Chewing bars of pen/cage

[lyndym]

The thread title says it all, but both my buns chew on the bars of their pen and cages a lot! Boy Doc has done it frequently before, but now does it more since new girl Aurora has come home. It happens especially when one is playing and one is in the cage. They aren't bonded yet, so I think they're trying to get out of their respective enclosures to check the other bun out. I'm just wondering whether or not this is bad for their teeth.

 

[holtzchick]

I've heard that this could be bad for their teeth... One this you can do is get either coroplast (for signs), cardboard, or grass mats and zip tie or secure it to the bars that way theyll have something else to chew on.

Mine had this problem and I used cardboard.... After taking the cardboard off, I think they forgot all about it since they don't do it anymore....

 

[lyndym]

Maybe I'll try some grass mats. Thanks for the tip! It sure sounds bad for their teeth, it's a wonder Doc doesn't stop sometimes, it must be uncomfortable!

 

[mimosa]

My rabbit will chew the bars on her cage while the cage door is OPEN. She can get out! It's annoying but nothing has curbed this behavior. She has grass matts, cardboard, toys... but at least once a day I catch her doing it when she's free to get out and destroy something else.

 

[lyndym]

Yeah, Doc does it mostly when he's out and I've used the pen to block off things I don't want him to get to! I'm like, "hey dude, if you just turn around, you have all this space and toys to play with."

 

[caustin4]

Jar Jar Binks has gotten in this habit as well. Stupidly, I think I've been training him to since every time he does I come over and pet him. After about 2 times of me doing this its now how he gets my attention. These buns are too smart for me! Is there any other way to curb the behavior? It seems ignoring him/trying to "untrained" him is taking about 1000000 times longer than it took him to learn how to get my attention. Chloroplast/cardboard isn't an option since the xpen is constantly changing shape.

 

[JBun]

You could try overlaying with 1/4" or 1/2" hardware cloth. I did it for one of my rabbits that likes to chew on the bars of his cage. I just ziptied the 1/2" to the inside of the cage and it stopped the chewing cause he can't fit his mouth through those tiny holes. I made sure the sharp edges of the cloth, went right to the corners so that my rabbit wouldn't scratch himself on it, or I folded exposed edges to the outside of the cage so it coulded scratch him. I also hung a bunch of plastic baby rings around the cage, so he had something to rattle around, which is something he really likes to do.

You could also try rubbing vinegar on the cage bars.