Biting & Rattling Cage Bars

[olivehotot]

Hi everyone. I’ll get right to the point. My rabbit won’t stop rattling his ex pen/breaking zip ties when he wants out. The pen’s in my room so I’m in there often. But he’s not 100% litter trained, he’s a chewer/digger, and needs supervision during floor time, so I can’t let him out when I’m doing homework, cleaning, sleeping, etc.
Nighttime is worst. He nonstop rattles his pen and I try to ignore it and hope he gives up (but sometimes I scream or thud). it’s been getting worse and last night I got 4 hours of sleep and woke up cranky. It drives me up the wall and I literally feel myself going insane.
Whenever he does it I wait until he stops before letting him out (I’m afraid letting him out while he chews will encourage him to do it more). But that can take hours, and then he has less floor time which makes him more obnoxious. I’ve also tried putting a panel of wood where he chews the most to make it hard for him to see me, and I’ve also tried hitting the cage when he does it. Is there something else I can do that’ll teach him to stop & is less time consuming?
Thanks in advance!!

[Elliriyanna]

Sounds like you have a bored bunny. Do you have toys for him? How much out time does he get?

Also is he neutered? There is a possibility its hormones, They are rough on everyone

[olivehotot]

He has several toys that I rotate out every couple days. He doesn’t seem to care about them very much though. He even peed on one of the toys.
I try to give him as much floor time as possible although I do have school and sports, homework, and extracurricular activities. He usually ends up getting anywhere between 2-4 hours each day (depends on how long he rattles the cage). and more on weekends.
He was neutered a couple weeks ago and was told that it may take several for his hormones to calm. Could that be the case?

[emm_renn]

I have been having this problem as well. I got my rabbit fixed a little over a month ago because… well Fuji is a girl and it is recommend that girls get fixed for health reasons. I’ve noticed she has less of an urge to chew and I give her plenty of toys. Last night I let her have free range of my room and shockingly, she was quiet the entire night. But around 6am she did hop up on the bed lol. But she hopped right off and was quiet again. Maybe just wait a little longer for his hormones to drain and try free ranging?

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