Bunny biting through clothes

[Minty]

My bunny Minty is 3 months old and I have had her for 3 weeks. About 2 weeks ago she started to chew a lot.

When she’s in my lap she often chews my jeans and even my toenails if they are a bit long. Today I lay down to bond with her and my top is thin and she chewed on my arm but she bit me in the process. This biting has happened before, but it seems it’s always when she’s chewing my clothes and the biting is unintentional?

So far she hasn’t bitten my open skin.

What should I do? She has lots of hay, a plastic tunnel, good space, a chew loofah, a timothy hay carrot, two cardboard toilet rolls and a small wooden toy which she hardly uses. I have some small wood chews too but she hardly used them.

I want to bond with her but I don’t want her to bite me.

I checked her teeth today they looked good.

[Wick & Fable]

This is most likely occurring because she doesn’t understand that your clothes and your body are .

Humans are huge and in very little situations does your rabbit’s view include your face, plus your joints, plus your feet, etc… so there’s a big disconnect from your toe to whatever part your rabbit recognizes as “you”. Because of this, you need to provide feedback, similar to puppies learning the difference between play biting and real biting.

A high squeal and retraction of that body part works well from my experience and many others. Even if it doesn’t hurt, you want to create the appropriate threshold. To rabbits, nails on toes are like gunk stuck on fur, so they’re gonna try to rip it off. It’s what they do when they groom each other; pull dirt chunks out. In the beginning, Wick would go ham on my pinky toe, but now he ever so sheepishly licks my feet because he knows he shouldn’t bite them now.

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.

[joea64]

Fernando has been playing with my clothes a lot lately, mostly my undershirts and socks. He hasn’t nipped through them yet, but I’m keeping a close eye on him just in case he gets a little too enthusiastic.

[Minty]

Thank you so much. It does hurt actually! I will try your suggestion – a high squeal and retraction.

[Muchelle]

When she nips, react with a negative tone of voice just like Wick said. She’ll learn what’s not okay to do (just like you’ll learn what she’s not ok with) with enough trial and error. Also, keep those toys handy! If you have a chew toy (apple twig, toilet paper roll, etc) you can tempt her by swiping it slowly below her nose to make her chew that buns love to play tug-of-war

[Bam]

Until you have taught her that biting isn’t appreciated, cover yourself with a cheap fleece blanket. My mother always has to have a blanket in her knee when she pets my Bam, because he can nip through clothes in a split second. It’s not aggressive, it often just means “Hey, Nana, you know you must pet me with both hands!” but it’s not fun to have rabbit tooth marks in your nice clothes.

[Minty]

Thanks guys I’ll try the fleece blanket and the squeal!

[Author]

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