Bunny won’t stop chewing

[Bentley Bunny]

My bunny is still young and I am sure he will grow out of the chewing habit (hopefully) but I cannot get him to stop chewing on his wooden hutch, /He has a two story hutch, spending most of his time in the bottom section. He has several wooden blocks in his house that he does chew on, plastic balls, and bigger wooden blocks. He has unlimited hay and I always try to keep his pellet bowl full. (Yes I know he should be limited to pelleted food but he gets exercise and I watch his weight.) He does not want to stop chewing on his hutch. We are not sure what he does when we are away, but we know he does it most when we are sleeping or talking a lot, so I am sure he wants attention. I have to lock him up in his plastic cage so that he cannot chew on the hutch all night then I put him back in the morning. He evens chews on the hutch when he is running around the room. I don’t know if there is any safe bitter spray out there or home remedy of that stuff. I just don’t want this to become a life long habit or something that may hurt him (sometimes he eats the pieces of wood he chews off, but not all the time) as he has already lived through GI Stasis once before (no known reason though, but vet believes because of the change of food and area when we bought him) Spraying him with a bottle does not help either. When it is nice outside I try to keep him in the enclosed kennel we have for him as much as possible. Any things I can try would be great.

[emm_renn]

Is your rabbit fixed yet/are you planning on getting him fixed? That might help the chewing. I know my rabbit use to gnaw on her metal cage wires when she wanted fed in the morning/at night. But with time and a little fluctuation with her scheduling, she stopped. If you are just concerned with the health of your rabbit, I wouldn’t worry too much, unless he is swallowing large amounts of the wood or if it has harsh chemicals in it. But if you were concerned with the condition of the cage, I would divert his attention to other things. Like maybe get some sort of roll and release treat toys or stash some treats in a hay rack that you are using. Anything like that, that will keep your rabbit’s attention away from the chewing for an extended amount of time. When your rabbit is out running around, block off the cage with a gate. Good luck!

[Bentley Bunny]

I do plan on getting him fixed. When he was going through GI Stasis, my vet told me not to feed him any vegetables until at least 4 months old, just mostly hay. So I havent given him any veggies. I am not sure what treats would be best as I am a paranois person and look it up constantly on what is ok for bunnies.

[Flopsie]

I think the first thing to understand is chewing is a natural behavior for a bunny. Bunnies chew. This is inherent behavior. Chewing is also important for their teeth as it will wear it down. However, the issue is, what does she chew? Chewing something will be appropriate, and chewing others can be dangerous and also inappropriate (by society’s and our standards).

it seems like you have lots of things for him to chew instead, but as I can confirm, that doesn’t mean that your bun will chew them. You might want to look into preventing the bunny from chewing things that can be blocked off or prevented.

For the hutch, is is possible that your bun is bored? is there a different or larger set up that is possible?

Also getting neutered and spayed can be a large help.

Finally, is there anything wrong with chewing the hutch? I assume it is made of wood. If chewing the hutch won’t cause safety issues and won’t destroy the functionality of the hutch, is it that bad that she chews on it? This is really just a question so I can better understand.

[Patrick]

I agree with flopsie, its a natural behavior as annoying as it is sometimes Patrick loves hay and cardboard, I think he likes the big thick stalks of hay just because. 

Let your bun have a wood block or a piece of firewood to make mulch out of, Patrick has an oak log he fights with and tries to chew.

[Bentley Bunny]

His hutch is already 2 stories. And he gets to be outside in his outside pen most of the day when its nice out and he comes out to play around the house when I am home. And yes it will ruin the hutch as the places he chews is on the bottom and on the leg of the ramp that allows him to go from the top story to the bottom. Doing that he will not have a sturdy ramp and chewing on the bottom piece will cause it to go right to the cage bars that make the ourside of the hutch, which then would make the cage bars able to be pulled since the wood was what held it in place. I do know its a natural behavior… but I was asking if there was something I could spray on the wood in the hutch to stop him from chewing the hutch and to find his other toys and wooden blocks more appealing. Since they make stuff for dogs and cats and horses. And yes I know bunnies are more fragile, but you never know what they might come out with.

[Bentley Bunny]

And I do want to buy some sort of sturdy fencing to allow him to have more roam of my bedroom, but we do have a cat..so I would have to not allow my cat into the room. Which is fine, but thats where all his items are and his safe place. But it would be while someone is gone. the only problem would be is if he chews on the wooden floor? Or possibly the running boards on the bottom of the wall. How do people bunny proof that stuff? Any good findings on what to make as a fence for a bunny?

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