Bunny doesn’t like toys or anything I try to entertain him with!

[Rachel]

Oliver is my mini rex, very picky bunny. He is about 10-12 weeks old. When I got him he was 6-8 weeks. 

I have tried everything from newspaper hangings and newspaper mats, to apple wood sticks and toilet roll diy toys. No matter if they are stuffed with a treat or not he has no interest in them. I even tried a phone book, and he just decided it’d make a better litter box then chew and rip toy, so that had to go. lol.  (He is litter box trained for the most part, he still leaves little poops around his cage, I’m assuming it’s just a territorial thing.) The only thing he’ll give an ounce of his attention to is this cardboard ball thing I made him, which he’ll pick up and throw once in a while, mostly, I think because it’s in his way lol. He doesn’t chew…anything, except carpet, ugh. Where we let him roam has mats for shoes and what not, which I have to put up when he is out, or he either chews or pees on them.

As for his exercise, he does stay in his cage most of the day, due to not being completely potty trained, and we have a fully carpeted house, so he has our built in front porch to roam when we let him out about 2-3 hours a day. (basically like a nice mud room) I am looking into a harness leash to take him for walks with outside. His cage is pretty large for his size it’s 42 inches by 20 inches I believe, and 20 inches high. 

I have noticed he has taken up digging the last day or so, whether it’s trying to dig the floor in the mud room, and in his cage floor. I tried digging boxes with paper shreds in them, and he was to afraid to go inside and avoided it at all costs, I even put his favorite treat in them! lol. If it wasn’t so messy I’d like to get him a sand or soil box to dig in, because he has really been digging at his cage. And I want a happy, entertained bunny! 

So….after all that explaining, any suggestions on keeping him entertained? I don’t want him to get bored being in his cage most of the day, at least until he can be completely potty trained. Thanks for any help, and for reading this long one! 

[Sr. Melangell]

Oh he’s still a baby, my Olly is very picky too with toys, have you tried Bull rush balls and Willow balls? Olly will sniff them for a few days and then eat them, Cardboard boxes are another bunny favorite, cut a hole so he can go in and in a few hours or sometimes days Olly’s and Oliver’s start to chew up these boxes to how they want them, you can also put his hay in his cardboard box for him to throw about in there, if Oliver has sawdust when you clean him out you could put it in little piles and let him arrange his home himself, my Olly hates sawdust, we are both allergic to it so he has baby blankets, he did have carpet but I have to clean it, some bunnies sit looking at toys thinking, ‘What is this?’ Just like babies do.
Some bunnies like hay cookies to chew on or throw, but your Oliver is a lot younger than mine so I don’t know if he can have them at that age.

[Rachel]

Thanks for the quick response!

Yes he’s still a wee one. But, he’s quite energetic when I let him out. This morning, he was doing what I call NASCAR’s around the room(he runs really fast in circles along the wall) it’s so cute. I don’t know if it’s a normal bunny thing, but he also shakes his head playfully when he’s out, it reminds me of a puppy, when they bend down and shake their head. I have tried a cardboard box, but maybe I just didn’t give him enough time to sniff it out. I gave it to him for a day and he seemed to have no interest in it. I’ll have to try again. I’ve done blankets for digging, but he just treats them as a litter box as well. I’m hoping once he’s older we can incorporate more things such as towels and the phone book and he won’t pee on them. But we’ll just have to see. Bust most of the time he just lounges in his cage and nibbles on food. I find the mornings are his most energetic times, and the time when he likes to dig at his cage the most.  

[JackRabbit]

My bunnies weren’t interested in a phonebook either, and one peed on it. Inside your bunny’s cage, willow balls or willow baskets and maybe a yucca toy or hay mat. Outside the cage, maybe a digging box (regular box around 24 x 12, two doorways, fill with torn up unprinted newsprint or doodle pad paper) and cardboard hidey houses with two doors. You can line a few boxes up to make a row. The Binky Bunny store sells the tunnel haven (my bunnies’ favorite) and maze havens (amazing!) as well as willow items.

[HereComesTheBun]

When I first got him, my then 10-week-old rabbit wasn’t that interested in toys or chewing, either. He loved exploring everywhere and didn’t seem bored, but the first toy he really loved was his tunnel. He would go through it again and again. Soon after, I got him a willow “twigloo,” which has both a tunnel and a platform on top. After a few days, he successfully hopped on top of it and has loved it ever since. There are a lot of different tunnels out there, but my favorite is definitely the Tunnel Haven, which you can get from the Binky Bunny store.

Hugo is almost five months old now, and he’s still not very interested in toys. He prefers toys that he can engage with, such as his Cottontail Cottage (which he absolutely LOVES), over toys that he can throw, like baby keys. Even though he’s now neutered, I’ve noticed that he’s become more of a chewer since puberty. He’s still not a huge chewer, but he now loves nibbling on his Cottontail Cottage and on other cardboard boxes I set out. He seems to enjoy yucca, as well. Though he was only mildly interested in a willow ball I gave him and hasn’t seemed to realize that his twigloo is edible, he absolutely devoured a willow basket I got from on the Binky Bunny store. It was completely gone within a couple of days. He also enjoys “redecorating” his condo and will move his Oxbow bungalow from one side of the condo to the other.

I have noticed that Hugo will usually try things out if I leave them in his vicinity. When I first got him, I made the mistake of overwhelming him with too many new toys at once, and he ended up ignoring most of them. Now, he’s more receptive to something if it’s new (which sometimes means something that I haven’t left out in a few days).

Oh, and if your rabbit loves pellets, definitely look into getting him a treat ball. Though it took Hugo a little while to warm up to it, it’s now his favorite toy. He loves chasing it around the room. 

[Rachel]

Thanks for the responses! I think it’s great to have a blog/forum like this, especially for a new bunny owner like myself.

He loves his pellets! I’ll have to look into a treat ball.

I have heard many good things about willow balls, it’s just a matter of driving to the pet store (30 minutes away) to get him one! I want to get him a tunnel, I have a feeling he’ll love one, he races underneath the patio chairs we have in the mud room. I was thinking about making a diy one.

[LBJ10]

Mine love their treat ball too. Definitely something to try. They also have a Teach N Treat, but they are just too smart for it. LOL I picked up a Toys R Us toy for dogs from Petsmart a year or so ago. They LOVE that one. It has different compartments that open in different ways and I hide pellets in them.

[HereComesTheBun]

Oh, yes, the Teach N Treat! That’s another great suggestion. It hasn’t been too difficult for my rabbit, either, but I think it’s really well suited for young rabbits, because it doesn’t require a long attention span.

[Rachel]

I put a dish towel in there again this week…and yay! No pee or poop on it!

He has just been digging at it and cuddling it, it’s so cute! I should take a picture!

I ordered a willow ball and see how he does with that, the Teach N Treat will be my next investment, but I don’t want to over stimulate him. So just one thing at a time

I’ve been trying to find a treat ball, where do you guys get them?

[Paradigm]

Mr Roger has been fussy about his toys since we got him (at three years).

Tl;Dr: Mr Roger needs graduated help such as being placed in boxes or having to do the absolute minimum. He enjoys burrowing in large, covered boxed but is entirely disinterested in anything with too few exits and which is uncovered. If he uses other toys at all (e.g., a treat ball), he generally does so when we are not around.

It took him a long time to get the hang of anything, for example on the first level of the teach and treat it took him three months to learn to slide the disc off to get the food. For the first month and a half he almost completely ignored it.

Once he got the hang of level one he whizzed through levels 2 and 3.

Similarly, warming up to his treat ball took a while and it was some months before he began to dig the beg under his hidey at all. Once he did, he tore it to shreds but has shown little interest in ruining the new bed.

He won’t use most “dig boxes” that I make him – cardboard with hay, paper and treats in and won’t dig almost anything unless it’s covered (or, evidentially, a particularly enticing piece of my carpet in a corner).

We bought him a cardboard castle and it took him a while to warm up to it (there’s a trend here!) but he began to love it. Especially the middle floor I suspect because it was covered but still seemed like a more realistic burrow. I filled it with paper and later phone books to give him more to dig plus a store bought dig box (he will only use these if covered). Since he seems to think books are litter, maybe you could use cheap doormats or pieces of carpet (provided he’s not chewing them).

Once that became knackered, I built him a new box out of an enormous one and shoe laces. He doesn’t need much room to get in or out (indeed, he can get through anything the size of his head, it seems) but prefers a spacious interior and room to stand at least a little.

[Paradigm]

Our treat ball came from pets at home, but if you’re in the US maybe binkybunny have them? Idk because the shipping would be too much.

[So Fluffy Bunny]

Bunny Approved also has the treat balls. We just got ours and then Laurana went off for her bonding experience so it hasn’t been used much.

[HereComesTheBun]

I also got mine at Bunny Approved! It’s great. Petwerks and Bunny Bytes have them as well, and you can also buy one that is made for cats.

[Author]

Messages