First Few Weeks in a New Home
Edited by Irene King, article from the House Society website
 
During these early days your new family member may not "be himself". During this volatile period, the most important contribution you can make is set up a friendly and safe environment

When you first bring home a rabbit one of the most useful tools for helping him to feel at ease is your imagination. How do you and your household look to him? Add a little common sense, a dash of patience, and a few basics of rabbit care and behaviour, and you've got a recipe for a lifelong friendship.

While you are observing and learning about him, bear in mind that during these early days he may not "be himself." He may be too scared to show you how affectionate he's going to be once he recovers from the shock of relocation. He may have too much on his mind to be anything but perfectly box-trained; in a few weeks, when he's feeling more at home, he may need a course in Litterbox101. She may be feeling so insecure that territorial marking is almost an obsession (if he/she's not neutered/ spayed, do it now!). He may be too scared to let you hold or touch him; or he may be too scared to tell you he doesn't like to be held. Or he may be one of those rare mellow, confident individuals whose new family needs none of the following suggestions.

The first couple of days:
It is advisable to keep bunny inside for the first few days even if he will be an outdoor bunny. Put him in a small cage that he can only see out of from one or two sides and place him where he can get to know your every day noises, your footsteps, the TV/radio, talking over dinner. Let him out on your lap for a short 5-minute quiet patting spell talking softly to him constantly (please make sure children know that excited squeals and loud talking are very frightening!!). Then put him back and repeat this about 3-4 times each day. By doing this he learns that his cage and your lap are both places of safety. After you have done this for a couple of days you can put him in his out door cage and you should find that instead of hiding in the back corner of the cage when you go out to see him he will have heard your familiar foot steps and come to the front of the cage ears forward with curiosity wondering what treat you are going to bring him. Rabbits of course do become friendly and happy companions without this step but it does speed up the process considerably especially with some rabbits.

Home Base
Set up a small area or roomy cage (or both). Use a laundry room, bathroom, hallway blocked off with baby gates, or part of a larger room sectioned off using furniture, boxes, or other objects he can't scale or knock over. Choose a spot that gets some regular, not-too-noisy traffic, where he can see and hear but not be trampled or frightened by your daily routines. Start housetraining by providing at least one or two litter boxes. A fresh layer of grass hay on top will both encourage and reward him for hopping in. If you know what brand he was eating, keep him on it for a while to minimize risk of digestive upset. Fresh water in a bowl or bottle, or both, should be available at all times. Give him a cardboard box with two bunny-size doors cut, and a towel draped across one area of his cage if it is wire, as hiding places. Start him on the road to good chewing habits by removing forbidden and dangerous temptations such as houseplants, electrical cords, and books. Provide permitted alternatives such as untreated straw, untreated pine off cuts, or sea-grass mats, cardboard tubes and boxes, plastic baby-toys for tossing, fruit-tree branches (don’t give him all the toys at once but try and change them every week), and plenty of fresh hay.

Great Expectations, and what to do about them:
As with good housetraining habits, building a friendship may take time and patience. If he's not ready to be petted yet, caress him with your voice. Talk to him, or to anyone while in his presence. Many rabbits seem to enjoy listening to their humans talk on the phone. Hang out with him in rabbit fashion, by sitting quietly on the floor. Show him that he can hop over to you, take a few get-acquainted sniffs and gentle nibbles, and then hop away again. This hands-off approach paves the way to a hands-on friendship, especially with shy or traumatized rabbits. As her fear diminishes, her curiosity increases. Place a small treat or two (a sprig of parsley or carrot-top, a sliver of apple) and a few toys on the floor next to you, to make his visit even more rewarding.

If no other humans are around, you might want to say your first few words in Rabbit. Show your new friend how happy, content, calm, and delighted you feel in his company. You may not be able, as he is, to "comb" your long silky ears between your hands--but you can pretend to wash your face the way he does, using hands and tongue. When he responds by grooming himself, it means you're way cool, practically an Honorary Rabbit.

When adding a rabbit to our family, we may be ready right away to give and receive generous amounts of love and affection. Maybe that's because we're not the ones who have just arrived in a strange place, populated by foreigners who don't speak our language. Imagine how you would feel if the size difference between you were reversed: a giant hand reaches down and plucks you from your home. It sets you down on a planet of 2-ton, 30-feet-tall beings--a sort of giraffe/elephant hybrid. How long before you'd feel relaxed? What would be your instinctive reaction when one of these giants came lumbering over? Is that a smile on the enormous creature's face, or a grimace? Only time (plus the occasional raisin or banana slice) will tell your new companion that she's among friends.