A little bit of backstory:
We had Gizmo for about 1 1/2 years, she's a 3 year old spayed female lop. In October we decided to get her a companion, so after speed dating we adopted Nova, a 1 year old spayed Lionhead. Bonding went great and within a month they were living together happily. We see lots of grooming between the two rabbits, and they seem very happy together.
Gizmo - a pretty lazy rabbit, she doesn't nip or bite much at things, doesn't play with toys much, overall a well behaved rabbit. We've seen her be a little bit more active since being bonded with Nova, which is great.
Nova - much more active. She likes to dig (a lot) and she's definitely more of a biter/chewer than Gizmo. She's a lot of fun, runs around and binkies, but we really struggle with her biting. She'll nip at our feet, she'll jump up on the couch with us and it's like we can't trust her around us because she'll start biting at our clothes. It's not a hard mean type bite, but more of a nipping action. She seems somewhat comfortable with us, as she will jump up on the couch with us, but she won't let us give her head pets, if we try she'll grunt and sometimes box a bit at our hands. This might just be due to her activity level though, that she just doesn't want to sit still to be pet.
We do offer plenty of toys and chew things, cardboard houses, etc. We're just not sure what to do about the biting? How do we correct or redirect this behavior? I understand that it's in rabbit's nature to chew, but we would like to try to direct her towards what is okay to chew on, and what's not. Thanks.
We had Gizmo for about 1 1/2 years, she's a 3 year old spayed female lop. In October we decided to get her a companion, so after speed dating we adopted Nova, a 1 year old spayed Lionhead. Bonding went great and within a month they were living together happily. We see lots of grooming between the two rabbits, and they seem very happy together.
Gizmo - a pretty lazy rabbit, she doesn't nip or bite much at things, doesn't play with toys much, overall a well behaved rabbit. We've seen her be a little bit more active since being bonded with Nova, which is great.
Nova - much more active. She likes to dig (a lot) and she's definitely more of a biter/chewer than Gizmo. She's a lot of fun, runs around and binkies, but we really struggle with her biting. She'll nip at our feet, she'll jump up on the couch with us and it's like we can't trust her around us because she'll start biting at our clothes. It's not a hard mean type bite, but more of a nipping action. She seems somewhat comfortable with us, as she will jump up on the couch with us, but she won't let us give her head pets, if we try she'll grunt and sometimes box a bit at our hands. This might just be due to her activity level though, that she just doesn't want to sit still to be pet.
We do offer plenty of toys and chew things, cardboard houses, etc. We're just not sure what to do about the biting? How do we correct or redirect this behavior? I understand that it's in rabbit's nature to chew, but we would like to try to direct her towards what is okay to chew on, and what's not. Thanks.