Bedtime blues

[Porpy]

I've had a problem for the last week and itsgetting worse. In the morning I open tiggers cage and she follows medownstairs for feeding. Then she gets a couple of hours free range tillI go to work when I leave her in the kitchen with all her toys. When wecome home she has anotrher 4 hours of free range bunny joy before Icoax her bacik to the cage. SO she's only really in the cage 10pm to6am and the rest of the time she can come and go as she pleases.

My problem is she is getting harder and harder to deal with at'bedtime'. She's taken to hiding under furntiture and running away whenshe's knows what you're trying to do. Last night after an hour ofcoaxing and tempting with food I had to move all the furniture round toget her out and she's scratched my hands quite badly. This is justbedtime behaviour as normally she follows me round and comes when youcall her.

Have we given her too much freedom (she's approaching 16 weeks) orshould I stop making her go back into the cage and let her sleep whereshe likes?

 

[Pipp]

For one thing, she's approaching theincorrigible hormonal age. Don't be surprised if she turnsfrom sweet little Tigger to Tigger theTerrible.Pipp's litter habits and her calm andloving nature went out the window at about six months and didn't returnuntil about a month after shewasspayed.

In your case, she doesn'tvoluntarily go in her cage Igather?Some bunnies don't like leaving their cages,others think of them as jail. Itmay help to onlyfeed her in hercage, and wait to feed her her dinner or atleast a nightly treat until she's back there.Cansheget back into thecage on her own? Canyou put a pen around it, even some NIC cube panels, so that you can atleast get her back in the area of the cage?

One thing I did have to do with Pipp when she first had run of thehouse was to restrict her to just one area, she was gettingexhaustedtrying to keep an eye on her 'territory', she wasactually calmer when she was only living in my office/bedroom, althoughI'm in there almost 24/7.



sas

 

[JadeIcing]

All that! Yup.

I only do pellets in cage.

 

[Porpy]

Thanks, she does go back in there but only touse the litter tray. I'll try feeding her in there and see how thatgoes. Its very much a case of cage = prison despite all the toys etc inthere.

 

[aurora369]

I would also suggest a pen of some sort to cutdown her free range area and make it easier to get her back in thecage. And food/treats in the cage when you want her backin.

Maybe you could free range her and then an hour or so before bedtime,get her in a pen attached to the cage. Making it easier toget her in for bedtime.

--Dawn

 

[missyscove]

Definately feed her in her cage. Teach her to love it.

Fiona and Timmy each get a crasin or something at "bedtime"

 

[kellyjade]

I make my bunnies their salad at bedtime and putit in their cage so they're happy about going to bed. Sometimes Sophiedoesn't want to go in at first, but if I leave the area and come backshe goes in and eats with Apollo.

 

[~BunBuns~]

trying giving her treats when she goes in the cage by herself. Or cut down her free time a little.

 

[toby2449]

we, at first, had alot of trouble getting Dollyto go into her cage at night, but after a while she got use to it, wealways have her food in the cage, and any treats she has always go inthe cage, & now she's quite happy to potter off into her cagewhen she's sleepy.