super energetic bunny!! help!!

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crescent

crescent

Active Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2005
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Location
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
my bunny is extremely energentic!!! i don't thinki've ever seen her sleep!! she always wants out.. and when i let herout.. she never lets me catch her even when i'm flat on my stomach andslowly inching towards her. she has a mind of her own andnever reacts to any kind of punishment when she's bad.. ie. isolation,a scolding. She doesn't like playing with any of the toys i give her..i find her chewing her litter more than her wooden carrot. she can bevery affectionate when she wants to be.. but just very hard tocontrol!! i went on vacation last week, and the person who took care ofher also found her overwhelming even though she's owned 5 bunnies inthe past. Any suggestions on how i might take back control? could it bethe diet she's on? i feed her hagen rabbit pellets, hay, pieces ofcarrot/apple/banana, and habitrail donuts as a treat. or maybe hercage? it is quite small.... i'm trying to make her happy in hopes thatit will change her mood.. but i can never seem to satisfy her.anysuggestions would be greatly appreciated!
 
carrot , apple, donuts ( habi ones )all have way too muchsugar content cut outsome of the sweets and ithink you may have a lesshyper bunny ,

it sounds like sheneeds to burn off thesugar high she is on .

you could alsohave her blood sugar levelchecked she may have a naturalhigh sugar count , just asuggestion but one iwould seriously try.

You can try a bigger cagealso that may help,maybe she needs to move arounda bit more , Try the sugarlessdiet for a week or twoand see how it goes ,


 
My rabbit's did the same thing a while they had asmall cage so I made them a bigger cage and took them out side more ona little harnis and it got them les hyper and more tired so all yourbunny needs is exersice and more attention



Nikki
 
Hey,

I think it probably has something to do with her diet, though I havesome extremely hyper rabbits also. They tend to react with theirsurroundings quite a bit. Is there a lot of noise, music or smallchildren where she is? That could also add to it. I'd put her on abalanced pellet diet (maybe 16%-17%) for a while and see how it goes.Try not giving her treats much, and it SHOULD all be ok. If not, maybetake it a step further with the sugar thing, but I doubt it.


Kat
 
I agree with gypsy, you need to cut thehigh-sugar foods out of your rabbit's diet. All fruits, especiallygrapes and banana, are high and sugar, and so are some vegetables suchas carrots. Even if your rabbit didn't have an insane amount of energy,it is not a good idea to feed much of these foods. Rabbits have a hardtime digesting sugar, so it can easily upset their digestive system,and it can be very fattening.
I would also advise that you stay away from commercial rabbit treats. Many of them can actually be quite harmful to your bunny.

You might want to think about making or buying a bigger cage that hassome room to run and levels for hopping, so your rabbit can burn offsome energy when you're not able to let her out.

How old is your rabbit?
 
I find letting them out to play helps alot...Ihave 2, one is almost comotose all the time...will let me hold him forhours on end...the other one needs his time to run and play...they bothget it...but the 2nd one won't sit still well til he's had his playtime!
 
Gypsy is right. That is a lot of sugarfor a bun. She looks on the small side too. My bunn is 18 punds and hedon't get that much sugar. My main concern is this, that many sweetscan lead to health issues and I'd hate to see that happen.

I think if you cut the sugar down or even completely out fornow. You will probably see a difference with that. Get a bigger cage.Try and find toys she loves. Good Luck.

Tina
 
well i only give her a small piece of carrot aday or banana etc.. not all at once.. and only 1habitraildonut a day.the thing is.. she alwaysseems to be hungry! i give her about 2-3 tablespoons of pellets but shealways wants more!! could it just be her personality?? when i firstobserved her at the pet store, she was stepping all over the otherbunnies to get to the food (it was a small cage for all of them) andall the other bunnies were sleeping. i have her in my room right now..and i rarely have any music on.. i'm contemplating putting her in thebasement and opening the cage to let her out whenever she wants but iknow she'll never go back into the cage again. i've never had a petbefore so i'm very concerned. i just get the feeling that she eitherhates me or just picks on me cuz she knows she can.she chewson my furniture even though i give her alternatives and praise her whenshe chews on the alternatives. when i take her out on the leash sheinsists on going over to my neighbour's yard. when i say no and refuseto give any slack on the leash she tries even harder and actuallysucceeds in almost sliding the harness off. she hides on me all thetime and only comes out when i leave. does she need more time to runaround? i always let her out at night for at least 3 hours. that's wheni can watch her every single moment. during the day i'll take her outfor a walk..i let her jump on my bed all the time.. and i'll take herto wherever i'm doing my chores.. but it's just hard for her to runaround that much because our house is mostly hardwood floor. whenevershe wants to cuddle, she'll find me. but when she's had enough, sheruns away. i feel so used at times! :(i'm sorry this is solong.. i just had to get it all out!
 
yes she's a netherland dwarf, and no she's not spayed.

i know that they're very high energy bunnies...it's just that peoplewho i've talked to who've had dwarfs never had any of my problems. theperson who took care of her while i was away (who's had rabbits before)was very surprised at her behaviour. she kept asking if she was reallya "she". i dunno if it makes a huge difference. i'm pretty sure it's agirl b/c she had a fake pregnancy 3 weeks ago.

i just want her to be happy. :(
 
I'm sorry things are going so rough onyou. Rabbits are definitely a handful sometimes. Letstry to deal with this one step at a time ok. That way you won't feel sooverwhelmed.

****************

well i only give her a small piece of carrot a day or bananaetc.. not all at once.. and only 1 habitraildonut a day

Let's cut all of that out for right now. Let's save those as treats to help modify her bahavior later.

*****************

she always seems to be hungry! i give her about 2-3tablespoons of pellets but she always wants more!! could it just be herpersonality??

I could be wrong and if I am someone correct me. That isn'tenough food. She should be getting 4-6 ounces of pellets a day. She'sprobably just hungry. Try also giving her unlimited hay.

**************************

she chews on my furniture even though i give her alternatives and praise her when she chews on the alternatives.

I had this same problem. I had a million things for Apollo tochew on and what does he do..chews my brand new entertainment center. Ilearned a lesson. Although I had everything he should want to chew on Ididn't have enough wood. I give him wood to chew and he leaves thefurniture alone now. You need to watch her when she's out and see whatis she chewing on. Does she chew the cardboard more, the wood chewsetc. This part takes a little while to figure out.

*****************************

when i take her out on the leash she insists on going over tomy neighbour's yard. when i say no and refuse to give any slack on theleash she tries even harder and actually succeeds in almost sliding theharness off

This is typical rabbit behavior. They don't walk like a dog.It's pretty much they walk and you follow. Apollo will do the samething if he doesn't get to go where he wants. I simply tell him No,pick him up and put him where he should be.

************************************

she hides on me all the time and only comes out when i leave

She has you trained, now it's time to train her. This is wherethe treats she's been missing come in. Sit on the floor near her. Notnext to her but close enough she'll smell a treat like banana. Call hername nicely and say come. When she comes give her the banana with handand pet her with the other. After awhile she will learn to associateyou with treats and a nice pet. positive things.

***********************************

whenever she wants to cuddle, she'll find me. but when she'shad enough, she runs away. i feel so used at times! :(

Sadly this is how most bunnies feel about us humans. They loveus on their terms. But we learn find ways to coax more interaction withthem.

***************************************

I really do think she needs a bit bigger cage. How much doesshe weigh? What is her name? Is she spayed? How old is she?What breed is she? The answers will help us help you a bit better. Thename and breed are just I'm curious.

There is a topic, I think it's the fourth one downcalled Rabbit Care Cheat Sheet. Try and read it it has alot of reallygood information. I think alot of it wil help you. There is also a linkLanguage of Lagamorphs. Go there too. I learned to better understandwhat Apollo was telling me just by where is ears are positioned.

Cheer up, in time it will work. We are here to help. I really do hope this helps you.

Tina
 
thank you sooo much!! it's gotten to the pointwhere no one wants to touch her cuz she'll bite and scratch..when ipick her up and hold her to my chest she'll claw away at me until shecan climb up to my shoulder.. she's even jumped off before and chippedher bottom teeth when she hit the floor :(..other thanthatshe wasn't hurt..

as for the pellets i think you're right.. i've been following this mealplan in this book i bought that says to give 1 ounce of pellets in themorning and greens or a carrot in the afternoon w/ hay and water andi've been kinda skeptical about it cuz she's so skinny..

anyway, thank you everyone for all your help!! i will try tostay patient while trying out every suggestion!! :)
 
oops sorry i forgot to answer your questions!!

her name is Crescent..it's kind of awkward buti named herthat because she has a tuft of white fur in the middle ofherforehead which is black. she reminded me of luna,sailormoon's cat..but i didn't like the name luna. i'm also thinking ofnicknaming her Fang, which was a suggestion from my brother's friendwhen i first got her. it's supposed to be funny b/c she's so tiny but ithink it suits her right now! :D

last time i weighed her.. she was 1 pound and she's almost 6months.She's not spayed (but i plan to do it soon after iresearch laser surgery...etc) and she's a netherland dwarf :)
 
crescent wrote:
oops sorry i forgot to answer your questions!!

her name is Crescent..it's kind of awkward buti named herthat because she has a tuft of white fur in the middle ofherforehead which is black. she reminded me of luna,sailormoon's cat..but i didn't like the name luna. i'm also thinking ofnicknaming her Fang, which was a suggestion from my brother's friendwhen i first got her. it's supposed to be funny b/c she's so tiny but ithink it suits her right now! :D

last time i weighed her.. she was 1 pound and she's almost 6months.She's not spayed (but i plan to do it soon after iresearch laser surgery...etc) and she's a netherland dwarf :)
Click to expand...
Ah, I think a 6-month old dwarf is a terror mostof the time,but it's mostly just a puberty thing. She's a rowdyteenager. Pipp went from sweet little girl to 'Pipbull,' thebunny from hell, almost overnight -- but she's back to beinga lovely little bunny. :) (I had her spayed, andshe's a little older, made a big difference).

All bunnies are different, but the 'ignore' thing worked bestforPipp. I pointedly ignored her unless she came tome, and then she got 'treats' (in her case, she's nuts aboutoats).Otherwise, didn't acknowledge her,greet her or try to pet her. She HATED that. ;)

I also had to reducethe size of her domain. She hadrun of the house but was terrorizing the cats andthefurniture, so I kept her in a much smaller area of myroom, expanded it to all of my room. That solved the catissues and some litter training issues that also popped up whenshehitthat age.
 
I think you definetely need to increase herfeed,most 6 month old netherlands weigh about 2 lbs.Also the very youngrabbits have more energy.it wil decrease as she gets older.bluebird
 
She is very adorable. I like the name too. :)

When we first got our doe Abby, she was a maniac also. She wouldn't letus near her, was running around like crazy and handful. I rememberfeeling overwhelmed with her, because our other rabbit, Chompers, issoooo mellow and such an easy going bun.

With us, it really helped once we built them a bigger cage. She didn'tseem to mind being in there, because there was just so much space, plusa shelf to jump on for sleeping/playing.Also, I used to feedthem food high in sugar too, until I came here that is and learnedbetter. :p

After getting her spayed, she calmed right down. Now, she LOVES mepetting her and out of all three of my rabbits, she purrs the loudest.I used to lay on the floor and let her come to me, now I can approachher and she hunkers right down for some Mommy lovin'.
 
My bunny was way to hyper and so we got them hugecages from TSC. They love them because they can run around in there andthen when I bring them inside they are calm!
 
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