Gaining rabbits trust??

Question

I have two rabbits around 4 years old, one is albino and has problems hearing and seeing, I do special whistle for her to let her know Im there which both rabbits respond to, the other has problems with her teeth , because of this pressing on her tear ducts she gets a lot of discharge from her eyes and i have to give her eye drops everyday, because of this she is very wary of my touching her in the hutch, so i try to keep that to a minimum in there, outside of the hutch things are slightly better, i go out as often as i can throughout the day with small bits of food for them and they both come running over and sit with me and sometimes even put their front legs on me trying to get more food and they will let me stroke them for short time, but don't really let me do it without food, how can i gain their trust and let them know that my touching them can be a good thing, and to enjoy being stroked and trust me when i don't have food?? I know they have some trust of me , but its so hard because the slightest thing can spook them, especially a different smell on me, it could be really faint but i cant get anywhere near them if there is something there, the only thing they respond to from me is food, is there anything i can do?? any advice would really help, thanks. Sorry for the long question!

Answer 1

That's a tough one! It's usually pretty hard to gain an animals trust, especially a prey animal. I got my bunny Bandit, 8 days ago, but then had to bring him abck because he was biting, he went back yesterday, in exchange for a new little dutch bunny girl.

I named her Hollister Rose{Holliee} And it feels like she'll never trust me, but Bandit was the same way for the first couple of days.

What I would do, is bring treats they rarely get, like a small peice of lettuce{I mean, really little} Or half a strawberry.

LEt them sniff it, then make them come to you.

When they come go"Good, Boy/Girl"

And give them the treat, stroke them for maybe 20 seconds, then let them back in the hutch,

Try this 3-4 times every day, and if theres still no progress, try a diferent method, take them out more, and more, and carry them around for 5-10 minutes, give lots of treats in this time period, do this maybe twice a day with each of them.

Also, just spend time next to their cage/Hutch talking to them, and letting them smell you.

The method I'm going to use with Holliee, is Every few hours, today, I'll spend time down there with her, talking to her, letting her sniff me, and all that, then tomorrow, afternoon, I'll pick her up{Not supposed to pet her for 1 week}

I'll take her up to my room{She's currently in our exercise room}

And I'll start a little bit of litter training ,and treat giving.

Try using this method, {Not litter training, but talking, and soothing}

I hope this helped a little bit!

Please email me if you need ANYTHING!

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I'm available to help with any more questions, and I can give more advice.