How to take a rabbit in and out of its cage

This video demonstrates how to take a rabbit out of a cage and put the rabbit back in again.

Taking a rabbit out of a cage is particularly challenging for people who are new to rabbits.  Therefore it is best to have someone who is experienced take the rabbit out for you so that you practice and get comfortable holding rabbits before you attempt to take them out of cages yourself.  Rabbits tend to struggle coming out and going back into their cages, so you need to be skilled at handling rabbits in order to perform this in a manner that is safe for the rabbit.

Note that when putting rabbits back into their cages, they commonly begin to struggle the closer they get to their cage. People who are new to handling rabbits often react to this by speeding up the process to get the rabbit into the cage as quickly as possible. This has the unfortunate side effect of rewarding the rabbit for struggling - the rabbit learns the harder it struggles, the faster it will get back into the cage. To reverse this effect, you should pause for a few seconds - essentially just freezing in place - whenever the rabbit starts to struggle. You will be impressed how quickly the rabbit learns that struggling slows down the process and it shouldn't be long before getting the rabbit back into its cage becomes much easier - and safer.

It also helps tremendously to put the rabbit in with its backside first, as opposed to face first. This makes it so that the rabbit cannot see its goal approaching, thereby greatly reducing the rabbit's anticipation.

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