Behaviour

[corina]

I have a 8-month old netherland dwarf who has been absolutely fantastic. He loves chewing and despite all my efforts to bunny proof, everyone once in a while I spray him with water to get him to stop chewing on my baseboards. His behaviour has gotten a lot worse over the last month, he’s been bunny boxing, chewing everything non-stop despite all his toys, and he’s just started eating (not aggressively) me, my clothes and anyone else who comes into his reach. His behaviour is driving me nuts, I can’t do anything while he is running other than stand behind a barricade and watch him. He gets out for at least an hour a day and I make sure he has enough chew toys to try to keep him occupied. Is there something else that I can do?

[Bunbun]

Is he neutered? That may be the problem. My bunny is not neutered and he has to have free rein all over the house – he refuses to go inside his cage! He also sprays on a lot of things, and occasionally becomes aggressive. If your bunny is not neutered, then you probably should neuter him if he’s getting to be frustrating or if you can’t deal with it anymore. It improves the bunny’s behavior a lot, I’ve heard, and even prevents the bunny from getting sick too often.

[jerseygirl]

I find sometimes mine get like this right before they moult. Also with season changes.
Does your rabbit get plenty of hay in his diet?

[HitchcockDT]

I have a chewer, but typically it’s because she’s bored. I know he has a bunch of toys, but it sounds as if he’s not really interested in what you’re providing him. I’ve had this problem–I think I’m providing my buns with the latest and greatest toys when in reality they’d rather play with the boxes the toys were shipped in. Experiment or maybe just observe which toys he chews on or moves around. When he’s chewing on something he’s not supposed to, try to distract him with a toy that he’s allowed to chew on. One thing that I found that worked really well at keeping my buns entertained is instead of feeding them their grain in bowl, I purchased each of them a treat ball and put their rations of grain inside. They’d push the treat balls around the house trying to get the grain out. As for protecting your baseboards from further damage, I’ve found that wallpaper corner guards work great! They’re clear plastic and normally keep wallpaper from getting damaged at corners, but I’ve found that if you run them along baseboards it keeps the buns from chewing. I get mine at Lowes or Home Depot, but I’m sure they’re available at almost any hardware store.

Good luck with your bun!

[jerseygirl]

As for protecting your baseboards from further damage, I’ve found that wallpaper corner guards work great! They’re clear plastic and normally keep wallpaper from getting damaged at corners, but I’ve found that if you run them along baseboards it keeps the buns from chewing. I get mine at Lowes or Home Depot, but I’m sure they’re available at almost any hardware store.

Nice tip HitchcockDT! I don’t think I’ve come across anything like that here. Will have to google..
I resorted to sectioning rectagular downpipe to cover baseboards. Was a bit of a pain to cut them.

[jerseygirl]

Ohhh.*Finished googling* I have seen these actually. I just didn’t know what they were for. Lol.

[Bunbun]

Interesting! My bunny bites them too (pulled one totally off, as the house is old and it was already coming off) and tries to lug them away. He thinks it’s really funny to pull things and move them around.

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