Shaking his cage!

[bashfulbunny]

I’ve read quite a few forums about this same subject, but all of their solutions either involve giving him more time out of the cage or ignoring him til after he’s stopped shaking and give him a treat or THEN let him out?

Thing is, my bunny gets let out of his cage at 7am, and since I babysit at home, he has full access to my bedroom til I put him back in his cage at 10pm! (If I leave the house, to go shopping or anything, I put him back in, but this isn’t often at all! Less often now that I’m scared that he’ll shake his cage and upset my parents or harm his teeth every time I go out or make plans!)

He doesn’t shake or rattle his cage during the night, well, most nights, and usually has no problem going in! He’s seemed to get into the routine of knowing that lights out means cage time and tends to sleep straight away! But every morning he will viciously shake his cage as loud as he can and for the first few mornings I took it as a sign of “I want out, give me my pellets!” and gave into the noise instantly, giving him what he wanted! Because of this, I think he associates shaking his cage to his being let out and being fed, and probably thinks if he doesn’t do this, it won’t happen? That, or he’s just very stubborn and loves getting his way! Each morning the shaking has gotten earlier and earlier, and I’ve been trying to do the ‘ignoring til he’s stopped’ approach, but my bunny is relentless and doesn’t seem to grasp the concept that I will feed him ONCE he’s stopped! The noise is driving me absolutely insane, my parents too! They’re not too fond of being woken up at 4 when they don’t have to be awake til 6!

I’ve tried clapping and a stern no, but he simply stares at me as if to say “Shut up and let me out!” and then shakes it harder than before! I’ve also bought a slightly bigger cage which I’m going to be setting up tonight, see if that calms him down!

I currently have a makeshift gate on my door that stops him from getting out of my room, and was considering getting a permanent gate and just allowing him to be out of his cage 24/7, but I know that even though my room is bunny proof, if I go out, I will be worrying if he’s gotten out or gotten somewhere he isn’t supposed to be or got a hold of something he shouldn’t have! I also don’t want him to keep me awake at night and want to have at least a few boundaries / rules, since I’ve already taken to letting him run free while I’m not in the room to supervise and am downstairs babysitting? Haha!

Are there any other suggestions?

[Sarita]

Moving to behavior.

[Pipje]

What kind of cage do you have him in? Rabbits are active in the early morning so he just wants out to run round, and I know he gets out later on, but rabbits don’t really do compromise haha.
If you could attach an xpen to the cage so he has room to exercise in his own time then that should help, I know that helped mine stop rattling.

[BunnyLebowski]

Age? Could be aggression if not nuetered. Was he given alot of freedom when he was younger? If so he’s overly use to it and it’s more of an expectation to get the time he wants. My Bun shakes her cage too, even though I built her quite a bigger pen. They just want to explore and explore and explore. But since her pen is made out of the shelving grids you can get on amazon, it doesn’t make alot of noise. If you have a basic cage (little starter kit ones) they tend to make more noise due to being firm enough for the bun to not shake but grind their teeth against. With my pen I built, I can see her shaking it, and only hear the clips holding the gate shake quietly but hardly any other noise than that. There are different cage building options you can watch on youtube, try looking into those! And don’t give into the bunny beggings ;;.

[Lea]

My boy has done this too, and the only solution I have found is to put a blanket over the cage. I’m not sure why this helps, but he won’t do it as long as the blanket is there. Maybe it feels more den-like?

[Silverpaws]

Yep, this is a very familiar story. We eventually gave in because Merlin would rattle from 4am onwards. My partner still gets flashbacks if I rattle the cage at him! Merlin is now free roam and we’re all happier. However, I saw someone who blankets over the cage. They cant get to the bars – they cant rattle them. Ridiculously symbol solution we totally overlooked….

[Pipje]

The blanket over the cage is just like a band aid though. Yes it stops the thing annoying you, but it isn’t really solving the bunny’s problem.

[Author]

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