"I can't pick up my rabbit" is a phrase heard frequently by Educators. In reality, the rabbit involved has simply figured out how to get away with not being picked up. All too often, the person will bring their bunny to MCRS and then stand, amazed, as we simply pick up their rabbit.
Even if you want to respect a rabbit's right to "be a rabbit" and not want to cuddle or be held, you still need to be able to pick up the rabbit. There are day to day reasons, like toenail trims and trips to the vet, and emergency reasons like tornados and fire.
Understanding some of the reasons why your rabbit may be acting out or reacting negatively to your attempts may help you deal with the behavior. Rabbits are prey animals, and as such, being picked up is equivalent to becoming someone's dinner in their minds. Again, the rabbit does not need to like being picked up, held, or cuddled, but you need to be able to pick up the rabbit for her own safety. Other common reasons that rabbits dislike being picked up include:
How do you train yourself and your rabbit so that you can pick her up? First, prepare yourself and your area. A rabbit who is not used to being handled is probably going to resist by kicking, scratching, and/or biting. Wear long sleeves, long pants, and, if you know your rabbit is likely to bite, sturdy gloves. Most people who drop a rabbit do so out of surprise when the rabbit hurts them. Now, choose an area. You want someplace relatively small so that the bunny can't simply hop away from you and hide and so that you don't end up chasing, and consequently traumatizing, the rabbit. Bathrooms or exercise (puppy) pens work fairly well.
Since one of the common fears that we hear is the fear of dropping a rabbit, start low to the ground. Then if you drop the rabbit there are only a few inches between your hands and the ground – you don't feel guilty and the rabbit doesn't get traumatized. Sit or kneel on the ground and scoop or lift the bunny onto your lap. Hold the rabbit on your lap for a few seconds and then let her go.
The key to actually making this a repeatable process is: do not let the rabbit down until she has been at least marginally "good" for a few seconds. If you let her go while she is acting up she only learns that bad behavior gets her the desired result (freedom). We actually take it a step further and use a "release word" to let the bunnies know that they may go. In our house, the word is "okay." If you must let the bunny down, because the only alternative is to drop her, then pick her back up immediately.
Once both you and the bunny are fairly comfortable working at the floor level, change the routine a little. Pick up the bunny and then sit in a chair, hold her while you walk around, or just while you stand. Recognize that you will probably lose a little ground each time you change the routine, but eventually both you and the rabbit will become more confident, and the whole process will be less stressful for you both.
How do we train the bunnies (and the cat, by the way) to a release word? It's actually fairly easy and is accomplished while teaching the bunny that being held isn't a bad thing. When the bunny has been good and is getting ready to hop away from you, say the release word. We often encourage the rabbit to hop away by gently nudging her. After the bunny has all four feet on the floor, tell her she's a good bunny and, if you like, offer her a small treat like a piece of parsley. As the bunny gets better about being held, start using the word when the bunny isn't trying to leave you and then gently nudge the bunny to get her to hop away. Be consistent and only use your release word for that purpose. Once your bunny seems to understand what the release word means, you can stop nudging the bunny and allow her to stay with you until she is ready to leave after you tell her she is free to go.
One technique that has been very helpful in our foster home is to have a specific space, like a bathroom counter, that is the place where "bad" things like medication and toenail trims happen. We only use that space for things we know the bunnies probably won't like and we try never to do those things in another spot. In this way, the rabbit learns that if you pick her up and go to the couch it's "safe" and that if you go to the designated spot, something scary is going to happen.
Now, there is one more step to this process, and it is perhaps the most important: practice. Even once you and your rabbit are both comfortable with the process of pickup and release, you need to practice so that you both remember and so that you don't accidentally get back in the habit of only picking up your rabbit when you intend to do something, like trim nails.
A large part of handling your rabbit is simply confidence-learning that rabbits are not quite as fragile as you probably believe and that, as prey animals, rabbits are designed to twist, turn, wiggle, and kick all without breaking their backs or otherwise harming themselves. By simply holding and releasing the rabbit, you are teaching the rabbit tolerance at the same time that you teach yourself confidence. In the process of gaining confidence in your abilities to handle your rabbit, you are also teaching your rabbit that being handled does not always equal "bad things happen."