New Bun - Bink

[Sir Binksalot]

Hi! I am a proud new mother to a 2/3 month old Holland Lop whom Ive named Bink aka Sir Binksalot. He is an adorable bunny who loves sitting on laps for pets, and doesn't mind being picked up so long as he has had a few pets before hand.

I love this little guy for bits, and Ive only had him for a week (come Sunday) but in the time Ive had him Ive noticed he is obsessed with nibbling and pulling on my clothes. I've read quite a bit about this behavior but it still baffles me. I've tried squealing and jumping a bit when he does it but he just stops for a second and then goes right back to nibbling and pulling until he is content.

I find the behavior cute but he tends to catch my skin unless I watch him and keep the areas he is chewing on away from me. I read that perhaps he is trying to get me to move but when I move over he will follow me to keep nibbling. If I stand up and walk to the other side of the pen sometimes he follows me just to nibble at the bottom of my pants or skirts. Plus if im right outside of the pen he will stick his face through the bars just to try to nibble my pants

Yesterday he was so attracted to my skirt I just left it in his pen with him to watch his behavior. He nibbled, pulled and dug at it for quite a while!

Could anyone help explain this behavior, as well ways to keep him from doing it? Does anyone think he will stop/slow down once he has been neutered?

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Some have a propensity for chewing our clothes--why, I don't really know. Commander Bun-Bun was neutered and six years old and still enjoyed my clothing to bits.

 

[Azerane]

Hi there and welcome to the forum

To discourage him from nibbling your clothes, you could make a sharp noise like it's painful, tell him "no" and then hold his head down to the ground with your hand for a few moments or until he stops resisting. It won't hurt him, but pressing his head down is simply a way of showing dominance and should help get the message across that what he's doing is unacceptable.

 

[Srecko]

Azerane, what happens if this dominance trick doesn't work? Our Srećko just did the clothes pulling/digging thing today and whenever my boyfriend or I did that trick, he'd just resist, then submit, then go right back to chewing/digging on my pants. After a few times, he's like screw this and peed on me lol It's dominance for sure, but what do we do, just stay stubborn?

 

[Azerane]

You could try other things, perhaps spraying him with water from a spray bottle. Or even simply turning away from him and ignoring him. I'd just stay stubborn with it for a while though, sometimes things need a lot of repetition because they still want to get away with doing things.

 

[Srecko]

That's funny that you mention spraying him with a water bottle, Azerane. We've tried that and he laughed at our attempt at dominance lol The water didn't startle or phase him at all.:dunno