Destructive Bunny

[mustbethemarnie]

Hey All!

Long time reader of binkybunny, but first time poster. I rescued a 1.5 year old male (neutered) Lionhead Rabbit from a rescue group about 6 weeks ago. He seems very happy and healthy and is loving his new, big, quiet home. He is housed in a large dog crate I converted to a two story bun-mansion. The first few weeks, he seemed to be settling greatly. However, once December hit he has been an ultimate destructor! He has been shredding the carpet and matting (which I splurged on because he had a minor case of sore hocks and needed the padding). He does have toys and he has been using them as well. My biggest concern is that at the moment he is housed in my room alongside where I sleep. Everyday at dawn, which I understand is their most active time of day), he goes nuts! This is a new thing as of the past week and a half. He is being extremely loud and disruptive and this is all while I’m wearing ear plugs. He’s also tearing apart his cage and throwing everything around each night. I’m curious to see if anyone else has experienced this. The other difficult thing is that he will absolutely NOT let me hold him to any extent (won’t even let me pick him up!). This is proving to be very difficult when I have needed to remove him from the cage or transport him. Does anyone have any tips for gaining your bunnies trust or at least getting him into the pet carrier?

Thanks!

-Law and Boo

[Sarita]

Can you move him farther from your room? This is why I usually recommend you do not house your rabbit in your room…rabbits can be noisy.

For the carrier – try coralling him in the carrier rather than picking him up and placing him in.

[Beka27]

Buns are usually on their best behavior for the first couple weeks, just because it’s a new place and they’re not very sure of their surroundings yet. Once they get more acclimated, you see the true colors come out. It sounds like he’s just having some fun. I ditto what Sarita said about moving him out of your room. Rabbits seem to do better being in a more centralized “family” location anyways.

[Annabel93]

My buns are similar so I can’t really offer advice as I still haven’t found the solution…but I got mine used to the pet carrier by leaving it open in their space and just having it there all the time. Also putting food in there occasionally. By now they happily spend time in there anyway so there’s no problem trying to get them in when I’m taking them somewhere.

[Sindri]

When it comes to getting my rabbits into their carrier I find placing a treat that they love like a piece of banana into the carrier and letting them go in themselves really is the best thing I have tried it works 98% of the time. As far as your other problems with the noise and going nuts my rabbit Usagi does the same thing however he isn’t in my room. The best solution is to try to put him in another room at least at night if possible.

[Author]

Messages