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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 Bunny getting more and more destructive

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    • Cindy Fung
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        This is my first post on here, but I’ve been following these forums for a couple months now. My situation with my bunny has gotten to the point where I decided to make an account and post because I’m so stressed out with my bunny’s behavioral problems and need help.

        So I adopted an 8 month old French lop from my local SPCA back in December (named Luna) and was already spayed. Beforehand, I did months and months of research before my boyfriend and I decided that we were ready to adopt a bunny. Things were pretty good with her the first month or so, but they’ve progressively gotten worse as she has become more destructive.

        Luna has free roam of my bedroom with an xpen as her “home base” with the gate always open, but she will still bite and push the xpen. She developed a habit of gnawing on my room door and baseboards the past 2 weeks. I’ve tried to rub ivory bar soap on the bottom of the door and baseboards and spray it with perfume, etc but it’s as if she is not phased at all by the taste. I give her chew toys and towels to dig at but she insists on digging and chewing at the door and baseboards. I started to let her out into the living room for maybe an hour each day in hopes that maybe it would put an end to the chewing on the door but to no avail. She also started to bite and fling her litter box a couple days ago. I thought maybe she just wanted her litter box in a separate place so I just let the litter box be. But it doesn’t matter because she will continue to fling it in every possible direction. It’s as if she develops a new destructive habit each week and I can’t break any of them. Whenever she does something bad, I pick her up and put her in a place that’s away from the thing she’s trying to destroy and say no firmly. I used to put her back in her cage and then close the gate for a “time out” but then she would go berserk on the cage walls and destroyed her little rug in there so I don’t do that anymore 

        She keeps us up at night and my boyfriend and I aren’t getting enough sleep at night so we’re cranky all day. I end up doing hours and hours of research on how to stop and deal with destructive rabbit behavior but i’m still at square one. My landlord has also started to complain and all i can tell them is that I’m working to fix the behavior. I know it sounds like I’m just complaining about her and I certainly do love her so much as she gives me lots of laughs with her goofiness and cuteness but I’m frustrated and stressed because it seems like the destructive behavior happens 75% of the time. I feel awful for even thinking it but I’ve been considering returning her back to the SPCA. I don’t want to but i’ve been incredibly unhappy with the situation and I have no idea how to tackle this. One of my roommates also has a lion head bun but she is so much calmer and less destructive than Luna and I can’t help but wish she was more like that rabbit. 

        I apologize for the long essay. If anyone has any tips or suggestions or even just moral support, that would be so much appreciated. 


      • tobyluv
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          You didn’t say if Luna was spayed or not. Some shelters do spay and neuter, but not all of them. If she hasn’t been spayed, spaying her should help a lot with the destructive behavior.


        • Cindy Fung
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            Yeah when we got her from the shelter, she was already spayed


          • Kaiajo
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              Hi there. I’m new to being a bunny mum but whenever ours were out playing, we supervised them and shouted, clapped, sprayed water at them for any destructive behaviour. When we weren’t around we kept them in a large pen so they couldn’t destroy anything. They’ve definitely got better now so we let them have more free time and more space on their own. I give them tons of things to chew on and one of their favourites is a natural corrugated cardboard roll that I got from Amazon which they love digging and playing with. It only cost a few pounds and I lay it over the carpet when they’re in chewy mood. Like you say it’s so hard because they’re such wonderful little characters. I hope it all works out for you.


            • DaisyTheBoy
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                Are you giving your bunny lots of hay or chew toys? Your bunny probably loves you dearly but her teeth are probably growing at a rate that needs more hay. Bunnies don’t see an expensive bookshelf or desk.. they see somewhere to trim their teeth. In nature rabits have grass, bark, and loads of sticks to chew on so their teeth are always the proper length. Rabbits teeth never stop growing so ensure she has lots to chew on or she’ll destroy everything! Also you might be giving her enough hay but maybe she doesn’t like it.. there are so many different hay brands.. it might get expensive but maybe buy a bag from Walmart a bag from pets mart and a bag from a super high class pet place lol. You’ll be amazed how she reacts.

                Hopefully that helped!! Best of luck!!


              • Gamestar32
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                  Scooter gnaws on his cage a lot when he wants to play. I always make sure he has plenty of hay in there, but he’s just high strung as a whole.

                  His big thing is wires, which is why I never let him run around unsupervised. I guess doesn’t want me to charge my phone. He has even come up and taken it out of my hand before when I’m not paying enough attention to him! Despite his destructive tendencies, he never fails to make me laugh


                • Wick & Fable
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                    For the door and baseboard gnawing, I think making those actions impossible to carry out may be the best method, based on things you’ve already tried. I think back to a story where someone’s dog would always knock down and eat the trash can when they’d leave the house. There was no way to punish the dog when he did it, and punishing him once they got home made no sense because the dog wouldn’t know why he was being punished. The only option would be to stage a house exit, hide in the kitchen closet, wait for the dog to do it, and then spring out of the closet and punish him in the act; …. that’s crazy, and more effort than it’s worth, so the best method in this story was to put the trash can in a closet when leaving the house. Without the item there, the tendency to do it faded, and the dog was fine.

                    If possible, I’d tape thick fabric or find some ways to cover/block off Luna’s access to the areas. My thought it try and limit blocking to only the parts she chews— if you barricade the whole area, that will probably upset her more. See if doing this causes her to revert to a different, less destructive behavior.

                    For the litter box issue, I think I would resort to proclaiming dominance. It sounds bad and mean, but at the end of the day, I think pets need to know that you’re the alpha and what you say, goes (usually because it deals with guarding them from harmful things in your house!). When Wick would tug at his pen bars to be let out, I’d pretty bruskly and not-lovingly wrap my hand around his body, push him away from the bars to the center of the cage, and hold him down there, saying a very stern “No.” with direct eye contact. After a slight pause and he settles in my hand, I’d let go. At first, he’d usually run back to tug at the bars, so I’d repeat this until he’d stop. He’d restart when I walked away from the pen, so I’d go back and do it again. Now, 100%, he never bites the bars and just sits there. I can definitely tell he considers it because he noses the bars, but then has a slight “aha!” moment and just sits there instead. I definitely want to emphasize that Wick is not afraid of me and he is very trusting of all humans, but now he understands that when I say no, he needs to put up with it. You should expect one or two “I’m mad” pee’s with this method at first.

                    The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.


                  • Vienna Blue in France
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                      I can sympathise with you Cindy – I’ve got a highly strung boy too who likes to wake me up (with 2 doors in bewtween) with thumping and chewing and scratching in his litter tray. Tonight however, just to prove me wrong, he’s being very calm !!

                      But since a few days now, I have brought them home a (naked, no leaves) )willow branch to chew on throughout the day and today I even cut them grass as it’s starting to grow in this crazy balm weather we’re having in Europe.

                      I know it sounds crazy but I wonder if he’s really high wired just because he’s hungry ‘even though he’s eaten already…..
                      He’s not a mad hay eater. And I’m changing their carboard boxes around a lot just to give them something new to explore.

                      Yesterday and today he’s been calm (ish!) and I think it may be because he hasn’t been bored with all the chewing he’s had to do !

                      Of course Luna’s destructive behaviour towards the house is not good news and the only real way to stop this is to PREVENT her reaching the boards by keeping her in a STURDY unmovable puppy pen enclosure (which is on my buy list next time I go to the UK). My Henry, as yours does, just makes mince meat of the tiny xpen bars..

                      Or you could put another piece of wood where she does chew, so she’s still chewing but not on the baseboard.

                      Re the litter tray – you’ll have to fix it down. Simple! She’ll give up once she realises it doesn’t move.
                      Get another litter tray, box exactly the same size, fix one “permanently” with cable ties to something solid and then put the other litter tray INSIDE the first.
                      Then it’s easy to remove to clean without having to reattach it each time.

                      CARDBOARD BOXES (with holes cut out of 2 of the sides) are my life saver – they both love them !!
                      You can move them, pile them up, turn them over and allsorts, and they can chew them.
                      Hell ! Make a cardboard château with different levels !!

                      I’m also sure that Luna will calm down in a few months. My female had a noted difference 6 months post spay.

                      Re the gnawing, mine chew a metal chain (on the enclosure) even when they are not in it – so i think something else is going on, like they like it….. or its soothing (!) or something. So I’ve bought them baby rattles second hand 1 dollar each !!!

                      Rabbits are highly intelligent and they do know ‘noooooo’ when you say it. Sometimes you have to say it a few times !!! LOL

                      Good luck and please keep us updated .


                    • SansaHotot
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                        I have the same problem with my girl in regards to the baseboards. I saw that you mentioned using perfume etc to deter from chewing and I suddenly thought of Bitter Apple spray. Have you tried that? I’ve used it with my dog in the past so maybe that could work for your bun (and mine too, I’ll have to try right away because she’s been getting worse!)


                      • SansaHotot
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                          Just wanted to update in regards to my last post: I bought some spray (bitter cherry, it smells like cherries but very bitter) and sprayed the baseboards. When I got home today there was SO much more chewing damage!! So I guess it does NOT work lol!


                        • Jessica
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                            Is the digging at the door when you leave the room?

                            My bun gets very upset when I go and work in my sewing studio with out her. We have been working with her to learn how to be good in there but the temptation of throwing around folded fabrics, and jumping up on work surfaces to get to the really expensive fabric can be too much. When she can’t be good in my studio she will go back to the rest of the house with my husband and she will dig relentlessly at the door to my studio. The only way we can get her to stop is for me to be with her. We will be trying a gate at that door so she can still see me while I’m working

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                        Forum BEHAVIOR Bunny getting more and more destructive