Chewing deterrent

[Click & Treat Bunny]

 Hello all!

Just joined and have had my bunny for 3 weeks.  I wound up deciding to go with a 43×29 bunny condo.  Clover has plenty of room, a ramp, etc. She likes her house, however, I’ve noticed within the last week or so that she is chewing on her cage bars which are white coated vinyl (?).  She doesn’t appear to be ingesting the pieces as I find many of them on the floor, and I haven’t seen any alarming symptoms.  However, I’d like for her to stop chewing on them.  She has plenty of stuff in her house–a phonbook, paper towel rolls, toilet paper rolls, a small basket with hay in it, an oatmeal container with hay in it (shes likes to find a treat in it), willow twigs to chew, wooden shaped carrots, but yet she wants to chew on the bars.  

Originally, I thought it was boredom, so I put more stuff in there.  Then, I saw her doing this right in front of me with pulling on the bars too!  So I’m thinking partly to get out and partly as an attention-seeking behavior which I try to ignore.

Anyone know safe deterrents?  I tried bitterend which is all natural, but that did not faze her.  I thought I read on this site somewhere about lemon/lemon juice?

Thanks in advance

[Elrohwen]

Personally, I don’t feel that that size cage is large enough for an active bun – even if a bunny has a lot of vertical room to jump and climb, I think having a large floor area is super important to some bunnies. My Hannah goes crazy if she is shut in even a 4’x4′ pen for too long and needs a lot of space to run around. She also needs at least 5hrs, bare minimum, to run around or she goes nuts. My other bun would be content in a 4’x2′ cage all day every day, so it’s a very personality specific thing, I think.

As for deterrents, citrus and perfume can work. I would be wary about putting perfume on cage bars, but you can put some lemon or lime oil on them. I have also purchased a lime chew deterrent in gel form that works fairly well. It’s not 100% effective, but it makes my bunnies think twice before chewing something and if I can deter them long enough they tend to forget about whatever it was. It probably won’t be very effective for a very determined bunny though.

[Monkeybun]

My buns chew on the bars when they are bored and want out to play. How much exercise time is she getting out of the cage?

[Click & Treat Bunny]

 Re: Elrohwen Really?  I seriously though a 43×29 size was pretty large for one bun.   I looked at the abodes as well–I think are 48 but only one story unless you buy additional items like a ramp and such.  Currently, she has the whole dining room which if I remember correctly is 15×13 and I do allow her in the kitchen as well which is fairly large and long for a bunny to run around in.  But the kitchen is always her choice.

Thanks for the suggestions though.  I’ll look into lemon or lime oil.  Like I said before, I am pretty sure it is a combination of boredom at times, attention-seeking, and wanting to be out as well.  She really is pretty clever.

Re: Monkeybun During the week, she gets 4-5 hours out due to my schedule and longer on the weekends.  It’s still a bit hard, because she does need to be watched a bit even with bunnyprooofing.  She is a young, active bunny, but at the same time, her environment is very enriching too with tunnels to go through, fun large size cardboard to rip up, old phonebooks out, etc.  

[Elrohwen]

I think having a whole dining room or kitchen to run around in it great, if it’s permanent – I just think anything smaller than 48″x48″ for an active bunny is much small. Commercial cages are just too small. Especially if it doesn’t have multiple levels, it sounds like a small cage. Just think of them like cats – no cat would be ok confined to a cage during the day and bunnies aren’t really either. They should have plenty of room to run around, especially if they’re of a more active personality, which is sounds like Clover is.

[DrMarie]

I honestly think -any- cage is too small for a solitary social rabbit. I had a rabbit who would never ever voluntarily leave her cage even with the door open, but my other rabbit prefers to roam all over the house constantly and hates the cage. Though when I still had two of them (the elderly one passed a few months ago) my crazier rabbit would spend most of her time cuddling the other one and she was a lot easier to manage. Currrently I have my lone rabbit in a 2x6x8 level cage that I plan on expanding and she despises it in there. I’ve been locking her up more often until I can figure out how to keep her from eating the paint off the walls and destroying the baseboard. For what it’s worth, she chews on the wires from the inside AND the outside, so part of me thinks it’s just for fun. I plan on getting another rabbit very soon so hopefully she will not be so lonely.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Hi, Dr. Marie. Just to let you know we try to discourage members from responding to old posts, this post is from 2010. It can create confusion. Feel free to start a new thread.

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