Socialization (+ a side note)

Question
Hi Mr. Meyer,

I was wondering if you could help me with how to socialize my a rabbit a little bit more. I've had an english mini lop for a little over a year now, and we love her.  She's intelligent, friendly, and very cute. :) She does have on weak point though, and that is handling her. Don't get me wrong, she loves to be near us, and loves to be stroked and have her ears tugged and everything. (she lies right down as we begin to, and grinds  her teeth and licks our fingers.) But she does not like to be held. It's a struggle to catch her in her hutch at times, and then when we're ready to bring her back outside as well. She doesn't like to be handled in any position, (she squirms and kind of "twitches" and often thumps her legs.) or simply be seated on someone's lap. This makes it difficult to bring her around with us, trim her claws, and enjoy her as much as we could.

Also, as a side note, we found some blood in her urine (she is not spayed). I found a good answer on here about it possibly being a cancer and then found an experienced vet near us, but my parents are reluctant to take me. Since the blood has only appeared once they would rather "observe" her, and she is acting really normally. I am will hopefully be able to convince them to take her to the vet today but if I cannot do you think I need to? Any words I could show them to convince them to take her would be a big help.

Thanks so much!
Charlotte

Answer
Hi,

well, rabbits in general are not fond of being picked up.  As prey animals, generally being picked up off the ground isn't a good day for them.

However, this dislike of being picked up, being hard to handle, is made more difficult when adult rabbits are not fixed.

So one thing to consider is that getting her fixed (by a good rabbit vet of course) should mellow her out a bit and make her less aggressive.  It may not make her more willing to be picked up but once picked up, she may tolerate it better.

The other thing to point out is that for females, getting them spayed will generally double their life span.  By age 5 or 6 over 80% of female rabbits will develop uterine cancer.  If you fix them, they can live a normal 10-12 years as an indoor house rabbit.  This is not opinion, it's pretty well fact in vet circles.