When you have a rabbit, it’s important to let it roams around your house to avoid it feeling stressed up. But there are also times when your rabbit needs to be on its cage since it might be not a good idea to keep it outside the cage all the time. But then, it might be hard to put it back to its cage since it tends to hop away. But don’t worry, there are some ideas that might help you to bring your beloved bunny back to its cage. Here are 8 ways to get your pet rabbit back in its cage, and these ways are very easy to do for everyone! So, prepare your pen and note because these tricks will make your life with your bunny goes better!

Is it possible to get your pet rabbit back in it cage?

Rabbit is quite similar to dog in some ways, and being trained to some basic commands is one of them. Rabbit can understand some basic commands from human, but it might need patience to make it fully understand what we command it to do. Commanding it to go back in its cage is an example of command that you can train on your bunny, and here are ways to get your pet rabbit back in its cage.

1. Verbal cue

Rabbit can understand well when we command it verbally, but you need to train it patiently to make sure it knows what we want it to do. You can say “home” or “bed” as you point into the cage. You need to do this over and over when you want your bunny to get back in its cage, but don’t force them to go inside the cage with a louder or harsher voice. State the word with a calm and clear tone so it won’t scare your bunny away.

2. Treat

Treat is a very good attention-grabber for your bunny to lead it back to its cage. You can bring a handful of treat in your hand and make sure your bunny notices it and lead it slowly back in its cage, or make a trail of treats that lead into its cage and just wait your bunny to eat the treats and get into the cage. You can also set its bowl filled with treats and put it inside the cage as the final praise for the bunny. But doing this too much might lead to an overweight bunny, so you might to consider using another way to bring you bunny back in its cage. You can read more in useful tips to make your rabbit busy at home to know more about their favorite treats.

3. Chute

Chute is also an easy way to bring your bunny back to its cage. This also provides only one way that your bunny can pass through to get back in its cage. If your bunny feels scared to get through the chute, you can put the treats trail leading back into the cage. And if it still unwilling to hop through the chute, you might need to gently put it into the chute. As for the chute, you don’t need to spend any money to make one. You can set series of cardboard boxes on two sides of the cage to make path leading back to the cage.

4. Clicker

When you want to grab your bunny’s attention without using treats, clicker might be a good option. It available in pet stores, or you can use writing pen or mechanical pencil as other options as well. When you use the clicker, make sure to give time gap between each click to make sure that your bunny is paying attention to the sound. But when you notice some signs of distressed bunny, you need to stop using the clicker and try again next time when your bunny calms down.

Check here: Guide to Buy a Healthy Rabbit for New Owner

5. Clicker and treat

Combining clicker and treat is also a good option to lead your rabbit back in its cage. You can start to gain its attention with a click, and when your rabbit comes toward you, give it a reward. Then you can start to move closer to the cage and do the same series until it hops into the cage. This way is more efficient to get your bunny back in its cage. But again, you need to be patient if your bunny can’t understand what you want it to do immediately. You can try the same method repeatedly so your bunny will slowly understand what you want it to do.

6. Treat and verbal cue

Just like clicker and treat, combining treat and verbal cue is also a great option. Leaves a trail of treats and when your bunny hops in front of the cage, you can state the verbal cue to emphasize what you want it to do. Remember to give some time gap in each click to make sure that your bunny won’t get scared with the sound, and also make sure to state the verbal cue clearly and calmly. Again, you need to be patient if your bunny can’t understand your command. Train it regularly to make them used with the command.

7. Avoid quick movements

While leading your bunny back to its cage, try to move slowly and don’t make the bunny feels threatened. Rabbit judge quick movement as an attack toward itself so it will instinctively hops away from the threat source. Make sure you do the whole steps slowly and calmly, and if the bunny still feels threatened you can stop trying and just let your bunny calms down. There are plenty of time to try again, so you don’t have to be upset if your bunny doesn’t want to get into the cage.

8. No punishment

This is one of the most important things to pay attention when you lead a bunny back to its cage. If your bunny doesn’t want to get inside the cage, don’t give any punishment at it such as yelling or even rough physical contact. It will lead to a stressed bunny and it might turn into an aggressive one if it got worse. Just leave the bunny and try again the method another time, it will take some time but at least you won’t have any distressed bunny around you.

So those are 8 ways to get your pet rabbit back in its cage which is quite easy to do and costs you little to do so. Please note that the key of succession in this mission is patience, so if your bunny doesn’t cooperate with you then it’s okay. You can stop the method, let you and your bunny calm down, and try again another time. There are lot of chances, so keep it up until your bunny understand what you want it to do. Good luck with training your hopping buddy to get back to its cage!