Lonely rabbit??

[RabbitOwner22]

Hello, I'm new to this forum and I would like to get your opinions about this. I've had my rabbit since last september. He is neutered and over a half a year old. He has become very destructive, he doesn't live in a cage. He has a quite large enclosure with fences around. His home 'base' is a puppy pen, where he spends the night since he was very noisy earlier during night as he rattled the other pen bars constantly.

I give him free roaming time few times a week. I cannot let him free roam around my room even if I bunny proof everything, he always finds a way to get to the wires and chew them. Idk why he is so obsessed with wires, since he has plenty of toys. So free roaming is a bit of an issue now... he gets very distructive after free roaming, chews his carpet, bites the pen bars. Even tho most ppl say that it helps their distructive behaviour. Sometimes he seems happy after chewing his pen bars and does binkies?

He is very used to people and is overall friendly. I give him attention during the day by petting him and giving him playing tools etc. but it seems like it's not enough. I would love to free roam him in my room but I have my pc there and everything that could be too hard to cover up. I suffer of mental health issues so I begin to worry if I'm a bad rabbit owner. My rabbit doesn't seem like he could get along with rabbits since he gets 'annoyed' easily and sometimes grunts while playing or just by getting attention. He has become a total nightmare recently!

Biting constantly pen bars while he is awake, chewing his carpet and everything. I try my best and keep him busy and also give him play time for around 1-2 hours each day. Is this just a normal behavior of young rabbit or is this some sign of loneliness or extreme boredom? I might be able to get him a female friend, but he has a very strong personality so... idk if it would work. I also spend almost my whole day in that room where my rabbit's enclosure is, so he always sees me.

Any suggestions?

 

[bunbunadri]

Maybe get some rabbit stuffed toy? I have a wild pig stuffed toy for my bunny and he loves it! Maybe ur bunny will think the toy is a friend I’m not sure.

 

[bunbunadri]

Maybe get some rabbit stuffed toy? I have a wild pig stuffed toy for my bunny and he loves it! Maybe ur bunny will think the toy is a friend I’m not sure.

Stuffed toy that looks like a rabbit*

 

[RabbitOwner22]

Update! So I found some ways to make this destructive behavior less... destructive? It seems like my rabbit just wants to chew a lot, I just wonder if it's because of boredom? Everytime he gets play time, he goes to chew something rapidly as if he was excited? So I covered some of his pen bars with chewing toys like cardboard etc. and he likes them and now tries to avoid biting the pen bars! But still I'm a bit concerned... Is he just doing it because of excitement/happiness or out of boredom? Sometimes when I enlarge his pen during "free roam", he still tries to bite the pen bars. He still does binkies and sprints in his pen, but this 'constant' need to chew won't go away. I've read on many forums that rabbits chew more when they are bored, but he doesn't chew non-allowed things as much since I covered most pen fences with chewing toys. My rabbit also has a quite chill and care free personality otherwise. He seeks petting and treats, but he is still okay and used with me doing other stuff. That's why I kinda start to doubt about this 'boredom' thing.

 

[HalaBuns]

One of my foster buns simply hated his puppy pen. He free roams the room now, but he would chew on the bars until I let him out. He was such a handful when he was tiny and would get into everything. He was quite distracting, because I was trying to work in the room at the same time as either him rattling the bars to get out, or letting him out and stopping this tiny fluff ball from getting into all sorts of places he shouldn’t. He would only do it when I was in the room, it was like he had FOMO. When I eventually took his pen away, he wasn’t destructive at all (other than the odd thing, which was to be expected)

Buns will always need to chew on something, but I should think he associates the pen with being confined, even if it is expanded out and is chewing on it to get it out of the way.

I know you have lots of wires and other things he could have access to. Is it possible to cover them with cord protector or elevate them out of reach somehow? Maybe if you post some pics, we might be able suggest how you can bunny-proof?

 

[RabbitOwner22]

One of my foster buns simply hated his puppy pen. He free roams the room now, but he would chew on the bars until I let him out. He was such a handful when he was tiny and would get into everything. He was quite distracting, because I was trying to work in the room at the same time as either him rattling the bars to get out, or letting him out and stopping this tiny fluff ball from getting into all sorts of places he shouldn’t. He would only do it when I was in the room, it was like he had FOMO. When I eventually took his pen away, he wasn’t destructive at all (other than the odd thing, which was to be expected)

Buns will always need to chew on something, but I should think he associates the pen with being confined, even if it is expanded out and is chewing on it to get it out of the way.

I know you have lots of wires and other things he could have access to. Is it possible to cover them with cord protector or elevate them out of reach somehow? Maybe if you post some pics, we might be able suggest how you can bunny-proof?

My rabbit is very good at finding wires, the problem is that he chews thru everything except something hard. cord protectors are usually made of plastic and I have them in use on my wires, I think he would chew thru those too since he likes to chew anything that has plastic on it. I wanna share the size of his pen area, lenght: little over 3 meters, depth around 1,5 meter on play area and his home base 1,7 meter and high enough so he won't jump over. He is 3kg rabbit mix which I adopted from butcher. I tried to cover wires under my bed by putting a hard board on it and he literally found a way to push it away, it was pain to get him out from there. I still would need to cover my bed with fences or something bc I have those extension cords which I cannot really bunny proof, I think he would even try to chew those. One time he chewed our freezer cord when he pulled it thru his pen.... It was dangerous bc as soon as I tried to move the cord out the way it, the fuse got blown. That's why I'm very scared to let him free roam, he always finds the wires that are hiding somewhere. So uh I have my pc processor under my desk and it's connected with over 4 wires and one extension cord next to it. I can bunny proof the wires around it somehow but not the pc processor, i'm not very crafty. If I cover my bed with pen fences, he's gonna rattle them or just basically any pen bars he sees. I wonder if cardboard would work? But I think he's gonna chew them some way. Otherwise my rabbit seems quite happy, he does binkies, happy sprints in his pen and isn't too destructive anymore since his pen bars are covered with chew toys. I still wonder if this is the right way? Am I doing something wrong?