Relaxing a Rabbit

Hi, my name is Aileen Carol Hogspot with Friends of Rabbits, I’m here talking about how to care for your rabbit. And we’re going to discuss relaxing your rabbit. Now I have a willing participant in front of me, but you may find some dismay in getting your own rabbit to be so willing, but be patient, this takes time and it takes a lot of practice. First, consult with your veterinarian to make sure that your rabbit is in good health to be getting any type of physical massage or relaxation techniques. You wanna make sure that they’re in good health, they don’t have any problems, because you don’t wanna cause any pain while you’re doing this. What you wanna do is, is you wanna sit on a chair that you’re comfortable with, and you're gonna split your legs, wear something that you're comfortable with, jeans, you may get scratch so you may wanna wear something that’s not short sleeve. What you gonna wanna do is, is you're gonna put your rabbit on your lap, spread your legs a little bit, tuck your rabbit down, put your hands under the front two paws, keep the paws out a little bit, and you may have some first resistance. Now, the pee is to key is to be firm, but not be too strong. You wanna show the rabbit that you are in control and that you’re comfortable with what you are doing because if you feel at all uneasy, the rabbit will know and they’ll be able to kick. What you wanna do is, you wanna take your hand along the back, and you’re gonna start working up the top, between where the ears are, nice gentle pressure. You’re using the pads of your fingers, you’re not using your nails, if your concern about using your nails, trim them ahead of time, that will make it really easy. So what you're gonna do is, is you’re gonna use your pads, and eventually as you do this, you’re gonna be warming up your hands. You're gonna feel that warmth being push in to the rabbit. You should be able to feel all the skin, which is another good reason because when you’re going over this, this helps you get in more contact with your rabbit’s health by being able to check their skin. I’m gonna take my hands down one side, split my hands, four fingers under here, my thumb’s on top, and I’m gonna roll my hands along those legs to keep those legs up. Now this kind of position you may find your rabbit in at home, this legs kick out, front paw straight, natural relax pose. So this isn’t a pose that we’re putting him in that they have never been in before. This is a relax pose for them, and what it does is, it gives you the opportunity to get access to that space above the tail that may need to be groomed, extra hair that like sits there that you can't get when you're normally grooming. So what you’re gonna do is pull those hunches up and roll your fingers, gently along the skin, you're gonna feel some muscles there, you’re gonna feel some jerking possibly with their legs when you’re doing this. You just wanna be firm, I have my fingers, kinda around their legs, but I’m not squeezing. I only got it between where their legs connects their body and I can roll my hands down here, I can feel the muscles here along the upper hunches. I could feel lower, right where their knees bent, and I can actually kind of twist them around a little bit if I find it needed to. This is actually very willing rabbit, yours may not be able to get in this position immediately. So let’s say your rabbit is not cooperating, and you still wanna try just that technique. You can turn your rabbit around to face you and you can still kick the feet out the same way and work it without having those feet facing you, if you’re having problems with them being flexible with that. After you’ve gotten your rabbit relaxed, what you can do is take them from that relax position on their stomach, and what you're gonna do is tuck your hand under, put your hand on the back, you're gonna kinda flip it like a pancake, take those ears back and you're gonna tuck their face, kinda between your knee. But you're not gonna squeeze, you're like a firm grip, just enough that they kinda just settle between your legs and the towel. What you're gonna do is, you're gonna start working your way down the stomach. The important part here is, you don’t wanna press too much, you can see that the arms are starting to go together, coz there’s a nerve there, and as I get close to that nerve, there’s the tendency for the rabbit to pull his arms together. So what you’ll find is, as you work with massage you should start to see the muscles loosen, you’re gonna probably feel some tightness. You may actually feel some spasms, what you're gonna do is, is you're gonna work that heat on your fingers, you're gonna work it around, you're gonna work small little circles their legs here, I can actually hold this leg up, if he’ll let me, you can hold this leg up, stretch the foot out, by just rolling my hand along the leg here, kick that leg out, feet are gonna stretch out, get nails, if I haven’t get this nails trimmed before I can get them now. Get those legs stretch out, I wanna get right here under the hunches where I was before, but I can work some of the other muscles, the smaller ones close to where the lower leg is. Then I’m gonna work my keep into there, I can go back here into the top, bring a little bit of the pressure here, very light, just enough where I’m feeling along the organs. Along the chest cavity, nice and tight, soft movements, you don’t want to do anything jerky, you don’t wanna immediately just throw your hand down the stomach there, they’re gonna expect consistent pressure and consistent movements and you wanna make sure that you continue that. Then a relax rabbit is really a happy rabbit, because this is part of having a good relationship with your rabbit is being in touch. It shows your rabbit that you’re not just there for food and water but that you truly are, you know, providing another pleasant experience. So maybe they’ll be more likely to come up on your lap and sit with you. So these are some great tips on how to care for your rabbit. Thank you for watching.