Urgent help - indoor free rabbit started chewing +++

hey all,

this is my first post, so hello! :wave: and sorry my first post is one of desperation. i have a six month old lop ear rex who has been free in our bedroom and sometimes the living room and he has been sweet, chewing the many branches and distraction toys we have provided.

BUT post-neutering he has suddenly developed a taste for both wallpaper and door frames, and my mum's huge gilded mirror frame, and we live at my mum's house (moving is unfortunately not possible at the moment or within at least a year). there is NO WAY she will accept this (she is away so hasn't noticed yet). he is fast in the destruction too.

i have tried rubbing the following on the articles he wants to chew: bitter apple spray, perfume, vinegar and even, in a desperate attempt which i was sure would work, a mix of water, cayenne pepper and white pepper.
nothing works, so i am now faced with keeping him in the cage when unsupervised, or somehow manage to bunny proof the bedroom without ruining it.

my OH has come up with putting plywood on skirting boards and reaching up about 8-9 inches, painting them white to make it look less awful, but i am wondering how fast he will chew those down and how often they will need to be replaced if so. maybe some kind of thin plastic is better?

also what to put on the wardrobe doors, these are built-in and nice old fashioned, don't want to damage them with what we put up?

any advice on what to put on door frames and the actual door?

the room isn't really big enough to add some kind of compost fencing to extend his space much beyond the cage.

your help is greatly appreciated. please no attacks, i am already getting daggers from my other half :sad:

Hello, well good news, your rabbit is completely normal - it has nothing to do with neutering, he's just not a baby anymore. You can't prevent a rabbit from eating wallpaper - they love it and won't be detered by anything. Bunny proof one room to keep him in and making him do outings when supervized is the best solution.
My advice might not be possible for you but I know only one solution to really help in the long run: rabbits all chew, but rabbits chew the most when they are bored and alone. If you want your rabbit to tone down on it the best would be to find him a spayed girlfriend. Two bonded rabbits tend to do a lot less damage than one : the long hours they spend cuddling and grooming each other are hours they don't spend eating your furniture. It always worked for me.

For now: don't use sprays or things to try to deter the rabbit from chewing, it won't work (I knew someone who had put vinegar on his wooden stairs to prevent the rabbit from eating them and found said rabbit licking them! ^^) and you could make your bunny seriously ill ; thin plastic won't work and it your rabbit swallows small bits of it it could kill him ; skirting boards are good, don't forget to put hard (the hardest thickest your hardware store has!) plastic protections around all the electrical cords... I don't know about the doors, my rabbit never touched that.

I know it doesn't help, but I feel your pain. I've lived for five years in my parents' flat with one and then two rabbits and at first, I got yelled at a lot for things my rabbit destroyed. It went a lot better once I added a second rabbit but they still had the occasionnal slip up. Right now I have a rabbit room in my own house and my current bunnies are almost 4 and 8 years old respectively so they barely do any destroying anymore (still has to put protections around the bed when I take them to my parents' house for the summer though ^^).

How long has it been since the neuter? Hormones can get all wacky as they dissipate for up to 8 weeks post neuter.

If it is within that time frame, it may settle down.

Otherwise, blocking access is your best option. Topical rubs on items don't seem as effective and only last temporarily.
The following page has some great tips for bunny proofing various areas of a home:
http://www.binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/tabid/53/CategoryID/8/PID/940/Default.aspx

As I said, it could still be hormonal which means this behavior may dissipate. If it doesn't and the behavior continues, then it is possible that he'd do better with a bondmate.

Thank you both so much. Getting him a spayed female is #1 on my list once I can move out from my mum's (OH doesn't want another but I don't think it is really up for discussion). Sadly that is at least a year away. If she won't let me bunny proof, due to the potential damage this might do to the room, and I have to cage him while I live with her, then I will demand another rabbit for him.

He was neutered three weeks ago and had complications, the empty sac filled with blood and burst a stitch so he had to be on antibiotics (and pain relief) twice a day for 7 days, he hated the antibiotics so we had to hold him down for it. In other words he has gone through some trauma really. Unfortunately I can't leave him loose while I wait for any hormone surge to calm down, as it isn't my house :/


Meanwhile - can he only get to the wallpaper via either a loose flap or via a skirting board, ripping it from the base? Otherwise I would need to have thick plastic so high that he can't reach it even standing on his hind legs.

How thick does the plastic need to be? Is it a good move to nail it into the skirting board?

I have had to cage him temporarily until we sort a plan, he is gnawing at the bars a lot, heartbreaking (( I let him out today and he went under the bed where he likes to sit, but soon he went to the skirting board at the back of he bed- so I had to get him out of there.

Such a horrible situation for everyone, esp him. It really is a severe turn - he never went for door frames or skirting boards before.
And Aki, knowing someone understands makes me feel a little better, I also know it is a relatively temporary problem but obv he doesn't live as long as a human so it is a greater portion of his life haven't got a garden so can't even build him a huge outdoor cage with a run / but can take him for daily walks at least until winter sets in.

Tough situation. Gnawing on the bars can cause his teeth to misalign, so you may need to put cardboard over those areas. Fine for him to chew cardboard if he's getting plenty of hay.

Is there a way to set up an area similar to this for him?

Welcome Tillyrose! I feel your pain, on so many levels. What worked for me was Lava Bites, a chew toy made of pumice. Nothing else worked. Since you are living with mum, why take chances? Blue Eyes idea of a pet play pen is brilliant. That way your little fuzzy terror can hang out with the family but still not get up to trouble. It's big enough for you to get inside and play too! And it could be handy later for fencing off areas of your next flat where you don't want the rabbit to have access. Good Luck!!

tillyrose said:

Thank you both so much. Getting him a spayed female is #1 on my list once I can move out from my mum's (OH doesn't want another but I don't think it is really up for discussion). Sadly that is at least a year away. If she won't let me bunny proof, due to the potential damage this might do to the room, and I have to cage him while I live with her, then I will demand another rabbit for him.

He was neutered three weeks ago and had complications, the empty sac filled with blood and burst a stitch so he had to be on antibiotics (and pain relief) twice a day for 7 days, he hated the antibiotics so we had to hold him down for it. In other words he has gone through some trauma really. Unfortunately I can't leave him loose while I wait for any hormone surge to calm down, as it isn't my house :/


Meanwhile - can he only get to the wallpaper via either a loose flap or via a skirting board, ripping it from the base? Otherwise I would need to have thick plastic so high that he can't reach it even standing on his hind legs.

How thick does the plastic need to be? Is it a good move to nail it into the skirting board?

I have had to cage him temporarily until we sort a plan, he is gnawing at the bars a lot, heartbreaking (( I let him out today and he went under the bed where he likes to sit, but soon he went to the skirting board at the back of he bed- so I had to get him out of there.

Such a horrible situation for everyone, esp him. It really is a severe turn - he never went for door frames or skirting boards before.
And Aki, knowing someone understands makes me feel a little better, I also know it is a relatively temporary problem but obv he doesn't live as long as a human so it is a greater portion of his life haven't got a garden so can't even build him a huge outdoor cage with a run / but can take him for daily walks at least until winter sets in.

Click to expand...

It's true one year is longer for a bunny than for us, but even in a year he'll still have long years to live with his girlfriend ^^. If nothing else is possible to buy modulable cubes or a foldable run might be your best bet. That way he'll have a bigger space than a simple cage but he won't be able to do damage in the house. Also this won't damage your room and with a modulable thing you can build something no matter what space you have. I think that's a good compromise while you wait to have your own house. You can find tons of set up ideas on this forum or elsewhere on the Internet. It's not that expensive either - I just bought one to build an outside enclosure for my tortoise for maybe 35$. Just make sure the sides are really high, like 1m, because most rabbits are really good jumpers and / or climbers.