Do my pants smell like carrots?

[Imbrium]

not that my baby bunnies would know anything about carrots, since they're too young for veggies, lol... but now that I've had them for 3 weeks and they've really warmed up to me, my 10 week old lionhead has developed some sort of magnetic attraction to my clothing whenever I'm sitting in the run portion of their "cage".

Nala is always coming up to me/climbing on me and trying to "taste test" my clothing. every time she starts up, I'll gently nudge her face away from the fabric and tell her "no ma'am!" but within a few seconds, she turns around and tries it again.

there are tons of chews, paper towel/toilet paper rolls, a cardboard box "hidey house" and a chew log in the pen. the cage is in the pen and she goes in and out at will, so she's got access to their dig box and her hay manger... but she doesn't want any of that. she wants to nibble at my pants.

any suggestions for how to train her not to nibble on my clothing so that play-time doesn't always turn into a tug-o-war? I get that nibbling at things is her way of exploring, but if she knows not to nibble on ME then surely I can teach her not to nibble on my clothes either, right?

I *really* don't want to use a spray bottle (and preferably no negative reinforcement more severe than a gentle nudge and a "no ma'am") because I enjoy having her climb into my lap to get pet - I would hate for her to associate the spritz of water with me instead of *only* with the chewing behavior. I'd also prefer not to have to spritz all my clothing with bitter apple spray.

if it makes a difference, there is no cloth anywhere in their pen except the clothes I'm wearing while I'm in there so she's never had an opportunity to chew on cloth other than my clothing.

 

[MiniLopHop]

I think you hit it on the head when you said nibbling is their way of exploring. You will have to teach her that nibbling on you or your clothes is not acceptable. I would suggest when she starts to nibble to say ouch or a high pitched EEKKK so she thinks it hurts you. Most rabbits pick up on this quickly and stop nibbling the nude buns (humans).

You can also use positive reinforcement, when she does not chew on you then give her a pellet. Granted that is a little dull, but youngsters can't have other snacks. Food is more exciting when it is handed to them.

 

[Imbrium]

yeah, pellets aren't the easiest thing to hand-feed - baby bunny diets are SO boring! I'm counting the weeks until I can bribe/reward/distract them with fresh veggies!

and yeah, she doesn't care if I squeal a bit or let out an EEP! (which I've done 'cause once in a while she nips me through the cloth). heck, she straight-up nibbled my toe today, then licked the spot she'd just nibbled after I eek'd, lol. nala's a very stubborn and determined little bunn, and super-curious! (learned that the terrifying way when she got her head stuck in a grid square of the C&C cage last week, which is why they went right back into a store-bought one inside a pen. traumatized me a whole lot more than it did her!)

 

[MiniLopHop]

If she's not getting it you can hold her head down for a few seconds, gently. That is what a momma rabbit does when they are naughty. It tells them you are top bun. The step after that is to roll her on her back and hold her like that.

I had to roll Bunnicula last night, she was grunting and boxing because she didn't want to come out from under my night stand. Sometimes you have to teach them who is boss so their naughty behavior doesn't escalate.

 

[Imbrium]

ah, thanks! I'll give that a try next time she acts up (I'm sure it won't take her long at all).

 

[Imbrium]

well, your trick didn't help me any yesterday morning because Nala was hanging out in their cage and I ended up falling asleep on the floor of the bunny pen while I was waiting for her to come out. second time that's happened, lol, I really need to remember that I'm too old to be sleeping on floors!

tonight, she didn't want to even try to nibble at me (didn't help I was wearing shorts instead of pants and she kept sniffing at the lower half of my legs), but I caught her nibbling at something I didn't want her to a couple times and tried gently pushing her head down for a few seconds. she didn't go back to trying to chew on what I had caught her with AND turned around and gave me little apology licks - I'm thinking that trick is exactly what I needed to effectively yet gently discourage bad behavior

thanks for teaching me some "bunny speak"! on a side note, do you think they know what I mean if I chitter my teeth at them like they do to me when they're happy?

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Good luck with that. I gave up and just resigned myself to the fact that if I wanted clothing to be non-vented that I couldn't wear it around my bunnies. I have a pair of levis with holes all around the bottom that I haven't worn in 4 years as it's my last connection with my little girl Commander Bun-Bun--she passed 4 years ago in June.

 

[Imbrium]

lol... I've given up on trying to stop hay and bedding bits and bunny poops from getting EVERYWHERE and I've resigned myself to sweeping/vacuuming their room every 1-2 days, but I've only got two bunnies and only one of them is a nibbler so I'm trying to make my last stand over clothing holes!

sorry to hear about Commander Bun-Bun... I'm sure she's happily chewing up jeans in bunny heaven!