Please help me. I’m desperate…Horrible behavior problem.

[EriBear]

My rabbit, Gumdrop, has a horrible digging problem. I let him run around the living room but only if someone is in there with him. If no one is in there with him, he tries to jump in a corner next to our couch and eat the cords. He has a playpen that surrounds his cage and a lot of the time we will let him out into his playpen but almost as soon as he is let out into his playpen and left alone, he destroys the carpet. There are at least 3 spots that he’s almost dug up bare. I don’t think he’s ingesting the carpet fibers and we try to stop him whenever we see him but he still continues it.

I’ve seen posts about what to try but nothing has worked. He has lots of toys to play with, that he refuses to even touch. We’ve sprayed him with a squirt bottle but he just shakes it off and continues. I’ll pick him up when I catch him and put in him in his cage and close the door for a time-out but as soon as he comes out he goes back to the carpet a while later. 

He has a towel that he plays with. I thought the towel might help but he just keeps pulling up the carpet. I don’t know what else to try. I don’t believe in getting rid of pets once they come into my home but I’m getting desperate. 

Gummy is a little over a year old. He is not neutered and he is my only rabbit. I have an older dog but they get along. I’m hoping to get this problem resolved by the time I move into an apartment in August. 

[{Alli}]

Neutering will probably help a ton. Is there a reason you aren’t neutering? Have you tried a big piece of cardboard or a box filled with shredded paper?

[EriBear]

We’re considering neutering him now. He wasn’t neutered before because I had only had him a few months and he was my only rabbit so I didn’t think I needed to. But now his behavior has gotten a lot worse. And he has paper,cardboard, and boxes to play with but he’s afraid of boxes with newspaper in them. He won’t even get in it. He’ll only play with single pieces of paper.

[{Alli}]

Hmm, neutering might be the best option.

[Bam]

Neutering is your best chance imo. With animals it’s common for natural behaviors that can’t be performed and completed (in your case, the urge to procreate) to be redirected into other behaviors, many of which we percieve as destructive. F ex when chickens can’t pick food from the ground, they may peck at each other’s feathers and damage their plumage and cause actual wounds and so on.

Neutering also have a general calming effect on a male since testosterone is an “activity”-hormone. 

[LBJ10]

Yes, neutering him is your best bet. He’s just a busy little bee!

In the meantime, buy something heavy to put over the dig spots. I bought large, 12×12 tiles to put down. If you cover up the spot and they can’t access it, often times they will “forget” about it.

[Lee]

Neuter sounds like your best bet!

I would be covering the carpet in the playpen area with something else that you don’t mind him digging at, could be low pile carpet for instance, carpet tiles as LBJ suggested just so he can’t actually access the carpet to dig.

Hope you can get it resolved.

[Author]

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