Why is my bun chewing EVERYTHING?

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bittybunny_harper

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She is chewing my clothes, carpet, toys...and it is not nibbling. It is a forceful pulling. She could be playing and just starts chewing like this!
 
Sorry to say, that's just what some bunnies do! I have three and one is a big chewer. He was chewing his plastic litter box so we built a wood frame around it because I was worried about him eating the plastic. Now he chews the wood! I give him lots of chew toys, sticks, pine cones, cardboard tubes, boxes, oatmeal containers, and occasionally will buy him a grass mat or willow basket to destroy.
 
What Bville said. Jovi is a digger and she also pulls out plugs of carpet. It might help to spread a big blanket on the floor during playtime. Also, we roll towels for to dig at and unroll. You just have to figure out what you can do to distract bun to a more appropriate area of bunstruction.
 
Annnndddd I just discovered my cell phone charger chomped.
 
How old is your doe? At 4-8 months depending on breed the sweet rabbit you had experiences puberty and the hormones drive her destructive. One solution is to spade her, the other is to wait out her puberty which the hormones dying down might never happen. I take it you have a lot of chewable toys otherwise?

When my two go destructive I either have to limit their space, take away the desired object or completely put them in time out. There is no sure fire way to eliminate a bad behavior since every bun is different
 
Honestly, I have just come to accept that rabbits find destruction fun. Mine are old and fixed, and both still destroy when given the chance. There are things you can do to lessen it, like providing safe alternatives and giving them lots of exercise, but things like carpets, baseboards, and cords will always be delicious to bunnies.
 
She has a ton of chew toys, but never wants to chew them. We have put a blanket down and she instantly moves it digging and pulling it away.
 
Shida chews everything I don't want her to chew and she doesn't like things with corners, she has to chew the corners off oh and she absolutely loves anything soft, plastic, and deadly just like computer cords so she is watched like a hawk when she has free time in the house even tho it is bunny proof I don't trust myself that much. She has wood chews and she uses them but her name does mean trouble and she defiantly lives up to it!
~Shell
 
Is this new a new behavior? Do you free feed hay? What kind of chew toys do you provide and what type of things is she seeming to be most attracted to chewing now? Is there something unusual to you about her digging and pulling at the blanket you put down. That sounds like pretty typical rabbit behavior to me. Most of my rabbits like digging at and rearranging their blankets.

How old is she and is she spayed?

Can you describe the behavior better and what it is you find unusual about it?
 
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I adopted a rabbit from a rescue once who was only available to 'experienced rabbit owners' and was labeled a 'determined chewer'. I'd had house rabbits for about a decade at that point and even had a couple who never knew what a cage was.. Brought home this 10 pound, white rabbit and found I had no idea just how destructive a rabbit could be. 'Determined chewer' was the biggest understatement anyone could have made about that rabbit.. But she was sweet so long as you didn't eat burritos around her.

You have to think about what rabbits do in the wild. They chew everything they can get their furry little mouths on and dig burrows that can be huge. Your electrical cords look like vines. Your wooden furniture is excellent for the natural instinct to grind down teeth. I had metal furniture for years because of that.. Cardboard boxes and the like can just plain be fun to tear up as well as helping to wear down those teeth.

Some rabbits will never touch 'appropriate' toys. Figure out what yours likes to chew the most and see if you can adapt something to the purpose. I've often kept old boxes around because most rabbits find them to be inviting targets. Other than that, just watch the little beastie like a hawk. Sometimes simply stopping them a million times eventually deters them. Sometimes you find that they prefer to pull out lumps of carpet in a certain corner and can block it. Sometimes you find that after they're out for so long they start to go nutso with the destruction. So long as it's not insanely short, you might be able to just put them back in their cage before they start and bring them out later. With some rabbits, I've found that it's rather like a toddler getting hyper when they get too tired.

Rolled up towels (make sure they're not actually eating them), toilet paper or paper towel rolls stuffed with hay with an awesome treat in the middle, old phone books (or any other book you feel like sacrificing), some baby toys like the hard plastic keys on a ring (watch for wear and tear) or weeble wobbles if you can find them. Some bird toys will also work as a distraction.
 

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