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BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum BEHAVIOR My rabbit is a thief!

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    • Jessica
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        So Amelia has turned into 4.5lbs of theiving bunny. Her favorite thing to steal is any food that i eat. At first it would occasionally be an empty food container, she would have it taken away and get told no. Then she started to try to steal takeout containers, then she would try to take what ever I’m eating off of my plate. She is going after foods rabbits dont eat, like chicken. One of her rooms is our dinning room and she will just jump onto the table to be part of dinner. It’s turned into a constant fight with her. We giver her pellets or salad when we sit down to eat, but she would rather have our food. I try locking her up if shes being really persistent with us, but she is so ballistic I’m worried that she is going to hurt herself. We have tried eating in the kitchen but she just jumps, climbs or knocks over the gate to get to where I’m eating.

        Now if the food part wasn’t bad enough, she steals anything and everything that is mine. She steals my knitting needles, or whole knitting project. If i take something out of a plastic bag she steals it. If there is any of my laundry outside of the bedroom she will steal it and take it to her cage. She doesn’t steal anything of my husbands but I’m clearly the one she is bonded with and she will occasionally steal the dogs toys but he also steals hers.

        Is this just a teenage bunny thing? She’s almost 19 weeks old and is spayed. Is there anykind of training that will help curb the behavior? I cant find a “punishment” to curb bad behaviors, she doesn’t care about being told no, thinks being moved is a game (she jumps on the table, i put her down, she jumps right back up), she doesn’t feel/care about being squirted with a water bottle, and she thinks a jar with coins being shook means come…. she is doing amazing with clicker training and learning very quickly, 5 tricks in less then a week, i know shes not dumb.

        I’m sorry that this is such a long post, I’m just totally lost on what to do, she has jumped up into my plate of food twice in the past 24 hours. I have no idea what to do at this point


      • Sr. Melangell
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          My bunny used to steal my laundry, so I gave him a few old T-shirts, when he is not in his pen he likes to sort this pile out, its because your laundry smells of you and bunny loves you, but make sure you hide your underwear, it can be a little embarrassing if the priest comes to visit and bunny is running about with your knickers, yes that happened once here.


        • Jessica
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            Lol! Yeah she loves to sleep with one of my shirts, she just usually want more. She is a silly girl, just gotta solve this food stealing issue, i dont mind the other things so much


          • Sr. Melangell
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              Your Bunny in the picture looks like my Olly, is she grey underneath on her tummy too?


            • Sr. Melangell
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                Is there another room she can be in at meal times? Olly is in the same room as me all the time but he did try once to take some chicken, now we both eat at the same time when Olly is in his playpen which works but if he hears a crisp packet (chips packet) he gets excited.
                There is something else he does but I’ll ask on the forum how to deal with his little game.


              • Jessica
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                  Her tummy is white and grey mostly. Her colors change depending on the length of the coat, right after she is plucked she looks like a torti all gold/browns and greys but as her coat comes in its blue grey. But her tail, most of her tummy, her feet and around her eyes is white, so in the world of angoras that makes her an agouti. Is you Olly an angora?


                • Sr. Melangell
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                    No Olly isn’t an angora, oh I can see now your bunny is really fluffy, I had a Cashmere lop when I was younger, over 25 years ago, Only just noticed how fluffy your bunny is, I’m visually impaired so it can take a little while to see things, she is lovely.


                  • Jessica
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                      We can’t really separate our dinning room from our living room, there is a giant arch that’s about 15 ft wide. We have tried her play pen but she just jumps or climbs out.

                      No worries on not seeing that she’s fuzzy. That picture her coat is fairly short, it was about 3 weeks after her first plucking


                    • Bam
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                        Could you just put her back on the floor each time she tries to get up? When animals realize it’s no use, they generally stop. But it will take many repetitions, so I suggest you do it with a “dummy” meal – or you’ll get very hungry. Because it takes MANYrepetitions to make a bunny get the point. The important thing is that she doesn’t manage to get rewarded by the jumping up, i e she mustn’t get even the smallest morsel of food. You could also reward her on the floor, away from the table. Again and again and again.


                      • Jessica
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                          Thanks Bam, that is what we have been doing as soon as she hops up I put her down, she usually jumps up again as soon as her feet hit the ground, but usually th 4-5th time I put her back down she stops until the next meal. We don’t let her have anything from the table. She did end up with a bit of hummus the other day because she landed on my plate. I cleaned her up as best I could but hummus in angora fluff is a bad combo.


                        • Bam
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                            I can very well imagine that hummas and angora is a combo best avoided =) My Bam once jumped up from the floor right into a bowl of fruit salad and whipped cream. He likes fruit salad a lot. Big bunny feet met whipped cream in a big splash.


                          • Jessica
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                              Oh no! They are funny little guys!

                              Amelia certainly was a mess and now thinks hummus is yummy *head desk*, I’m sure she will learn, she’s just stubborn when she wants things lol


                            • sarahthegemini
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                                I’m sorry I know this must be an absolute pain but I am having the funniest images in my head right now. I kinda hope my bunnies try this one day lol


                              • Jessica
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                                  Sarah, it really is pretty funny! It’s frustrating when my dinner is ruinedbrom bunny feet, but otherwise it’s comical. It’s really hard to not just laugh at the bad behavior.

                                  On the plus side she hasn’t been on the table the past two days, apperantly posting was enough bunny shaming. When she is considering jumping up we “remind” her not to and she eventually wanders off


                                • LittlePuffyTail
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                                    Haha, a bunny being a brat???? That’s not normal.


                                  • Jessica
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                                      Lol, she has her moments. All and all she is a very good very sweet bunny, but you know there has to be balance


                                    • Bam
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                                        We laughed when Bam jumped into the fruit salad bowl – but first we were quite speechless. It was so unexpected. He’s a lazy bunny who mostly lounges. Until we brought out the fruit salad we had no idea he could fly =) =) =)


                                      • Jessica
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                                          Lol, I’m pretty sure they can fly, or at least levitate

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                                      Forum BEHAVIOR My rabbit is a thief!