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- This topic has 4sd replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 5 months ago by
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Lately my spayed female bun has been acting out the past week – climbing on things she is not supposed to, chewing on things like cables and boxes (she’s never been into chewing before this, in the 3 months I have had her), digging and nipping at my clothes, furniture and at my skin (by the lovehandles and inner thighs
). Now my boyfriend and I are trying to practice handling and carrying her more comfortably, which she seems OK with, though I hope we are not perpetuating the cycle if this happens to be a power/dominance thing.I wondered if this acting out is just boredom, so I gave her some chew sticks and woven balls and some new things to climb and chew, and she wasn’t as interested in chewing on these as she was in chewing on and nipping at things she is not supposed to… last night she was so bad, we put her in the pen almost the entire day, and she sulked about it, didn’t move from the same spot all day. When we let her out, she was back to her normal good behavior.
Do you think this is a power or dominance thing? Or boredom? Or hormones? She is spayed, but I have read threads on here about bunnies having a hormonal peak even after spay or neuter. Any advice on how to approach these problems, do you think it is okay to continue to punish her by putting her in the pen? She does chew on the pen and lift it off the ground, and it makes a loud sound, but we deliberately ignore her when she does this and eventually she stops.
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Most rabbits dont like being handled as well. If her acting out towards you has started around the time you started handling her more, it is her way of saying “dont touch me right now”. She is assuming that every time you are near, youre going to try to handle her, which she doesnt want and most bunnies will become angry or irritated (nippy) over. She might be a bun who doesnt like to be handled unless she absolutely needs to be. I would stop trying to hold her and such sos she can learn to trust you fully again
For the box and cable chewing, thats normal bun stuff. Youve only had her for 3 months so far, so she is likely still learning about and exploring the house/apartment/room. Jumping on things they shouldnt is also a normal bun thing
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We have tried phone books and other types of books/paper, it keeps her occupied for a little bit, but eventually she wants to climb on the couch again. It’s nearly impossible to block off access the way our apartment is set up.
Mikey, we only started carrying her once she started getting into places that were dangerous for her. I am not as concerned about the chewing and digging, because I agree that probably most of this is her getting more comfortable with us and her environment, but I really want her to stop getting into things that can potentially harm her. She climbs up to the top of the couch and onto the windowsill because she sees something that intrigues her. I have fall decorations up and flowers in a vase.. yesterday while I was in the bathroom and my boyfriend walked out of the room for one second, she grabbed the rim of the vase with her mouth and the entire contents fell onto her and the floor. She did not seem to mind the fact that she was soaked and was 100% preoccupied with trying to eat the roses off the floor.
Things like this are happening more and more, and it’s worrying me that we will have to limit her time outside of the pen because it’s not realistic that we can have all eyes on her all of the time. Any ideas on how to discourage this type of behavior or distract her? I tried noise distractions like stomping and pennies in a jar, it works about 20% of the time. We love her so much, we won’t give her up for anything, but we need help
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