads, gently pulling legs, ears, tail. Pretty much until the nest box is emptied. Then I pull them out and look them over at feeding time, I hand feed, and I love to put my face in the cage so they can give me bunny kisses.

__________ Sun Feb 19, 2012 4:15 pm __________

I make it a point to handle all of my animals, chickens, pups and rabbits. If I can't pet you, you get culled.

 

[Peach]

I hate that too! I handle all my babies as if they were going to be handled by a child (with great care of course) and just keep it up until they go home to their new owners. I can't stand it when I have a rabbit that wants to freak out 98% of the time. Even if it's me holding and petting them while watching a TV or doing homework, I know it's setting down a good foundation for the way they will act later in life. They are my show/brood rabbits, but they are also my pets. I love my buns way too much not to handle them.

 

[skysthelimit]

Someone at work asked me if the rabbits fought me when I butchered them. I told them why should they? They are used to me turning them all sorts of ways, how could they know what I was about to do? I cuddled and kiss mine, quiet them down, right before I deliver the fatal blow. Meat, brood, pet or show, there is some advantage to being able to handle them.

 

[akane]

We "torture" our kits. They become upsidedown bunnies, sitting bunnies, floppy eared bunnies, stand uppy eared bunnies... their tails get wiggled, their cute feet get rubbed and grabbed, their noses get stroked and even more so if it makes them compress their head in to cute little scrunchy faces... In the end you can do anything to the ones we've raised in the house and about half the ones outside. The other half will flail and scratch at first when you go to flip them over or something before settling down. When the inside raised kits go outside they are complete pests because they follow us everywhere getting underfoot and can be scooped up while the rest scatter as soon as you lean forward leaving those kits sitting alone going "what just happened?" "oh well continue eating" until they get picked up. I try to send those off to pet and breeder homes but it doesn't always happen for all of them.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

We "torture" our kits.

We call it "kitty torture time" when we do it to the kittens! Sometimes we sing a little ditty to them and make them dance... "Itttt's kitteeee torture time, it's kitty torture time, it's kitty torture time! Torture, torture, torture!!!" (Purr-purr-purr!)

I do the same kinds of things mentioned above- to any young animal- especially focusing on the areas that some animals don't want touched; feet, ears, toenails, hooves, teeth. Conditioning them early to having those areas messed with takes the future fight out of them. We also pick all of our cats up by the tail- as you stroke down their back, just gently lift the hind feet off of the ground, working up to all four. Gently and briefly, of course. We also make them "fly through the air" stretched out like show cats! I haven't gotten that intense with the bunnies yet, but it seems that just a little daily handling goes a long way, and makes for very friendly and curious bunnies.

I'd love to do as much with them as you do, ladysown, but I too have lots of animals, as well as my kiddos so don't have that amount of time to dedicate to them. It sure would be fun though! Who doesn't love playing with bunnies???

 

[currituckbun]

The ones we plan to eat have not gotten the attention that the ones we plan to keep or sell. I found it was too hard to kill them if I recognized them as the one that always sits on my lap just so. All are still handled but the meat rabbits are not brought into the house.
I almost choked on my stew one night when my son brought up a particularly sweet doe we had but decided to cull. Since then I don't play with the meat rabbits as much. But the ones that we are sure I won't have to dispatch, I love to bring them in after the first week until they go. We have bunny races down the hall with all the doors closed and of course bunny snuggle time on the sofa and living room floor. We have a laundry basket that we bring them in from the barn and mess with them until we go to bed.

 

[akane]

We were just testing whether the white kits from Hana or the black kits can make better bunny balls. Bunny balls always have to be judged from various angles including upside down. Then we slowly straightened and "hey you are upside down!". Compress in to ball again, roll buck upright, straighten "See you lived!" and they hop off to debate whether seeing the dogs is a good idea or not. When they get really wiggly about not wanting to go upside down you just squish my adults in to a bunny ball (front feet between back feet and nose near to tail) and roll them backward and they remember it being no big deal as kits even though you can't force them anymore at their adult size. Then they'll lay there while you check gender or breeding readiness despite being in a difficult mood.

 

[curlysue]

We handle babies as soon as they are born.pick them up carry them around.i had one litter in a cage at floor level i had trouble getting too(bad knee)they were a bit difficult too handle.

 

[akane]

I like my floor level cages despite bad knees. It's the 3rd level I had to go buy a ladder for and sometimes the 2nd level of my solid bottom cages has too big of lip to reach over for the back corner. The rabbits know this.