chewing

Love your rabbit
shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
S

shawnwk1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2011
Messages
121
Reaction score
0
Location
midwest, , USA
Ok so probably a stupid question, but I keep reading about rabbits chewing on furniture and stuff they aren't suppose to along w/ stuff such as phone book, boxes, etc, but Chance doesn't do any of that. No matter what I give him he just will not chew on anything is this weird or am I just lucky not to have a destructive rabbit? If he does chew on anything he just nibbles once or twice and that's it I don't even have to redirect him (if its furniture or whatnot).

Other question is how to get him to stop biting me? Since his surgery he has started a really bad habit of biting me constantly especially if I try to give him his pain meds. Its not territorial because he doesn't do it if I reach in his cage its when he's out of the cage he does it. Its probably just him not liking to be prevented from going where he wants or kept from being put down (thus being why he does it w/ meds), but its still unacceptable and he needs to learn this quick. He hasn't broke skin yet and I'd like to keep it that way and teach him now I just don't know how. Putting him in his cage when he does it is pointless because that's exactly what he wants so putting him in there will only teach him to bite to get what he wants. And he bites so quick its not like him just getting into something and I can spray him, I can't w/ his biting he'd be gone before I got the bottle and not even know what he's being sprayed for.
 
You seem to be quite lucky not having a destructive little guy. Q-tip isn't that destructive, but holy guacamole, I've had bunnies who were, and it's NOT pleasant. So having a non-chewing bunny is a blessing. Don't question it, just give him kisses.

As for the biting, when that happens with Q, I put my hand over her head really quick and gently sort of cover her eyes/very gently push her head down so she knows that she did something bad. If I am holding her and she does it, she gets a gentle nose flick. It doesn't bother her, she doesn't dislike it, but she knows it means "bad girl".
 
i've tried gently flicking his nose when he does it and telling him "no", but it doesn't phase him. he's like yeah whatever and goes about his business lol. he's onry and too smart for his own good.
 
i let him out tonight in his play area to see how he'd do with a bigger area since he's been doing pretty good with the litterbox. he miserably failed the litterbox test in the bigger area, but i did find out that him biting is definitely a response to being picked up. every time i tried to pick him up to put him back in his cage he bit me. he was very good about being picked up and held before his surgery so i'm thinking it's one of two things....one...somehow being held is still hurting him from the surgery or two...and most likely...he has figured out that the majority of time he gets picked up he gets forced to take his pain meds which he absolutely hates and fights me terribly on so maybe this has made him think that every time he gets picked up this is whats going to happen so he bites hoping that will make me put him down instead of giving his meds. now that we have the why figured out how do i fix it? he refuses any treats, fruits, and most veggies. hmmm he has been eating a few select veggies ONLY if i hand feed them to him otherwise he refuses to touch them. maybe i can use this? perhaps starting w/ tomorrow mornings veggie feeding i can attempt to see if he will let me hold him while i hand feed the veggies to him? i have a feeling he will just fight to be free and bite me again and because he's mad he will refuse any veggies, but i guess it's worth a shot. any other ideas on how to gain that trust back? i'm not looking for him to let me hold him for long or cuddle or anything like that, but just for him to tolerate being picked up and held briefly (so i can carry him down 2 flights of stairs to my basement where we spend most of our time and for meds, being checked over, etc.)
 
That's an idea, but it might look kinda goofy with a grown man carrying around a basket :) ill see what I can find lol thanks
 
Lol. That would solve the going to the basement part of it, but does nothing to help his biting when I have to pick him up for meds or to put in his cage ;)
 
How long has it been since Chance's neuter? I'm wondering if he is in pain if that is when it all started. Is he in his cage more since he is healing?
 
he got neutered tuesday which is why i have to force him to take his pain meds. i really don't wanna deal with stasis because he's in pain from the surgery so he's gotta take it.

yes the biting started the day of surgery when i went to give his pain meds that night.

he has been in the cage pretty much 24/7 since the surgery so he can heal without ripping out stitches hopping around. i've only let him out in his play area last night which he did not do well at. i slept in his room because i've been too lazy to put sheets back on the bed after washing them lol. anyway, when i woke up he'd somehow managed to get out of his play area and there was poop everywhere. needless to say he won't be allowed in his play area for even longer now. he's doing really good with only using the litterbox when he's in his cage, but he don't get that he's gotta go in the litterbox when he's outta the cage too. it's really getting annoying actually. i'd love to bring him out with the rest of us after he has a couple more days to heal, but as i said i rent my house and can't have him pooping and peeing everywhere. idk what else to do so he will get the freakin hint. i've tried telling him no, putting him in the box when i catch him (which is hardly ever because i can never tell when he's going until he's already gone, he don't lift his tail or anything that would indicate he's going), and tried putting his poop in his box and immediately wiping up pee and putting the tissue, paper towel, wash cloth, whatever i use into the box, but he just don't care. if he don't catch on quick he's gonna be going back to the breeder to be an outside rabbit. i hate to do it, but like i said i rent.
 
Is he acting like he is in pain? I only gave Gary the medicine the first two days. Day one he clearly needed it (hunched, not excited to eat). Day two he seemed fine, but I wanted to be sure. By day three he was hyper so I just kept an eye on him. I let him out that night and he was running around as normal. You don't have to keep the boys quiet nearly as long as the girls.

He's peeing all over? The marking territory should greatly decrease over the next couple weeks. I had poo issues, but Gary always peed in his box. He would spray before, but he only did that once the day I brought him home. It might take Chance a bit to get the hormones out.

I also rent and worry about damages. To lower the stress levels, I got a large area rug to cover the carpeting. Then should accidents occasionally occur It's not as crazy making. Odo-ban is great for getting out any trace of animal mess. It gets rid of the ordor and stain.
 
Yeah he is peeing all over too, he don't care where it is.

I'm suppose to give the pain meds for 5 days I believe (I'd have to check the bottle to know for sure). He pretty much just lays there not moving much, but idk if that's cuz he's in pain or because he's bored and depressed from being stuck in the cage.

The area rug is a good idea, but they are expensive and I'm broke as all heck right now having just paid out serious money to the vet for tuckers care before he died and chances vet bills from check up and neutering not to mention the thousand I spent on vet bills for the hedgehogs recently.

I have good spray to get out the urine and smell, but that too is expensive and when he pees all over a 8 foot by 5 foot area that's going thru a lot of the spray every single time and I can't be spraying stuff on the carpets every couple minutes its going to start causing mold deep in the carpets making us all sick and possibly killing me since I'm highly allergic to mold.

I feel bad for him always having to stay in his cage, but idk what to do anymore.
 
What about a plastic shower curtain and an old sheet covering it? I used that when I had a disabled bun and it worked well. I could wash the old sheet with vineger to keep things clean. It would let him have more space than just the cage. If you don't have any sheets you don't use you could go to a thrift shop and get a couple cheap.

If he's not hunched into a little ball with a miserable look on his face, then he's probably just bored.
 
Got both of those things so that might just work :) now how do I keep him in the play area since he already found a way out and I have no idea how he did it? And that still doesn't solve the litterbox issue when he's in a little bigger area. That will hopefully protect the carpet, but he's still going to go everywhere. I'm going to add another litterbox to his area so he has less room to play and more room to hopefully use a box, but I'm even running outta litterboxes cause he goes in so many places
 
How is your play area set up?

I am really hoping for your sake and his that this is temporary. Hopefully as the hormones settle down he will be better about the box.
 
I hope so too. Despite everything he really is a good guy.

Right now just for litter training I just have a tall play pen around his cage so he can go up and down the ladder. In the play pen is a couple boxes, 2 litterboxes, and a hay tunnel thing. In his cage is another litterbox, 2 small chew toys and a piece of cardboard and a small paper bag (cut down the middle to insure he doesn't get stuck) and of course his food and water dishes. There's kinda a pic of it under the pics of chance (or some title like that) thread.

I think its most frustrating because animals should not be in cages unless its to sleep or voluntary on their part and so I feel he should be out w/ us and not locked in a cage in a room by himself all the time.
 
I agree, but you also can't let him destroy your home. Is it possible he hopped on top of the boxes and then out? That was Ghirardelli's preferred method of escape.

Even rabbits with a whole room will try their best to escape, just to be naughty. ;)

If you hold him on your lap, like watching tv, does he like the attention or just try to get down?
 
Nah the boxes are pretty much open on the top so no way he could stand on them. I had the bedroom door closed as always because of the animals so he didn't go anywhere but sure did cause a lot of damage from the feces and urine.

I have no idea how he would be on my lap because I haven't been able to let him out of his cage, but I assume he would try to jump down as he does when I pick him up. He's not very good at calming hisself down. He fights to jump down and then runs and hides under something in a corner, pooping like a crazy man, and working hisself up even more.
 
i closed off about half of his play area and added the other litterbox so basically there's just a little hopping space in the center, the litterboxes on one side and a couple other boxes on the other sides and "knock on wood" so far so good he has only went in the litterboxes. i'm not holding my breath because he did good one day and not the next in his cage with the litterbox, but i'll take it as a good sign that just maybe there is hope for him after all lol. after a couple days of him doing good in his play area then i want to take out the extra litterboxes so he only has one (mainly so he can have more room and i can use the other one downstairs for him and not have to keep moving one up and down). question is how do i go about doing this since he's using all the litterboxes? how do i know which one to leave in there without causing him to go back to using the floor? sounds stupid i know, but i'd love to have him litterbox trained by christmas so he can be out with us with no problems so i'm really looking for a way to do this without taking steps backwards. thanks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top