Cage Rattling

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qtipthebun

qtipthebun

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My little Q-tip is a 4 month old mini-rex. She has a decent sized cage, but gets most of her time loose in my room, and occasionally loose around the house. She spends very little time in her cage, really only at bedtime. However, in the past month, she's picked up a very bad habit. She's started to grab the metal bars of her cage starting around 6 am (or any time I leave the room during the night) and shake them. Hard. Loudly. I keep a spray bottle next to my bed and half wake up and squirt her from across the room when she wakes me with it, but that only deters her for a few minutes at a time.
I know she wants out of her cage, but I'm a full-time grad student, and I need my sleep as well. I really don't want to be up with the sun after staying up until 3 doing my work.
Is there a way, other than letting her out and having her wake me with her little paws on my head in the morning, to get her to stop rattling?

I've tried hot sauce on the bars of her cage (she loves the taste and licks it off), putting a towel over it (can't reach to squirt her), and weighing down the top of the cage (doesn't help).

I know it's not because she's hungry, because if I open the cage, she'll stay in it for about 45 minutes before climbing in bed with me to wake me up to play. Any way you have found that works to stop this behavior would be great.
 
Sounds like your bunny is a little firecracker!

Do you have an extra room or bathroom you can make into a bunny room? My male would rattle the cage from night till morning and we got no sleep for 2 weeks straight. I gave in and bunny proofed our extra bathroom so he could stay in there. Except for the occasional escapes all is good :)
 
Not really; I live in a very small apartment with a roommate and a parrot. My bathroom is the hall bathroom, so it's the one guests use...it's not big enough for a bunny playground anyway. My room is bunnyproof, as is the living room, but I can't put her in there at night because my roommate does work in there...so I have to keep her in here with me.
 
You could get some card board and zip tie it to the cage, just high enough so she can't grab on to it. Maybe get her a hanging ball and put a treat in there to keep her busy. I had one of those for my rats and would put frozen veggies in it to keep them from chewing on the cage.

I'm sure the same would work for a bunny.
 
Hmm that sucks. What about a big towel for her to dig in, hide some treats underneath it or in it so she'll spend some time digging in that instead.

You could either wash it or just pick up a few cheap ones at the thrift store.
 
That's worth a try, although she's got a cage-full of toys, some of which dispense little bunny treats. Tonight I'll see about a towel...thanks!
 
My old bun did that too, never could get him to stop no matter what i tried, even spraying bitter spray all over the cage (did the same with my rat) didn't work, so Tiki found himself with his cage in the basement and no longer in my room. Same thing with the rat, she no longer lives in my room.

You can try bitter spray, you can try a normal water spray bottles. You can get wooden clothes pegs from the dollar store and put them all around the cage so she chews on those rather then the cage, my current turdlets go right for clothes pegs if their on the wire.
 
I think it is hard because they get a burst of energy as the sun comes up so they want to rip around.

I ended up going cage-free with my mini lop that lives in the bedroom. The cat and the rabbit will chase each other around the room and up/down the hall but leave me to sleep. Once I get up to go to the bathroom after it is light I must produce pellets with oats or she starts throwing things though.

Not that she's spoiled or anything ;)
 
She likes the taste of the bitter spray. And the hot sauce. The squirt bottle is the only thing that deters her...no matter how many wood chew toys I put in her cage, rattling still amuses her.
 
My rabbits LOVED the bitter apple spray. I'm hoping mine doesn't become a cage rattler.. Right now she just rips and thuds cardboard boxes which is almost as annoying... I don't hear her doing it at night, just mainly when she sees me and is annoyed she's not out.
 
How big is her cage? Can you putit in the bathroom at night? Then move it out during the day?

Gus used to rattle his cage at our old house. Who knows, he might still do it here, but we can't hear him because he's in the basement. He was horribly persistent about it too. :p

I think as long as they can see us, they think there's hope that we'll respond and let them out. She could even think that getting sprayed with water is a game. Or she could just want attention. One thing I would recommend is to NEVER open the cage if she's been rattling it. That just reinforces the behaviour.

Hope that helps!

Rue
 
my rats did the same thing. it started with me raising my voice at them to stop, making noises to distract them. but nothing ever worked. so i just chose to ignore it and eventually fall asleep. me ignoring it made them stop. now the only time they do it is when playtimes over lol. but its never for too long because they now know they get nothing out of it.

kind of like when a baby is crying for no reason and you just have to let them cry.
 
Oh trust me...there is no opening of the cage for at least 5 minutes after a rattle. Nor is there food to shut her up (no matter how early in the morning it is) or any sort of verbal cue other than a loud "NO" which scares her.
 
Oh trust me...there is no opening of the cage for at least 5 minutes after a rattle. Nor is there food to shut her up (no matter how early in the morning it is) or any sort of verbal cue other than a loud "NO" which scares her.
 
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