Stopping bad chewing behavior

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Kyva

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I did a search for this, but I couldn't find exactly what I'm looking for.

I've had Cucumber now for about 1.5 weeks, and he's settled in nicely. We had our first vet visit on Thursday, and he has a clean bill of health. He's 12 weeks old.

That said, he was very good and didn't start acting out until the night after the vet visit. He'd been so good for the vet as well as when we got home, so this may just be a coincidence.

In any case, he started pooping all over his cage (which has calmed down) as well as pulling fibers out of our carpeting.

I've tried to correct this bad behavior by:

- using a bit of a spritz from a water bottle (nowhere near his ears). Water has no effect on him.

- Drawing his attention to something else (tearing paper for him, giving him the phone book, and so on.

Tonight, I put some pellets in a cardboard necklace box, which kept him out of trouble until he figured out how to open it. The only thing that has stopped the behavior is covering all of my living room carpeting with fleece blankets or by placing him in his cage. I've even tried using a bit of rabbit language to show him I didn't approve, but he just goes back to it.

Aside from his behavior, he's perfectly healthy. He does his bunny 500s, binkies and everything else.

Aside from covering the carpeting with fleece, is there another way to stop his chewing? I'm afraid he'll eat it, so tonight all he's going to get is hay until I'm sure he didn't eat any.

I also plan on getting this to keep his mind active and on something besides our carpet: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...D=690960665&catargetid=1570177967&cagpspn=pla

Anyone here have any other suggestions? He loves my homemade foraging toys, and he's super smart when it comes to figuring things out, so that's how I plan on correcting the behavior. But if that doesn't work, having more information never hurts.

Thanks so much.
 
Some times it seems as if they are acting up just to be vexing. Nikki, our avatar used to dig at the tile floor and chewed a hole thru the throw carpet so she had a clear field to dig. She started this up after I blocked her off from getting under the recliners. She also started emptying her litter box out and making a great mess all over when we moved. I finally got a much bigger litter box and I guess it is too much work to empty, so, at least she stopped doing that. Rabbits! One thing that works for all of ours--look for "Cardboard Castles"--I built a two story card board maze and they all spend time in it chewing and digging the cardboard and have given everything else a break.
 
You can try rubbing white ivory bar soap on things that he is trying to chew, and you don't want him to. Spraying some vinegar on things might also deter him.
 
Thank you both for the suggestions.

Nancy, I've actually thought of getting him one of the cardboard mazes as I've noticed most folks on here really like them. It's worth a shot :)
 

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