Biting

Hi I am a new member here and I just bought a 21/2-3 month old rabbit. He is a dutch rabbit . We got him Monday andtoday he started to bite or nibble at our skin (it doesn'thurt) and at certain fabrics but mostly at ur skin. Is thisnormal and how do we train him to not do it?He does it mostlywhen we are playing with him on our bed our cleaning up his cage. Healso just seems to be pooping wherever (on our bed when we have him outto play). He goes in the litter box and out so is this normal and if sohow long should it take for us to train him to not poop outside hislitter box and outside his cage. Also how do we train him to not doeither (biteor poop all over). Anyadvice isappreciated.

The nibbling you describe seems to be out ofaffection rather than aggresion, so you have to treat it carefully. Youdon't want to scold too much and discourage affection.

Instead when your bunny nips, making a small shrieking sound to letthem recognize their action caused you pain. And when he/she showsaffection with no nipping, reward with a treat. You always want toassociate yourself with positive things!

As far as the pooping, you can;t control it and neither can yourrabbit, unless they're doing it on purpose! Rabbits dont have completecontrol over their release od poops. while they can do it on purpose tomark territory they cannotphysically 100% stop elimination ontheir own.

To reduce the poops, get rid of anything that may make your bunny feelterritorial and invest in a Dust Buster. Its a cheapgreat wayto clean up after daily poops after play time. (and sweeping works justas well in tiled floors)

Once your rabbit realizes the territory issomewhat his and he gets older the pooping should decrease in quantity,but you'll always have the odd one - especially if he can't reach alitter box during these occasions.

my bunny pooped everywhere when we got her inoctober...now she usually makes it back to her cage and doesnt use thefloor , but like they said she still poops sometimes outside hercage... as for the nibbling... she used to do that and i would make alittle shreik and it worked...she just nudges your hand to get pettednow... she also bit me hard once when she was mad, but somebody told meto gently press her head to the ground when she did...she hasnt bit mesince..

good luck with the new bunny!