about my rabbit

Question
Hi
 I am 15 and i have a 1 year old lop eared rabbit. I got him from my cousin because she has a son and hasnt got the time for him. The thing is that he doesnt like being pick up. When u go to stroke him he is fine. But as soon as u go to pick him up he struggles and runs of.

I have had 2 rabbits that have been the same. But i was able to train them mylsefs and now they love being picked up. But i am now finding it more diffcult with this rabbit. I dont like seeing him in the cage looking at me to say he wants some love. I love all my rabbits and i want to make him as loveable as my other 2.

Please can u tell me how to get him to like being picked up. Is there any easy training i can do.

Thankyou so much for your help.

               From amie and rabbit harvey

Answer
You may have just been lucky with your other two rabbits. Rabbits, by nature, are ground-dwelling
animals, and the vast majority of rabbits we deal with do not like to be
picked up, and struggle and fight.  In the wild, when rabbits
are picked up, it's generally by a dog or a cat or a hawk and means that
they are going to become dinner.

Having said that, you might want to visit this website,
http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-11/lift.html and make sure you are using
the techniques they mention.  At the end of the article, they talk about
making being picked up a positive thing.  Maybe at first you only pick him
up to take him out of his cage, or to take him to a play area.  Then, once
he is accepting of that, pick hiim up to put him on the couch to be petted
and allow him to jump off when she wishes.

Since he does love to be petted, you can lever that into being picked up,
so that he knows the bad thing will be followed by a good thing.  Rabbits
respond to positive reinforcement, so every time he is picked up
something he likes should happen right away.

For now, I just wouldn't try, a struggling rabbit can easily break their
back, and then he would be permanently paralyzed.  Try the techniques
just on the ground with him, but don't actually lift him, so he can get
used to being restrained.

Good luck, I hope that his love of petting overcomes his fear of being
picked up!

Gina