Food Monster keeps waking me up, he’s driving me crazy

[Audrey]

Hi, I’m new to this forum and also to being a bunny owner so I have a lot of questions. I’ll start with the one that’s driving me crazy right now. I have a nearly 6 month old Holland Lop who will eat everything if I let him. He’s got Timothy hay available to him all day and I feed him pellets a few times a day. The past month or so he’s taken to throwing/lifting his cage to get attention when he wants food. He’s currently in a large pet play pen as his main enclosure, working on a bunny condo but it’s not done yet. This behavior will wake me up in the middle of the night and early morning, even when I leave him a half cup of pellets when I go to bed. I’m not sure if I need to feed him more or if there’s a way to get him to stop doing this, I’m still a bit unclear on if or what kind of discipline really works on bunnies. Since he’s 6 months old a lot of sites online have said you shouldn’t feed adult bunnies unlimited pellets but I’m not sure how much a 6 month old 3lb Holland lop should have before I stop giving pellets to him.

Sorry for the rambling but any advise would be much appreciated.

[Azerane]

Hi there and welcome

As a six month old, his hormones may be getting the btter of him if he’s not neutered which could be causing him to act up and be more restless. In terms of pellet amount, 1-2 tablespoons daily is plenty for a rabbit his size. I believe the guide is 1/4 cup per 5-7 pounds of rabbit. I’ve always used less. If you’re still feeding unlimited, I would reduce the amount slowly so that he doesn’t get too upset about it. If you want to keep him entertained during the night, perhaps try hiding his pellets in a cardboard roll or treat ball, in in amongst a pile of hay. He’ll still make noise, but hopefully less than him banging his enclosure.

[Bam]

Could you move him out of the room where you sleep? My Bam woke me up in the middle of the night when he was new with me, and I got out of bed and gave him treats. That reinforced the behavior – of course. I moved his cage (he was in a cage then) out into the hallway.

As Azerane says, this is in part a young rabbit thing. He wants action. Humans generate action. If you wake your human and elicit a response from her (any response, really – it doesn’t even have to be a pleasant response), you’ve succeeded. Disciplining him won’t discourage him- it wouldn’t even discourage a puppy dog since what he wants is a reaction from you.

It is very difficult to discipline a rabbit. They don’t respond well, as a rule you just make them connect bad things with your person. That’s of course counter-productive.

If you’ve access to untreated apple- or willow trees, you can give him apple twigs or willow twigs to chew at night. Even smaller branches are good. They like to eat the leaves and the bark and it takes time. I assume he has hay 24/7, so he’s not waking you because he’s starving.

[Audrey]

What kind of treat ball type things do you guys use? I’ve made treat balls out of cardboard rolls using his hay, haven’t done it with the pellets yet. But are there any other type of treat balls that work well with bunnies?

He has a few toys but he never pays any attention to them unless it’s a food type toy, but he can go through those in a couple minutes.

I think I can move him once I finish the bunny condo, just having problems deciding what to use as flooring on top of the platforms that’s easy to clean. Right now there’s not enough room in my one bedroom apartment for the pen he’s in.

And yes he’s got hay 24/7 btw

[Luna]

When Luna was younger she used to throw things around her cage/rattle the bars when I tried to sleep. Mostly it was for attention, rather than treats, but what helped was that first I set her up on a schedule – hay 24/7, veggies the same time every morning/night, and either a tiny handful of pellets (not unlimited because she is an adult now) or some other small treat right before I go to bed. After a couple weeks of consistency, she learned not only that 5:30 a.m. means breakfast/veggie time, but also that after she gets pellets or a treat at night it means bedtime/quiet-time. I also let her roam around my ‘bunny-proofed’ bedroom at night, which I don’t recommend for every rabbit – it depends on your bun’s habits/behavior.

The only ‘discipline’ I’ve ever tried to give her was ‘time-outs’ but I stopped doing that because it didn’t really work (as Bam says, it’s difficult to discipline a rabbit) – except that it distracted her from doing/chewing whatever she was not supposed to be doing/chewing on at the time. But if you distract your rabbit don’t do it with a treat because it will reinforce that behavior!

[jerseygirl]

For treat balls, I have one like this.

You can adjust the opening depending on the size of the food you are giving. My first rabbit was kept very occupied by this dispenser. 

Here’s one more of rabbit guinea pig theme.

For his pen, can you line the inside with something (Like clear vinyl or coroplast) so he cannot lift or chew at the bars? 

[LittlePuffyTail]

Sounds like my Sterling. Always hungry even though he always has hay to eat. He rattles the pen bars when he thinks I should bring food. We call him “Starving Sterling”

[Odette]

Odette has just hit this stage at five months and her vet won’t spay her until 6 months. She lives free range in the living room and that was a huge mistake. It won’t surprise me a bit if she starts dragging the couch off to eat-simultaneously-destroy.

[Audrey]

Thanks for the advise on the treat toy, I’ll have to try and find one of those.

Since I made this I’ve decided that part of the reason he was getting worse was because I had built the condo and put it near his pen where he could see it but couldn’t access it. I’ve since moved him into the condo and he seems happier and he can’t really shake the walls of the condo.

[Author]

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