Rabbits Don’t Like Being Picked Up
Rabbits naturally do not like to be picked up. In the wild, rabbits are prey to a large number of predators, and are always wary of anything approaching and grabbing them from above. Domestic rabbits retain this instinct, and will often struggle when picked up.
Rabbits have relatively fragile skeletons, so it is easy for them to injure themselves if they struggle whilst being carried. Occasionally you may need to pick up your rabbit, for example to lift it from its hutch, or to move it from one place to another, but it is best to do this as little as possible. If your rabbit always struggles or kicks when picked up, or you are not confident carrying your rabbit, it is best to use a pet carrier when you need to pick up your rabbit.
Get To Know Your Rabbit
Rabbits feel the most confident when they have their feet on the ground, so this is how you should spend the most time with your pet rabbit. Get down to your rabbits level by sitting on the floor with it, instead of picking it up to your level. Spend a lot of time getting your rabbit used to being near you and being stroked by you like this, and then the rabbit may be a little less scared of being picked up by you.
How Not To Pick Up A Rabbit
Rabbits should never be picked up by their ears, by the scruff of their necks or by their legs. Any of these can cause serious injuries to your rabbit. You should also never hold a rabbit in a way that it can easily jump from your arms, but do not squeeze it too tightly either.
Picking Up A Rabbit
To pick up a rabbit, place one hand under the rabbit’s chest and the other underneath its bottom. Lift the rabbit so that your hand holding the chest is a little higher than hand under the rabbit’s bottom.
This works for picking up your rabbit to move very short distances, for example from its hutch to the ground or into a carrying case, but should not be used for moving your rabbit far.
Carrying Your Rabbit
To carry your rabbit, use both arms and hold the rabbit against your body.
For a smaller rabbit, you can have the rabbit facing you, with all its feet against your body, with one of your hands around the rabbit’ upper body and the other under its bottom.
Alternatively, for rabbits of any size, hold the rabbit with its side against your body. One of your hands should support the rabbit underneath its bottom, the other should go across the rabbit’s upper body, with your fingers underneath supporting its chest.
Struggling and Kicking
If you are carrying your rabbit and it starts to struggle and kick, put the rabbit’s feet on the floor straight away. You can prevent it from running away by gently keeping hold of it with one hand on each side. Putting the rabbit down is important, because if it continues to struggle or kick, it could injure itself. You may also end up with some scratches from the rabbit’s powerful feet and nails
Calm your rabbit by stroking its head. If you need to carry on moving it, then gently pick it up again and move a little further.
If this happens every time you try to carry your rabbit, you should use a pet carrier.
How To Put Your Rabbit Back On The Floor
When you are ready to put your rabbit back down, make sure that you keep hold of it all the way down to the floor, in a similar way to picking it up. Your rabbit might think it can jump to the floor from your arms, but might injure itself doing this
Hi, i have two mini lop rabbits aged around five or six months, before i took them to the vets for their vaccinations they were very tame and loved being handled and cuddled but now both of them jump out of my arms and run away from me how do i get them to calm down again
?
Thanks x
Hi Louise
I haven’t experienced rabbits changing their behaviour after visiting the vet for vaccinations before, except for a brief period of sulking that normally lasts less than 2 days. If they have only been to the vet very recently, you may find they return back to normal within days.
If not, I recommend that if a rabbit’s behaviour changes for no apparent reason, they are taken to the vet for a health check, as there can be underlying health issues that cause this. As you have two rabbits, with both doing the same thing, this seems less likely, but always worth getting them checked, as the behaviour of one rabbit could affect the other.
You mentioned the rabbits are aged around 5-6 months. Rabbits become mature around this age, and can change their behaviour because of this, particularly if they are not neutered. If they are not neutered, I would also recommend discussing this with your vet, as it can reduce territorial and aggressive behaviour. Neutering also has health benefits for the rabbit, and will prevent unwanted breeding if you have a male/female pair of rabbits.
Other than this, patience with your rabbits is the best thing. Spend lots of time with them, stroke them and play with them a lot, and they will enjoy your company. Bear in mind that many rabbits don’t like being picked up, particularly as they grow bigger. They may be happier just sitting on the floor next to you instead.
My rabbit is fine when I pick him up, hold him, have him on my lap etc, but when I put him down he always struggles. He is never patient enough to wait untill I have placed him onto the floor. I’m scared he’s going to injure himself, and he has given me some nasty scratches whilst he’s been struggling!
This is his only problem. Is there anything I can do to make him stop?
Thanks
A lot of rabbits do this (including my two!). In the anticipation of getting their feet back on the floor, they struggle and jump too early.
It is difficult to prevent this behaviour, but you can deal with it as safely as possible. You are correct that it is possible for rabbits to injure themselves if they struggle and kick or jump from too high up. Also, as you have said, a rabbit kick can hurt the person carrying the rabbit too!
Hold your rabbit with one hand under the chest and the other under his bottom. A smaller rabbit can be held facing you resting its paws on you, but this can be an awkward position to put the rabbit down from as you need to turn it around while putting it down. You can also hold the rabbit sideways, again with one hand under the chest and the other under the rabbit’s bottom, with the side of the rabbit against you and the head slightly higher up than the hind quarters. Doing this also means your arms are partly wrapped around the rabbit to reduce the possibility of a kick.
When putting your rabbit down, try to hold him fairly firmly to prevent kicking, but not too tight so you don’t hurt him, and squat down with him as quickly as you can so that if he does jump while you are putting him down, he isn’t very high up.
If you squat first before starting to put him down, he is less likely to struggle than if you start to move him in your arms while you are still standing up.
Hope this helps!
Yes, it does help, a great deal! Thank you very much
You’re welcome!
My rabbits do not seem to like me, they struggle when i have them on my knee, they run down to the bottom half of the hutch when i open the top to get them out, so then i go to the bottom of the hutch and they run back up to the top. they struggle when i pick them up, so i started putting them in a carrier but they don’t like it. they scratch and struggle when i hold them, and they bite ,my clothes when i have them on my knee. i don’t know what to do, i have two dogs so i know that with dogs you tell them off when they do something like that by tapping them on the nose but i don’t want to do that to a rabbit because they are so small. my mum says they don’t like me because i don’t spend enough time with them but it’s hard to when i don’t know how to as they don’t like me. oh and they also run away from me when i have them on the garden and i need to put them back in the hutch. friends on mine have such tame rabbits that let you hold them and stroke them, mine don’t even seem to like being stroked. please help.
oh and my female also humps(can’t think of a better word for it) my male.
Hi Sarah
Rabbits can sometimes need a lot of patience to feel confident with you. Rabbits also do not like being picked up, so try to do this as little as possible, at least until they are more confident and comfortable with you.
Try spending time sitting on the floor with them, maybe in a small room or pen in the garden. Allow them to be around you without trying to pick them up or have them sit on your knee, and approach the rabbits very gently and softly. Do not approach them from above, as a rabbit’s natural instinct is to be frightened of anything approaching from above (imagine how you could look similar to a bird of prey or other predators approaching from above).
Some rabbits are confident with people immediately, others it takes more time, especially if the rabbits have not been used to being handled from being very young. It is difficult, but it will just take time and patience on your part for the rabbits to be happy with you. Do not try to rush them, and definitely don’t tell the rabbits off, shout at them or tap their noses because they will be more scared of you and will become less confident and trusting of you instead of more. Give them little treats (small piece of fruit or vegetable) when they do something you like instead of telling them off when they do something you don’t like.
The humping or mounting that you have described is dominant behaviour and is perfectly normal – many rabbits do this to show that they are in charge. Are both your rabbits neutered? Neutering can reduce this kind of dominant behaviour and can also make rabbits calmer and help with the problems you are having handling them. Also, as you have a male and female rabbit, you will have baby rabbits soon if at least one is not neutered.