My rabbit doesn't have any discipline?

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PipkinbunRibb

PipkinbunRibb

PippyBunny
Joined
Aug 23, 2012
Messages
64
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Location
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Pipkin my Blue Dutch Rabbit is a great companion, who although doesn't like to be picked up, loves to cuddle. Pipkin isn't very good with discipline though and it is starting to make me very angry. How can I teach him that what he is doing is wrong? I've tried scolding, clapping loudly, snapping, and I know you can't give them a little slap on the rump like you can do with dogs because rabbits are very fragile creatures. Some websites say they hate water like cats and to spray with water, but pipkin doesn't mind?? Please help what else can I do when he is being bad. (Like pooping outside of his cage, pulling at the carpet <- which is the worst because he isn't supposed to eat that and its making holes in my carpet, chewing on the bars of his playpen etc.) Please help me! I want him to at least stop chewing on the carpet!!
 
If a rabbit wants to do something, then it can be quite difficult to get them to stop. For carpet pulling, you should put something heavy over the spot to stop him from being able to access it. Give him lots of toys to play with and don't leave in out unsupervised.
Pooping outside the cage is totally normal for a rabbit. Intact rabbits tend to be worse for it, but any rabbit can do it. Being able to go in and out of the cage on their own does help and they can use their own litter box. Rabbits do leave poops to mark territory, so even totally litter trained rabbits may leave poops around. At least poops are easy to clean up.
 
It's not because they are delicate that a slap on the rump isn't a good idea -- it's because it wouldn't work. In fact it would be counterproductive. Dogs desire to please their human. Rabbits have no such inclination. They are prey animals so negatives just make you the dangerous thing to be feared. It also would make you not trustworthy in his eyes.

Positive reinforcement and distraction are the better ways to work with a bunny. Or, you can also be top bun and gently push his head down when he does something wrong.

The poos outside the cage are quite normal for a bunny. He's just marking his area and that's quite common in rabbits. Very few (very, very few) are ever 100% on their poos. Just sweep them up.

The carpet chewing is more prevalent in some rabbits. It looks like your boy might not be neutered yet??? IF that's the case, neutering may help with the chewing. Otherwise, you'll need to try distraction. Provide other things to keep him occupied. Rotate his toys. Find more interesting things for him to chew. Cover the areas he's chewing (keep him off if you can) Lay down a tarp for his out time. Provide tunnels and boxes to romp through. A dig box to occupy him. I'm sure others will have some good ideas too.
 
Pipkin just got neutered last friday, does it take a while before he changes that? And thanks for the help, but I still don't really know what to do. He is neutered, He has toys in his playpen, Im in there with him most of the time, I already leave his cage open for him to go in and out as he pleases, is this something I'll just have to deal with? Because I'm more worried about him eating the carpet rather than the carpet getting damage. I Just dont want him to have stomach issues later on because of this :shock:
 
I completely understand your concern. We just discovered that Twigs had pulled up the carpet under the curio cabinet. He likes to hit under it when something scares him and we thought that was it. Now I''m in trying to come up with something to stop that without taking his fav hiding space.
 
Well he was just chewing the carpet again, so I got a few old sweatshirts and i put them by him and he seems pretty occupied with it for about 5-10 minutes and then just goes back to chewing on the carpet, but so far its the best solution I have
 
It is not uncommon for it to take up to a month for hormones to dissipate after a spay. I've even heard it can take up to 2 months in some rabbits.

Do you have a square of tile (like a 12 to 18" ) that you can set on top of the area of carpet he's after? That will prevent him from getting at that one spot.
 
My girl bun likes to chew and pull ay carpet that's plush (like normal carpet) I got a cheap area rug (like 30 bucks) that's big and the carpeting is tight (I don't know another way to describe it) so there's nothing for her to get her little teeth around. Prevention is the only way to true success.

Ps. You should never strike any animal it doesn't stop the behavior, it just stops it from happening in front of you. They learn, "hey, mom gets really mad when I do this, but if she's not looking, nothing bad happens. i can pnly do this when she's not around.
 
the other reason for the stray poops is that they produce a few hundred fecal poops a day - they'd have to practically live in the litter box to get them all in there :p
 
If there's just one spot on the carpet that he likes (Q has one spot near her cage...I think previous renters had a pet who liked to be in that spot or something), you can move something heavy (I had an apples to apples box covering it at one point, and now I've got the cage) to cover it.

I too, have a bun who doesn't mind the water spray. She's like "hey, do it again, and then I'll go back to nomming this carpet". The only thing I've found that really helps the carpet chewing is to scatter chew toys and pieces of cardboard all over my room, with a really high concentration in areas where I fear the carpet is in danger/areas she hangs out a lot. Usually, she'll go for the cardboard instead.
 
:hyper: I read your topic and literally laughed out loud.

Rabbits are way too stubborn to be disciplined. It's much easier to block something they want rather than teach them not to have it. They will KNOW they shouldn't do it, and think it's funny when they get caught. When I tried scolding my buns they just binky back to their enclosure. I obviously was not intimidating.

For carpets I have found that tiles to cover the area and a well placed chew toy works the best. Anything they want to chew on I will put an apple twig there so it is easy to make the good choice.

Beast of luck!
 
thanks for all the suggestions!yeah I put a sweater under the play pen gate so that he can still dig and tug at it all he wants, but he won't get any long pieces of carpet and he will still have fun :thumbup
And to the comments about having him play somwehre else, well I can't really because I also have a dog who gets jelous pretty easily over other pets we have (for example when I brought home my two gerbils she completely flipped out and was just staring at their cage for about half an hour until I finally pulled her away :laugh: ) so we just prefer to have my bunny on the second floor of the house, and the only room that is safe enough for him has carpet. I have other rooms but my gerbils have been there so it might make him nervous that it smells like another animal. And yeah, ive pretty much surrendered to my bunny because the only time he listens to me is if I have a treat for him:carrot But If the sweater idea doesn't last very long, then I'll try the tile/cardboard. Thanks for all your help! :big kiss:
 
MiniLopHop wrote:
When I tried scolding my buns they just binky back to their enclosure. I obviously was not intimidating.
Click to expand...
So true--my rabbit loves when I give him a reaction. He seems to think it's hilarious when I yell because he just binkies and runs like it's a game :p
 
fwiw, I wouldn't think gerbil smell would offend a bunny - mine have hamsters nearby and I've even introduced them to the hammys and they were totally disinterested.
 
As someone said above, rabbits are like cats + prey animal -> most ideas of discipline would be really scary for them... as a result, I find that I'm often changing my behaviour or my environment to make it work for the rabbit.

(Think of it as outsmarting them ;) )

As for flooring...
You could purchase a large sheet of linoleum from the hardware store, and lay it under the cage and bunny play area. Add kids' interlocking foam squares to make a sturdy surface with traction.

You can then provide a digging box - newspaper, hay etc.

This will keep your carpet from getting dug up, and urine from soaking into your carpet.
 
I have a pair of gerbils in the bunny room and there isn't an issue. When I clean their house I put them in a ball on the floor and the buns will sniff them but no one gets scared.

I'm guessing since they are all vegetarians it works *shrugs*
 
Ah, I had this same problem with Rascal.
He loved pulling up carpet fibers.
However he responded really well to a sharp "HEY" while clapping my hands once.

I did that very consistently every time I caught him doing it. Also provided many more cardboard castles (multi-levels with different sized holes) for him to play in. After a month the carpet pulling was diminished, after two months he stopped completely.

Luckily the second bun I adopted appears to have no desire to dig or chew on the carpet. Whew!

Best of luck with your little troublemaker!
 
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