is “bunny” fixed? If not, then it’s all of the hormones running wild… getting him fixed will do wonders.

Baby boyneeds some toys, Mom! Get him a diggin box, a cradboard box filled with shredded paper and some yummy things to chew on to distract him away from the couch and wallpaper. Sometimes, bunnies do better in smaller, enclosed areas. When Sophie was little, I kept her playtime confined to one of this buig puppy playpens with a blanket under her because she loooooved my carpet. Then, little by little gave her a little more space.

Hi Lisa,

welcome to binkybunny. i’m so glad to hear Bunny is fixed, since it’s really important. Bunnies who haven’t been spayed / neutered tend to be more destructive. Since he’s not a baby / unfixed age really shouldn’t have an impact on his behavior, but younger bunnies tend to bit more into everything. Since he’s already fixed, I’d agree with dmh426 – give him more things to do. Especially a digging box could really help. My kids LOOVE willow toys, which most stores don’t carry – hey sell them here in the binkybunny shop. untreated baskets with no glue or nails are also great for chewing.

Pooping outside that box like that is considered marking. Do you have other pets? With his litterbox habits, I’d recommend adding more litterboxes – particularly in places he seems to go often. You may need to limit his roaming space, and then as his habits improve slowly increase his roaming area.

Welcome Lisa!   Well, he’s still young enough to be a terror.      As far as litter training goes, reducing his running space to train is good.  WIth the toys – Do you have it all out at the same time?

What I did was totally reduce his limitations completely… You can search “Paint, Plaster, Oil based Clay..?” from the Behavior forum and see what I went through. I ended up getting him fixed and he was still distructo bunny. For four days he only had his cage and his xpen. Which really isn’t a lot, and I know that. Then I would let him out, under supervision. Once he started to destroy anything back he went.

This went on for a while. Slowly, but surely he got better. The other thing I had to do was cover up the areas that he was chewing so there was no way for him to be bad. So he chewed the paint off the baseboards in our apt… so all of the baseboards now have cardboard stapled to them. I know it’s not pretty… but you can’t expect the rabbit not to chew.. So now, he chews and rips the cardboard.. which is ok, because we can replace it.

You might want to think about covering up the areas of wallpaper he’s chewing. So, kind of make like a really high baseboard type thing. You can cut down a sheet of ply wood and make a really tall board to attach to the wall… or plexi glass.. I don’t know where he’s chewing. Let us know and maybe we can give you suggestions on how to cover up. I think that’s the only way to do it.

As far as tearing up the house goes, there really isn’t alot you can do to curb his behavior except what you are doing, and many bunnies mellow iwth age,  (I’m sorry, you said he was neutered?)

With littertraining, you have to confine, but you definitely need to give exercise.  So get a dog pen, like an xpen.  They are great for setting up extra space – you can attach it to the pen, then block of rooms so you can gradually increase freedom.    Eventually then he can work up to being free to run around, but if he’s peeing on your couch and other places besides his pen, then bad habits will become ingrained,

My understanding is it goes a bit like this:  Though sometimes the teenage "behavior" can last much longer in an unaltered bunny.

Teenage:  3 months – 7 months

Young Adult: 7 months – 1 year

Mature Adult: 1 –  6 years

Senior:  Over six years.

Well.. I know that you said his cage was small.. but I don’t thnk that two days of confinment would kill him.. Someone else should respond to this cause it might be cruel. I’m attaching a picture of Fujoe and his set up when I confinded him for 4 days. So for 4 days that’s all the room he got. Then I would only let him out with me in the room and once he started chewing on something he wasn’t supposed to back in he went for the rest of the day.

I know you said your place is small.. can you use the furniture and get a set of x-pens (the one’s in my pic around his cage) and try to set up a little area for him?

Does he both pee and poop on the couch?
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yay! I’m glad you’ll try it.. no guarentees though, but it worked for me.. then it was a lot of bunny proofing too…

I was talking to Fujoe’s dad last night about your situation and how agressive Fujoe was. I mean, now, he has one of those organize -it cubes cages that’s four levels, so it’s huge. But before we used to lock him up in that little tiny cage..I think the same cage size as you have- during the night and when we weren’t home. once we got the x-pen around it, we got a lot better. So at night the pen would be set up.. it was attached to the sides of the cage, and as you can see we had to tie a piece of cardboad to the top of his cage the the ends of the x-pen cause he figured out he could jump ON the cage and get OUT.

But anyway.. I think giving him a little bit more room when he was caged up helped a great deal. He was still in isolation, but could hop around, and he liked sitting on that box and everything. So it might be a big pain, but while the rabbit is out, you can use the z-pen to cover the couch, but when you put your rabbit in for the night and when you leave during the day, give him some extra room with the x-pen. just make sure you connected it to his cage, cause Fujoe would push and pull and know how to move it.. I just used the twist ties you get from the market.

I hope everything works out this weeked! And don’t feel bad! I felt soooo guilty for keeping him in there, but it was for his sanity and my own.

Fujoe.  Definitely not cruel. Exercise is extremely important, but it is recommended when you first bring a bunny home, and/or you are in training to confine so a bunny can understand where his/her territory is and how it is separate from the "common" (shared with human) territory.  The common, more neutral territory is usually marked less or hopefully not at all. 

And the setup you have now is exactly what I would recommend if a bunny cannot be trusted to be free range without supervision.  (total unsupervised free range 24/7 can happen with certain bunnies, but most need to have their own place where they can’t get into trouble.)

Thanks for sharing your set-up!