Ahhh suddenly won’t go to bed

[Bounce]

We’d been doing really well, shaking sweetie pot meant bun would hop into cage happily, until yesterday  She just does a cheeky ‘I’m being naughty’ back kick and hops off.  As I can’t walk very well I end up crawling round room trying to catch her, she gets out of reach and nonchalantly cleans her ears thinking it’s a new game!  I end up picking her up & dumping her in cage.

I had been letting her out when I get up but as she’d decided potty in my bedroom, which is meant to avoid accidents when shut in with me when I’m having a nap  rather than one in her cage was the one she prefers to use, even though she’s only allowed in there if I’m in room, I haven’t let her out till she’s done morning poopoos.  Which has involved chewing bars & getting water-pistolled – not a great start to the day for either of us!  

Could she just be rebelling because of the change of routine or is she just being a naughty bunny? I’m grounding her for 2 days so she can remember how to be a good bunny.  Any suggestions?

[Snowytoshi]

Rabbits do not understand that by locking them in a cage you’re punishing them. Rabbits need to be out for at least five hours every day, so you cannot ‘ground’ her for two days. If anything that will make her more frustrated and actually cause her to behave worse.

Is she spayed? That may help with her litter box habits.

At the end of the day you should get some veggies and lure her into (or near) her cage with that.

[Quantum]

Is your bun moulting? Nbs is normally excellent about bunny bedtime, but if he’s in the heavy-duty part of a moult, most treats won’t tempt him, he does more misbehaving behaviors and doesn’t want to cooperate with bunny bedtime. The beauty of the Xpen is that i can gentle herd him near it and “wrap” it around him.

[Bounce]

hiya, yep she is moulting and I have been introducing her to being groomed and handled, she doesn’t like it much but since she’s been in naughty bunny mode she’s been OK about being picked up which she wasn’t before, and can’t get enough of being tickled behind the ears, pretty much purring with ecstasy (which is how I’ve been able to catch her).  In the last week or so she’s also discovered wallpaper  & instead of sitting staring longingly at a door she thinks should be open she’s taken to jumping up & scratching at it like a dog .  Fortunately I’ve mainly been able to stop those. She does know when she’s being naughty, she looks around to see if I’m out of sight and does a little back kick – though the bunnyproofing is alarmed with Christmas bells and she now usually stops as soon as they start jingling, runs off doing another back kick and tries to look innocent by grooming a teddy bear, “me? No, I was nowhere near the wallpaper behind the radiator, I was looking after teddy”

I’ve only had her a couple of months, she’s a rescue bunny, and my first bunny, apparently her bunnymummy didn’t like sharing a cage and beat her up, but having seen how she cowers with men I suspect she also got hurt by a man   poor bunny.  She also was stuck in the pet shop for 3 months in the adoption section but everyone wanted fluffy babies not a 1 year old.  She likes her cage and’ll quite often hang out there even when open, normally she’s allowed to come and go most of the day; she’s usually only grounded when she’s been pooing & weeing somewhere other than her potty, or I’m too ill, or when she got spayed.  

How long does the moulting naughty bunny stage last?

[LBJ10]

Have you tried corralling off the radiator with nic grids? That would keep her from trying to get back there.

Do you try to catch her red handed? If you catch her in the act, then you can tell her no and redirect her. She isn’t going to make the connection if you “punish” her after the fact.

As for bedtime, how much food is she getting? If you have everything planned out right, she should be hungry come bedtime. Mine will fly into the cage when it is time to go to bed because they want those bedtime pellets.

Changing up her routine is likely to cause issues. Bunnies like routine.

I don’t really notice increased naughtiness when mine are shedding. Then again, Leopold sheds pretty much continuously. So I can’t offer much advice for that.

[Bounce]

Foodwise I put 3/4 eggcup of pellets in a treat ball, and I toss her fruit & veg around the room for her to find, any pellets left in ball at end of day & veg she hasn’t found gets put in her cage for supper. So that hasn’t changed.  Though I have given her a different cereal bar this week, maybe something in that is making her hyperactive or it’s filling her up to much, I’ve just removed it and replaced it with usual sugar free one.  Actually she hasn’t searched all veg out since then either.  And tomorrow morning I’ll go back to normal routine, even if that does mean her classing litter tray in my bedroom as her main potty   Hopefully that’ll get my obedient bunny who flies back to cage at one shake of sweetie pot back by the morning, therapeutic companion bunnies aren’t meant to actually cause you stress!

Yep, when naughtiness caught red-handed, a vet friend recommended I used a water pistol and ‘Bad bunny’ when NO! doesn’t work which felt really mean to start with, but has worked. Generally I find a new naughtiness stops after a few days, it’s just not worth getting wet ears for! and sometimes just picking up the water pistol is enough and saying No when she’s looking tempted is enough to redirect her attention.  She has plenty of toys, so naughtiness isn’t due to boredom and I’m semi-housebound so although she has no fellow bunnies she has lots of company.

[LBJ10]

What is an eggcup? What kind of food is it? 3/4 a cup sounds like a lot. What’s this cereal bar you’re talking about? That doesn’t sound like something a rabbit should eat.

[Bounce]

You’re not from UK are you? You put boiled egg in it to eat it, mine is 5cm across, 5 cm tall and tapers to 2 cm. Food is pellet form so can’t pick out favourite bits. It’s the amount recommended. Cereal bar is one of those hard rabbit treats you hang from top of cage once a week, they encourage gnawing

[Quantum]

Check the ingredients list on the cereal bar–buns don’t need sugar or a lot of fruit and some of those things are loaded with both, along with nuts which are a real no-no. As for an eggcup, LBJ10, think of something roughly the size around and high as about 3/4 of a large egg–it’s not much at all. I know Nibs hits food *hard* when he moults–growing more fur takes a lot of calories. And Bounce, the moult might explain the behavior; I have a grumpy, defiant, “I don’t need no steenking bedtime!” bunny when he’s in the middle of one.

[Bounce]

So bunnies having bad hair days get PMT!

It’s the amount of pellets vet & petshop said, Vet nurse quizzed me on her diet as she was overweight, I’d only had her 10 days so not guilty of overfeeding her. Pellets are only part of her diet, she also gets 1 sprout, 1 inch carrot, slice of apple or pear, a few florets of broccoli, some broccoli stump and a bit of red cabbage. She always has a good supply of dandelions, nettles, hay & fresh grass to graze on. Her treat bar is to encourage to gnaw, and her bribery sweeties are vitamins etc for shiny coat, odour control etc

[Snowytoshi]

Posted By Bounce the funny bunny’s adopted mummy on 01/01/2013 02:30 PM

So bunnies having bad hair days get PMT!

It’s the amount of pellets vet & petshop said, Vet nurse quizzed me on her diet as she was overweight, I’d only had her 10 days so not guilty of overfeeding her. Pellets are only part of her diet, she also gets 1 sprout, 1 inch carrot, slice of apple or pear, a few florets of broccoli, some broccoli stump and a bit of red cabbage. She always has a good supply of dandelions, nettles, hay & fresh grass to graze on. Her treat bar is to encourage to gnaw, and her bribery sweeties are vitamins etc for shiny coat, odour control etc

Most treat bars have ingredients that are very harmful to rabbits. It would be helpful if you told us what the product was so we can look it up. A much better thing to encourage gnawing are timothy cubes which are just compressed hay. Rabbits should have hay as 90% of their diet anyway, so timothy cubes are very good for them.

[LBJ10]

No, I’m not from the UK. A cup here is A LOT, so that is why I was asking. Even my dog doesn’t get a whole cup of food. I agree with the others about these cereal bars. Sugar is bad, nuts and seeds are bad, and the things we have here that is compressed who knows what (but claims to be 100% edible) are bad. That is why we are curious to know what these cereal bars are.

[Quantum]

I grew up in an odd household (for the US), so we had egg-cups (and egg cozies, for that matter). At most, 3/4 of an eggcup would be a couple tablespoons of pellets.

[Bounce]

Posted By Quantum on 01/01/2013 08:53 PM

I grew up in an odd household (for the US), so we had egg-cups (and egg cozies, for that matter). At most, 3/4 of an eggcup would be a couple tablespoons of pellets.

Really, how do Americans eat soft boiled eggs?  Everyone needs to dunk soldiers in boiled eggs now again

BTW, for anyone thinking egging armed forces is some weird British custom… soldiers are buttered toast cut into slices you dunk into soft boiled eggs, eggs sit in egg cups, and if you want to keep them warm you put an egg cosy (usually in the form of a knitted chicken) on them just like a sweater   yummy

[Bounce]

her usual sweetie bars are http://www.petsathome.com/shop/wild-berry-sticks-2-pack-for-rabbits-by-pets-at-home-15722 You hang them up so it’s a case of standing on back legs & stretching to get them, giving her a workout. They’re baked onto wood, which must still taste of fruit as Bounce, not normally into chewing wood will happily gnaw on She gets one a week and the empty sticks are left in her favourite places for casual gnawing.  I don’t know if they ship internationally though.

and her sweeties are http://www.markandchappell.com/global/small-animal/nutritional-support/odor-care-treats-small-animal.htm  That’s a US company, only 3 calories, and gives her a very shiny coat as well as reducing BO (bunny odour).  Normally she loves them and well fly to cage for bed as soon as I shake the pot

I read the ingredients and only get sugar free ones, she was overweight when I adopted her as her food hadn’t been rationed and she hardly got any time out of her hutch.  The only food she doesn’t have to work for is grass, hay, nettles & dandelions which are in her castle, box, potty & cage.  All her pellets go in her treat ball so they come out as she rolls it and she has to forage for her fruit and veg as scattered around rooms, in tunnel, on a chair, under table etc.  It keeps her busy

[Snowytoshi]

As many of us said previously rabbits should not have seeds and those treats bar do contain them. Seeds can actually cause a rabbit to be more obese and are bad for their digestion. There are many other ways you can encourage chewing without giving your rabbit seed bars.

[Author]

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