Destructive/naughty rabbit!

[Kbun91]

Has anyone successfully trained a destructive and naughty rabbit?! I have a bonded pair of rabbits that I would eventually like to let free roam but one of the rabbits is a trouble maker and I can’t leave her unsupervised for long! The first rabbit I got is a male neutered holland lop, now almost 2 yrs old who is awesome and I don’t have to worry about getting into things. My other rabbit is a 2-3 yr old female spayed mixed breed who is a huge trouble maker! She often chews/rips up carpet and most of my place is carpeted. She will also occasionally poop, and sometimes but more rarely, pee outside of her litter box. I don’t mind the rabbits being on my bed, but the female always poops on it! I always tell her no and place her in her litter box when she does it, but it hasn’t made a difference. And when I catch her ripping up the carpet, I clap my hands to get her to stop and she often runs away, but then will return to the same spot shortly after. I have toys and things for her to chew on but she prefers the carpet for some reason.

What techniques can I try to get her to stop these behaviors? Do you think any rabbit can become a cage-free rabbit?? I would love to let them run around and play all day! 

Thanks!

[Bun_Frien]

Something I’m trying is giving my bun more space little by little. It’s easy to control him and monitor him and if he’s bad he loses that space. Idk if this will work im only a week in

[mimimomo]

Hopefully others will have more useful advice, but I’ve had my bunnies for 2 years and haven’t had much luck with training them NOT to do things (e.g. don’t tear up the carpet, don’t pee on the couch, etc). I’ve had a little more success trying to teach them good behaviors to replace the bad ones (e.g. pee in the litter box most of the time, destroy this cardboard box instead of something else, etc), but in my experience bunnies aren’t trainable in the way dogs are.

What has happened instead is that I’ve gotten better at bunny proofing! I have a waterproof blanket that I throw over the couch when I’m not around to supervise, I’ve nailed plastic corner covers to the trim, I’ve covered their favorite carpet spots with tiles, I’ve gated off certain rooms….I could go on forever! My bunnies have definitely trained me instead of the other way around. I’m sure there are some well-behaved free roam bunnies out there, but us lucky owners of destructive bunnies have to get creative…

Distraction definitely helps – I often make “hideouts” out of large cardboard boxes with a small opening cut in the side. My bunnies love spending time inside them trying to dig and chew, especially if I put crumples of paper inside. When they get too torn up or if they pee inside it, I just throw it out and make a new one.

As far as pooping/peeing on your bed, I’d recommend getting a large waterproof blanket to spread over your bed when you’re not using it. They’re usually marketed towards dog owners to prevent furniture from getting fur or wet feet on them. At least that way the poop would be easy to clean up without dirtying your blankets underneath.

[Kbun91]

@Bun_Frien – that’s a good idea. It’s a bit difficult with two rabbits when one of them is great and the other isn’t because I hate limiting the good one’s space. I suppose I can just let the good one out separate from the other one at least some of the time.

@mimimomo – those are awesome suggestions! It just saddens me that I can’t let the good bunny free roam because of the not so good bunny! Like at night when I am laying in bed, the good bunny will just hang out on my bed with me but the other one will poop and sometimes pee on it. And if she’s not doing that, shes getting into trouble some other way! So I often just let the good bunny out at night, but then he seems confused as to why the other one can’t be out with him! I guess I just got lucky with the first one being so well behaved and not so much with the second one.

[mimimomo]

Yeah, I see why that would be difficult. Both of my bunnies are equally bad, so I’ve never run into that problem

[sarahthegemini]

Just a note re pooping/peeing on the bed – many buns like peeing on soft things so it’s actually very common for rabbits to pee on a bed. They often poop on beds too as a method of marking their territory. It doesn’t make a rabbit ‘bad’ It’s just…normal.

[MooseMouse]

I have two buns and one was very destructive and an outright jerk to his brother. He seemed too smart for his own good so I bought a bunch of different Dog IQ toys and put kibble in them every day when i go to work. His destructive behaviour is pretty much all gone and he hardly bullies his brother anymore .. but still pellet bombs the room every now and then

[Author]

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