Bar rattling

[Sayuri]

Louis has resently learnt how to shake his bars when he wants to come out of his cage...which is basically whenever he is awake.

It makes no difference if I am in the room, out the room, if it is morning or night. Sometimes he cant come out because it just isnt a good time or because it is Graces turn to have a bounce around.

I have tried distracting him, which works briefly, but the only thing that really keeps him from doing it is food.

Does anyone have any idea how I can stop him from doing this all the time? I'm worried that he is going to damage his baby teeth if he carrys on

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

I just had a thought. Does he only chew on the door part? If so, for now to stop that and see if after covering just the door part with say one of those sticky tiles cut to size and sticking it to the inside of the door. So, he'd be facing the tile's decorative side. Then, see if he starts chewing on bars elsewhere, if he does, it sounds like you're stuck. Can you get ahold of the nic grids to build him a bigger cage? Maybe that would help too. Try the tile thing, that could just work.

They're safe too, I have a few of them in Snuff's cage for his upstairs.

 

[maomaochiu]

ohhh, my girl bun, tictac is the same!!!! she wants out and she will shake the bar, the litter box, the food tray... anything that can make a sound, until i let her out.

maomaochiu, my boy bun, used to be like that too, but for the last 6 months or so, he's been quiet, and kinda enjoys his own cage, even if when he wants to come out, he will just stay quietly by the door waiting for me to open it. he is soooooo good in that aspect.

 

[gwhoosh]

My Rilee used to be really bad about this! But then I was able to bunny-proof the room better, so she got to come out more so she doesn't do it as often. What seemed to help for her was those seagrass mats. I hung it on her door so instead of shaking the bars, she took her frustration out on the mat. Even if it's laying on the floor in front of the door, she'll rip and tear at it in anger, but she'll still shake, but not as much as she would without the mat.

 

[Flashy]

Yup, my buns are good at this too.

I got Bunny ka-bobs for them, so now instead of rattling the bars they swing their ka-bobs about and chew the wood on them.

Sometimes they still pull the bars and stuff, but I guess that's part of being a frustrated bunny.

 

[ec]

This topic came up on another list recently, and some people told stories about their bunnies doing this for more than one possible reason - in one case, the bun loves to literally pull the ex-pen around by latching onto the bars with her teeth. I've noticed that mine will - during free run time, with pen door open - go back in just to pull on the ex-pen bars and dig at them. (She never chews or pulls on NIC grids.)

I'm thinking that something about the resistance is probably appealing - bunnies seem to love to tug on things, as moominmoo says. Mine has plenty of toys and lots of room to run, so it's not as if she's got nothing to occupy her time.... I also wonder if some of them literally like the taste of the metal?

At any rate, I've tried anchoring pieces of newspaper (for shredding) underneath the ex-pen, and that seems to be a big hit, but my bun still does a daily bar-chewing routine. (Along with rattling the bars to get my attention and tell me that she wants to be let out.)

And there's always the option of blocking access to the lower parts of the bars, where they seem to love to chew, pull and rattle them. I've done that in parts of my bun's ex-pen, mainly because she loves to rattle and shake the pen door. I put a lid from a 40-gallon storage box (plastic) against that door, and she leaves both the door and lid alone.

 

[Raspberry82]

ec - same for me. even though he has free run in a room now, he'll still push/pull and nibble on his open door and make it swing back and forth when he runs by it, like it's too fun to resist.

after I put a pillow for him on top of his cage to chew/play with he stopped rattling and chewing his cage so much, a blankie too.

i noticed his chewy behavior will return a bit on days when his hay gets low.. then dissipates when he gets it refilled.

 

[maomaochiu]

ec wrote:

.... I also wonder if some of them literally like the taste of the metal?

i wonder the same thing!!! maomaochiu will chew on chicken wires for HOURS!!! and it's been a year! never gets tired of it. and the ironic part is he hasthe entirehouse he can run, the chicken wire is only there to block about 5 squre feet of junk that i have, but somehow, he either likes the taste of the chicken wire or he thinks the 'grass is always greener' on the other side! silly bunny!

 

[iluvmybuns]

Uhm yeah. Ozzy does that all the time. He grabs any bar and shakes. The funny part is, I don't close the door. He just walks in there and then acts like he can't get out and shakes vigorously. I have to call him out of there sometimes. Maybe they do like it? Or he's just really really stupid hahaha

 

[Flashy]

I think some of mine like it because often the bars are quite cool, they also do a lot of licking of mine.

 

[MsBinky]

Oy I remember those nights...

My gal Wiggles, she would do this for endless hours when I had just moved into my appartment. I was working two jobs and she was just lonely. I barely slept for 2 weeks before I finally gave in and decided she really needed a pal. That's when I had gotten Piglet and she stopped immediately.

When Bam-Bam got here he was thrilled. He had a huge cage all to himself and he'd spend most of the time performing binkys. However, once I let him explore the house once, he spotted Wiggles and then all hell broke loose when I'd return him to his cage. Lol. He escaped a dozen times, and I'd find him snuggling by Wiggles' cage. When I securedthe cage however, he and Wiggles would eachrattle the bars of their cages alllllllllllllll night and my poor mother-in-law didn't sleep for days. To top it all off Dahlia was thumping at them. LOL.Finally, when he got with Wiggles, all the bad behaviour stopped.

Most will rattle for attention. You can try changing his cage around so it gives him some exploration to do. Also, I would rotate his toys. You need to find things that keep him busy and distract him from the fact that he's not the one out.