How do I avoid getting "hotot hands"

[Leaf]

Ansel, my trouble child.



No matter how I try to pick her up she panics. Leather gloves throw her into a frenzy. Trying to get around her body and behind her butt earns me bites.

I just tried to pick her up out of her cage by lifting under her front armpits.

I now have a case of Hotot Hands. This usually flares up when the back feet whip up and kick with GREAT force.

If you cannot envision this malady I now suffer from I'd be happy to share with you, some bloody pictures. After all, I'll be sporting the HH's this holiday season for all friends and family to see!

 

[maherwoman]

Have you tried throwing a towel on her? What about putting her in a carrier (on top of a towel) then opening the top half of the carrier, folding the towel over, and picking her up from there?

 

[LadyBug]

Two Words Leaf.

~*BRIBE HER*~

treats, treats, treats.

Or sit quitly by her cage and do somethig.

not that i speak from bun experance, just just what my(animal) gut tells MIGHT work.

Hope your hands feel better but it could be worse, trust me! Mom cut her hand on a window(went ALL the way through) and had to get stiches(and it was the hand she writes with). but here's the kicker. it was two weeks before x-mas AND we hadn't done the ginger bread houses yet(they were baked but not put together or decerated!)

Feel Better!

 

[naturestee]

LOL at hotot hands! Can you let her hop out of her cage and then pick her up? For little buns a quick scooping motion works well. My buns always hated being picked up or messed with if they were in their cages, especially the girls. Especially before they were spayed. And I'm getting lots of practice with that at the shelter, where the buns aren't speutered until they're adopted. Joy.

The towel thing does work, but don't do it often because it can really scare a bun. I used it a few times on Sprite but only when I really needed to. I know Angieluv said the shelter workers used to do that to Oberon and it scared the **** out of him. He must have started snapping at them too because they labeled him as aggressive.

Maybe start giving her a treat before and after picking her up? I always give a treat after picking my buns up and they know it. If I'm not fast enough they run around my feet thumping until they get it.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

LOL and they say hotots are mean..... what gave anyone that impression?

Actually, I think they are just high-strung and sometimes don't trust..... hence hotot hands.

I would use a towel, that's how we have to catch Clover - then I put a hand on her head so she can't slip through and scoop under her butt. Oh it's so much fun!!!

:grumpy:

 

[maherwoman]

Oh! I didn't realize that...I've literally not tried it, myself...just have tried either picking up my buns by my bare hands (putting my head underneath chest and front legs, then sliding other hand under their bum and back legs while lifting) and the towel-in-carrier idea (which was from Spring, btw, and worked great with Fiver).

So, ultimately, I will stick to advice on things I've actually TRIED, lol...

Hugs!

naturestee wrote:

The towel thing does work, but don't do it often because it can really scare a bun. I used it a few times on Sprite but only when I really needed to. I know Angieluv said the shelter workers used to do that to Oberon and it scared the **** out of him. He must have started snapping at them too because they labeled him as aggressive.

 

[naturestee]

The towel thing does work, I just wouldn't recommend using it unless you really need to. Bo's Clover is a cottontail, not a domestic rabbit so I can see needing it. With Sprite, I was able to get her more accustomed to being picked up. She still hated it and got mad but wasn't quite so hard to catch. And she generally liked me too much to hurt me.

BTW Leaf, don't know if you know my girls but Sprite was a Dwarf Hotot, as is her sister Fey who is a sweetheart.

 

[maherwoman]

Aah...gotcha.

naturestee wrote:

The towel thing does work, I just wouldn't recommend using it unless you really need to. Bo's Clover is a cottontail, not a domestic rabbit so I can see needing it. With Sprite, I was able to get her more accustomed to being picked up. She still hated it and got mad but wasn't quite so hard to catch. And she generally liked me too much to hurt me.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

naturestee wrote:

The towel thing does work, I just wouldn't recommend using it unless you really need to. Bo's Clover is a cottontail, not a domestic rabbit so I can see needing it.

Yeah, she becomes 10,000 legs, 500,000 claws, and a giant piece of furry jell-O when we try to pick her up any other way!

You know, she's never offered to bite us. She has hiked her butt up to spray (which she's never really done except she got Lexi one time LOL).

Amazing little animals.

 

[Roxie]

HMMM. Well Roxie is half hotot. I would recommend peting her head until she puts it down. Then flip her into a trance using the crease of your elbow. I would also recommend practicing on a stuffed animal.

Good luck!

Love, Hannah

 

[Leaf]

Here's my right hand:



http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42/mineralsolutions/Photos502.jpg



(I know I don't have "pretty" hands but they are honest and hard working!)

:disgust:

 

[Munchkin]

Ouch! You poor thing.
The way I deal with rabbits that get stressed about being picked up is to press down gently on their head before attempting to pick them up. I get their butts backed up against my legs, and scoop. Wear long sleeves for added protection, but if you approach it like this - you should find they settle down. They still try to escape being picked up, but once cornered all of mine settle down and let me pick them up without a struggle.

 

[maherwoman]

Owww!! I've gotten cuts like that. When I was first trying to figure out how to give Maisie medicine when she had her gas/slight stasis episode (July of 06), I got raked up and down my arms with those powerful hind feet...not pretty!

Quickly thereafter, I learned to put her on a waist-high table and give her meds with her standing there, and my hands holding her chest and bum while at the same time giving her the meds.

Boy, I tried everything with that girl, and eventually learned how to pick her up so that she didn't feel the need to struggle (like I think I mentioned above, hand under armpits and chest, and then sliding my hand under her bum while lifting and bringing her directly to my chest). I tried a burrito, I tried everything else...and in the end, she preferred knowing where she was going, and after the first couple times, she was resolved to being picked up for whatever needed to happen. I think she knew I was doing good by her by giving her medicine she needed. Poor girl...

Maisie's part nethy dwarf, too, btw...you can see it in her ears. The more she matures, the more I can see it in her...

You can kinda see the Nethy in her, but things are a bit bigger. For instance, she's just about 5lbs, but she's got the right body shape, she's chinchilla (form of agouti), but not the BROWN agouti, she's got the right SHAPE of ears, but at least an inch longer than your avg Netherland Dwarf. If her eyes weren't reflecting that red, you'd also be able to see how DARK they are...and BIG...like Nethies.

Edited to add: I think it was her mom that was the Nethy (small white bunny). Her dad was some form of chinchilla-colored lop, and judging by her ear length combined with her more triangular face shape, probably a form/mix of mini-lop. I never got to see her parents first-hand, so I don't know for sure...

Sorry for so many pictures...I'm just so proud of my beautiful little girl. :biggrin2: