Having rabbit by your side as companion was such wonderful moment. Rabbit’s temperaments are the same as their physical beauty; they were friendly, joyful, and calm at the same time. There so many variations of rabbit’s breeds, for the examples are Flemish Giant rabbit – the largest rabbit you would ever see, then Angora rabbit, Lionhead rabbit, Lop rabbits with all its variants, and others. Choosing rabbit as companion comes with prices.
You should obeyed all the fundamental requirement such as rabbit hutch (if you keep them outside) and rabbit cage (if you keep them inside). Moreover, specific nutrition is the most important subject to fulfill. Rabbits receive nutrition supply from their prime diet of hays and grasses, eat carrot and other vegetables and fruits as addition was a complete nutrition for rabbit’s body. Furthermore, the relationship between you and your rabbit would depend on how close the two of you.
Therefore, commonly people would choose bunny not the adult one to be pet, because the younger rabbit you’ll get it’s easier for you to build the bond. If pretty normal to bond with domesticated rabbit, but what about wild rabbit? In case, you have seen wild rabbit, fell in love to him, and you end up carried him inside your house and decided to keep him as pet – how to build the bonds with the wild rabbit? What shall we do?
Do not be worry, my dear friends, today we would discuss all about this subject to help to grow the relationship with your new pet wild rabbit.
Wild Rabbit
Wild rabbit is undomesticated rabbit species lives among the wildlife. Sometime – if you’re lucky enough – you would see this wild rabbit visiting your garden and yard looking for foods. The thing about wild rabbit is the legal regulation; some countries disallowed its people to catch and keep wild rabbit as pet. So, if you have attention to catch wild rabbit and keep it as pets, you better check your local law regulation about wild rabbit.
If you ever caught raising wild rabbit regardless the rules that have been applied, the authorities have a right to impose sanctions upon you. So, be thoughtful before you eliminate the plan, folks. Unlike domesticated rabbit, wild rabbit is harder to raise because their natural instinct is sharpened than the domesticated one. It might need a lot of works for you to gain his trust and finally have a strong bond with him.
But, hey, I’m not saying it is impossible – nothing is impossible if you truly mean it. Therefore, we would share some steps to apply in order to build a bond with wild rabbit
Tame the Wild Rabbit
Do not ever dream to have a wonderful relationship with wild rabbit if you can’t tame their wildness first. As I mentioned previously, wild rabbit have stronger intuition and instinct compare to domesticated rabbit. The reason is simple, wild rabbit has to able protect themselves from any kind of dangerous situation – something unnecessary for domesticated rabbit, because they have their human to protect them.
Therefore, the first thing you should have done is conquered his wildness. Do not be confused, we would show you step by step how to tame your wild rabbit:
- Let The Wild Rabbit Used to You
The first method of taming is make the wild rabbit familiar with your present. For the first days even weeks, your new rabbit would keep some distances with you; and it’s normal. This is how wild rabbit protect themselves in the nature, keep distance from danger; every unfamiliar present potentially a danger.
Therefore, give wild rabbit some space he needs to adjust with his new environment and you. Do not force to touch him, it only increases his fears on you; and of he runs from you, let it runs, don’t catch or try to stop him. Stop him from running would only increase rabbit’s stress level.
- Make Wild Rabbit know Your Smell
Prey animal like rabbit was depended on their five senses, included the smells. To soften his heart for you, you should made him comfortable around you. Therefore, the first thing you can do is introduce your smell to rabbit; make sure your cloth or other material you use is only contained with your scent.
Then, spend quality time with your rabbit. Sit or lay down close to him every day. Do not make sudden move, it would scare him; decrease your height to make impression that have no harm attention. Don’t forget to gently talk to him, spread your affection on him. Once he uses to you, he would absolutely love you.
Bond with Your Rabbit
- Learn Rabbit’s Voices and Gesture
To build a bond you should recognize and able to read your rabbit vocalization and body gesture. This is important because it was the way rabbit used to speak to you. Keep in mind, rabbit have a long range of vocal from happiness to fears, they used different vocalization to express what they feel. The examples are tooth-clicking used if rabbit feel content and comfort, squealing or whimpering used to described pain or fear, snorting was signs of attention seeking and affection or could be the invert – distrust and displeasure.
Besides vocalization, there are body language that need to be learn. You might familiar with a phrase of body language never lie – actually this applied to animal too. These are examples of some body languages made by rabbit: if rabbit hind legs stretch out it a sign that rabbit is in comfort position and relax, a tense body would always indicate displeasure things such as fear or anxious, if both rabbit’s ears back flat against his own body it means that he was feel safe.
- Know How to React to Your Rabbit
Always be patient to rabbit, I know it’s not easy but once he let you enter his life everything is worth it. Never rush to him or force him to come close to you, instead let him get close to you by himself. If your rabbit brave enough to come close to you, it means that you already being recognize and your rabbit trust you. Furthermore, you must know how to carry rabbit in the most appropriate way. You should always be gentle but firm, and make sure you are support his back and hindquarters.
Don’t forget to give him a treat! Rabbits are like children, they notice quickly people that give delicious treat to them – but, still don’t spoil you rabbit, my friends. So, these are methods you could use to bond with your new wild rabbit. Good luck and enjoy yourself – both of you!