New doe skittish

[whaleyk98]

Hi everyone. So I picked up some new buns a little over a week ago and one of the EL does is very nervous. (She is 9 months old)I cannot touch her cause she goes crazy. If Im at the cage she will come up to me and if I leave the door open she will come up and sniff the top of my head,lol. But as soon as I go to reach out to pet het she runs frantically and will grunt at me. Im not used to this behavior cause all my other ELs are soo sweet. What can I do to make her feel more comfortable...and what the heck is all that grunting at me?? Is she swearing? Lol.

 

[elrohwen]

Can you bring her out of her cage and sit with her in a pen on the floor or something? She may just be very territorial of her cage area.

 

[whaleyk98]

Its so hard to get ahold of her to actually get her out of the cage. Im thinking of looking for a top open cage cause she fightss so much when I try to take her out. I have just been sitting at the cage with the door open and just talking to her. She probably is territorial of her cage space but there does come a time that I do have to take her out like to check her over and things and Im at a loss as to what else to do other than grabbing her and pulling her out. I really dont want to stress her though.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

when we got Lilli, a rescue, she was the dame way. We just started talking to her and let her come to us. After treats, vegetables, and generally letting her come to us for attention it took about a week to pick her up without a struggle. Time, patience and most important, bribery.

 

[dixonsrabbitry1]

If he/she can't touch her, then there is no way they'd be able to get it out of the cage.

I dealt with a rabbit like that once. She was never handled, picked up, or held at all. Would go nuts and start bouncing off the cage walls the minute I got near her. I finally gave up handling her, until she decided to settle down and came around on her own. Took a few months. I would say with yours, leave her be for awhile and see what she does.

 

[elrohwen]

She can get her out of the cage by allowing the rabbit to enter a pet carrier and transporting her that way.

 

[whaleyk98]

Thats exactly what I have been doing. She jumps right in the carrier. She just wont let me handle her =(

 

[elrohwen]

I would continue using the carrier to get her out, just so you can spend some bonding time with her outside the cage. I know you do need to handle her eventually, but my method would be to just build trust without picking her up for at least a few weeks. It's only been a week, so it's possible that she'll calm down a lot in the next couple weeks.

eta: Did her previous owner say anything about the behavior? Was she easy to handle for the other owner? That could indicate that she just isn't comfortable in her new home and needs some time.

 

[whaleyk98]

Yeah, the breeder handled her quite easily. Im sure she will calm down once she gets used to me and her new surroundings.