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When handled around nursing time during the first week after birth, the fear response of rabbits toward humans is reduced later on. But although this might be crucial for practical application, the duration of daily treatment necessary to achieve this effect was not known so far. In the present experiment, we investigated whether even a minimal human contact, characteristic of animal caretaking in intensive rabbitries, can reduce avoidance. Newborn New Zealand rabbit pups were exposed to one of the following handling treatments in the first week of life: (1) full handling, within 0.5h after nursing, which consisted of removing the pups of the nest and weighing them (about 5min/litter), (2) full handling performed 2h after nursing with a treatment similar to the previous, (3) routine check, within 0.5h after nursing, which consisted of touching the pups by the stockperson to see whether all pups were alive (about 5s/litter), (4 …