Rabbit obsessively eating cage

[Comet_Hearts]

I have an 11-month-old dwarf rabbit who will not stop eating his cage. He will wake me up multiple times throughout the night and I can’t get him to stop!

I’ve looked on many different forums and websites but they all say the same things that do not work. He has the largest pet store cage I could find. I think it may be that his cage is too small, but my parents think it’s too big and keep telling me the cage is not the problem. The bottom half of the cage is plastic and the top is bars. He is obsessively eating at the plastic indent where the top half connects to the bottom half.

I have tried putting a blanket over his cage, which did not work. I then put the blanket hanging inside of his cage, which worked (sort of) for only half of the cage. I clipped a smaller blanket to the side he chews the most, but he continuously tugged and tugged at it until the clips popped off and started chewing again. He is my only rabbit and my parents won’t let me get him a friend. I try putting toys in his cage, but he doesn’t play with any toys!! He doesn’t touch bells, he’s only interested in balls if there’s food in them (otherwise, he just chews on them, which are plastic), and the only toys I put in there get thrown in his water bowl or litter box. The only toys I’ve had success with are wood chews, and even they can’t distract him enough. Some forums suggest to weave a grass matt where he likes to chew, but I can already tell that’s something he won’t like to play with and will try to loudly pull it off.

Another thing forums suggest it to attach an X-pen to his cage, but he’s living off of birthday, babysitting, and Christmas money. X-pens are expensive and I cannot afford one (The rabbit is my full responsibility and I have to buy everything for him. My parents will not help out. I’m also 15 and can’t get a job yet). He also gets around 16 hours of free roam in my room every day, unless I go out. I’m homeschooled, so he doesn’t have to get locked up durring the day. I’m not sure if he’s neutered. He actually acts like a mellow neutered rabbit and shows no signs of being hormonal. I can’t get him checked since I can’t drive him to a vet and I can’t afford it. I’m also not sure if there’s any rabbit vets around me.

Usually, if I snap my fingers at him, he’ll stop what he’s doing. But for this, he will not stop no matter what I do. I try not to let him out of his cage when he does this so he will learn that there’s no point in it, but it goes on forever and wakes everyone up. I really want to try getting a bitter spray but I’m not sure if it will help. I used to clean his cage with lemon juice mixed with water and he loved to lick it off and try to chew the bottle, and I am aware that lemon is not good for rabbits. Any kind of distractions I try to make will only work for five minites. I cannot move his cage into a different room. Please help, I am very tired!

[Vienna Blue in France]

Sorry nothing to suggest as mine is the same. I believe though it is because he has had a taste of what is outside the cage and he does not want to be shut in….
although sometimes Henry chews on the bars when he is outside the cage (!) so maybe its comfortable for them.
Food and toys and wooden chew toys are the only things I can suggest…

[tobyluv]

You do need to make sure that you know of rabbit savvy vets in your area. Even if you don’t take a rabbit for checkups, there will likely be times when they need to see a vet. If you give your general location, we may be able to list some good vets for you.

If you got your rabbit from a pet store or breeder, it’s very unlikely he would be neutered. Most rescues spay and neuter and some shelters spay and neuter. Are you even sure that it’s a male? At 11 months of age, if you have an unneutered male rabbit, you should be able to see his testicles. They look like pink lima beans. If you are not seeing testicles, he is either neutered, or you have a female. Rabbits can sometimes hide their testicles, but that usually only occurs when they are nervous, such as being at the vet. You can also find photos and illustrations of rabbit’s genitals online, so that you can make sure of the gender.

If you do have an unneutered male, neutering him will probably calm him down and not make him so likely to chew on his cage. You really don’t want him to be ingesting plastic. How large is the cage? You might not need a huge one since he is a small breed, and since he gets plenty of out of cage time, but it does need to be an adequate size. Most cages sold in stores are not big enough. It’s possible that you could find some used x-pens at a cheap price for sale.

I’ve never used the bitter spray, but from what I’ve read about it, it doesn’t work. Having a rabbit spayed or neutered will calm them down, in addition to having health benefits. Is it possible that you could do some chores to make extra money, even doing some work for neighbors like raking their lawn, walking their dogs, etc.? You are going to need to make sure that you have money for health care when it is needed.

[sarahthegemini]

It concerns me that your parents are not prepared to help out at all – what if he needs veterinary treatment?

Pet shop cages are always too small. I know you said he is free roam for about 16 hours a day which is great (and better than what some buns get) but if he is confined to a cage for any period of time (the remaining 8 hours a day for example) the cage needs to be adequately sized. Could you borrow money from your parents to buy a play pen and use that as his cage rather than the actual cage? You could sell that and give the money back to your parents? If that makes sense.

It sounds like he is just very unhappy and bored with being in a small cage – It’s probably quite the change to be cooped up after free roaming for 16 hours

[Comet_Hearts]

Thanks for the replies!

I would like to first say that he is a pedigree and I have his paper, which states that he is male. I got him from a girl around my age who rescues rabbits and cares for them in her barn, so he’s from a rescuer but not exactly a rescue shelter. The only knowledge I have of his past is that he was born in Ace Brewer Bunny Barn and may have been sold as a show rabbit. The girl I got him from won him at an auction that originally wanted to sell him for meat. She didn’t tell me if he was neutered or not. I tried to check if he was neutered, but he would not hold still long enough for me to look and now he’s mad, so I’m going to check later when he calms down.

Anyways, I did try looking into vets in my area and I found a few about an hour from where I live. I’ve looked for some before when I first got him, but most of them didn’t seem like they would know exactly what they’re doing. I will have to look into them more. I’m sure if something did happen to him, my parents would take him to the vet and pay for it. They have also been talking about moving to one of the cities that has a vet in the summer, but I’m not sure if we actually will or not.

As for his cage, it’s roughly 3ft x 1ft. I’ve been looking into making him an NIC cage, which will be somewhere between 3x3ft and 4x4ft. My room’s very small, so that’s about the biggest I can make it. Until then, I zip-tied some cardboard pieces to the parts of the cage he likes to chew so I’ll find out tonight if it works or not. I did actually notice that right when I open his door every morning, he runs right to his favorite litter box on the other side of the room. I have another idea to set up a play pen where that litter box is at night, as he may feel separated from that corner.

[Azerane]

When stressed, little boy buns can actually tuck their bits up into their fur, so you may not always see anything anyway. Your best bet when he is relaxed is to lay down on the floor behind him and try to look under his butt (no joke) and you should see two pink, furless bits hanging down

I’m not going to lie, his current cage is way too small and I would say 100% that it’s why he’s acting out and chewing it when he’s locked in there. 4×4 would be great as it meets the recommended minimum floor space, I’m not sure what your room set up is but 2×6 could work too for the same amount of space. With NIC cages, you can also make additional levels. My cage in grid sizes is 2×5 and the second level is also 2×5 (with two grids missing in one spot where the steps are). So remember you can also build up in addition to out, although long space is regarded as more important than additional levels (eg, a 2×2 would not be big enough even if had 4 levels). The benefit of NIC is their flexibility in size and shape and can be built at a vet cheap cost of just the grids and cable ties.

With the cardboard, I suspect tonight you’ll just hear him chewing and ripping that, instead of chewing the bars.

[Love4Bunny]

I’ve often toyed with the idea of turning my whole room into one large cage. I realise this could be a pipe dream (not feasible) for you, but maybe you can rabbit proof your room with chloroplast and whatever else, to prevent damage to wood, baseboards, wires, and such. Yeah, it might look a tad ugly, but you wouldn’t have to worry about bars….

[Comet_Hearts]

Last night I asked my parents about getting him a bigger cage and they said I should use our old dog crate. It’s 4ft long, 2 1/2ft wide, and 2 1/2ft tall. It’s not the recommended space, but it’s definitely an improvement from what he had before. The only plastic on it is the tray that slides on the bottom, which I covered in fleece anyway. He now has room to hop around with his litter box, a bed, bendy bridge, and some toys. During the night, he only woke me up when he was chewing on his toys.

I tried checking him when he was relaxed and I can’t find anything, so that either means that he is neutered or I’m just bad at finding them.

[tobyluv]

That’s a lot better size of cage for your bunny. It’s a foot longer and more than twice the width of his previous cage.

You could also try checking him by holding a treat over his head and making him stand up to get it. That might give you a glimpse of testicles if he has them. Since he is a dwarf, they won’t be very big, but you should still be able to see them at times.

[Vienna Blue in France]

Hey Comet, you could add a shelf in the dog cage too. They love jumping up and sleeping up top!

You put two wooden bars (or broom sticks) across a half or third of the cage (dont block the door) parallel from one side to the other and then put a flat bit of wood on top (fix it)….. he’ll love it. If he’s too small to jump down easily you could put a step or box or something…..

[Comet_Hearts]

That didn’t last long…
He has gone back to biting and shaking the cage bars. I am starting to think that he is getting very lonely. He is super interactive with me and other pets. He’ll run right up to my cats or dog and want to play with them, but they are all terrified of him and I’m worried they’ll attack him. I have started to notice that he is most active when I’m active. He always wants to help me clean his litter box, fill his water, clean his cage, etc. The only time he will ever play with toys is when I’m near them. If I’m sweeping his cage, he will either try to take the dust pan away from me or throw whatever toy is closest to me. He also sits on my feet, runs circles around me, jumps on me when I’m sitting in my beanbag, climbs on me when I’m in my bed (before he pees in it), and loves to be pet. When I open his cage in the morning, he’ll run out, look at me, and try to get on my bed. I’m hoping to maybe ask my parents about getting him a brother if I ever manage to get an after-school job. I could use his old cage as a temporary cage for the newcomer during the bonding process.

I tried zip-tying cardboard to the bars he chews on, which didn’t help much. He got pretty determined to tear through the cardboard. Last night, I took the cardboard off and replaced it by clipping on old pillow cases we were going to get rid of. He did find a spot to chew and I covered it with more cases, so tonight I’ll see if that worked. I also shoved some small squares of cardboard in-between the panels of the crate so they wouldn’t noisily hit each other when he shook them.

I tried holding a treat above his head, but it just confused him and he looked around on the floor, thinking I dropped it. Although, when he stands up to look around, all I see is a fuzzy white tummy. I did actually get the chance to have a good look while holding him and saw nothing. Along with this, he hasn’t shown any signs of being hormonal, and he is turning 1 on Friday.

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