Preventing Bar Chewing

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Kipcha

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So I'm running out of options here. Jabberwocky is my Belgian Hare x Tan, and he's an absoloute bundle of energy. He gets plenty of time outside of his cage through the day and literally spends the entire time binkying, running laps and jumping on and off my bed. However, I cannot let him out all the time (He would cause soooo much damage, he's majorly destructive to the floor) so I used to have one of the store bought rabbit cages. The first one had the regular bars that are horizontal but I soon discovered this was not going to work. Jabberwocky is a CONSTANT cage chewer.

So, I got him another store bought rabbit cage with verticle wires. However, I felt guilty because it wasn't very big and he didn't seem to be chewing anymore, so I started construction on a larger NIC cage for him, hoping that perhaps these bars had, just perhaps, discouraged him from his naughty habits.

Well, not two days before I finished his NIC cage did he finally discover a way to continue his bar chewing.

He reached up to the top of his cage, bit the wire and HUNG HIS ENTIRE BODY BY HIS MOUTH FROM THE ROOF.

I know that is just major problems just waiting to happen!

So I switched him to the NIC cage and it's been since July 2 and until 3 days ago, he's been super good. He's been having to much fun with his toys and his shelf to really pay attention to the bars. However, apparently playtime is over now and it is back to the constant bar chewing, except now he's even added a bit of rattling. It's driving me batty and I can only imagine future teeth problems cropping up.

He has plenty of toys (Which are switched out every once in a while so he shouldn't be getting bored), he gets to run off his energy, he always has hay... I don't know what else to do. I have tried bitter apple spray that we had for Peace but it only worked for about five minutes before he just got over the inital shock and started chewing again. I've tried pushing him back and telling him no. I'm going to try perhaps even a squirt bottle. A wet, disgruntled, grumpy bunny is far better then a bunny with no teeth because of this habit.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to stop this?

He's a pic of the cage he's in now...

268598_2113536874482_1127468202_32447075_3849830_n.jpg
 
One of mine chews his bars too, I told him no, pushed his nose away and got grunted at! Where he likes to chew, the bars seem a bit less smooth - he's not super horrible about it but it is annoying.

Sorry I can't help you but I can sympathise with you...
 
Belldandy is a bar chewer, drives me nuts. We keep her in a medium sized dog kennel when she's inside. I moved her to an outside rabbit run in the spring, no bar chewing at all.


Is there a way you can make an indoor run? Maybe on a tiled floor like a bathroom or kitchen. Seems like he just needs more room.

Wish we could bottle their energy LOL.
 
Hi nice cage. What are you using for the blue flooring?

Can you get some big branches (I bought these at the Pet store)?But if you know someone who has apple trees get some branches from them. I attched a long branch (see picture) in one corner for Wilbur & Jackie to chew on.

DSC02063.jpg


It's worth a try.

Susan:)
 
For the blue flooring, I have used foam mats so they are nice and soft up there and he does not chew them :)

I'll definitely try and find branches somewhere, I'm sure he would love them!
 

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