Gate/Cage biting and other Buster issues

[Denise12]

So Buster is always biting on the cage when we put her back in at night and also in the morning when she sees me. It seems she always wants to get out. ALso when we have her in the kitchen, she’s often biting on the gate that we have..and has cleared away a lot of the paint on it  and i’m nervous its harmful to her.

What can I do? Thank you.

[Beka27]

Often times buns will do that. When they’re in their cage or blocked somewhere, they want to get out or pass the obstruction. It’s important that you don’t immediately let him out when he starts chomping on his cage b/c he’ll come to associate biting or rattling the cage with getting what he wants… let him calm down first, and then let him out. Don’t reward the “bad” behavior. Cage biting can also be boredom, so make sure he has safe stuff to play with/destroy in his cage. But it sounds like he’s doing it for attention in the morning… and “How Dare You Lock Me Up?!” in the evening.

There are baby gates that are a solid plastic panel you can get, or what I did with our baby gate, I zip-tied a flat piece of cardboard to one side so if they tried to chew or dig at it, it was just cardboard, not plastic pieces. I would hope that a baby gate would not have dangerous paint on it, but it’s still not a good idea that he ingest it.

[Denise12]

Thanks. Is there any type of spray though, that I can use for now?
I had someone tell me about ‘apple bitter spray’?

[Karla]

I know you are already concerned about it, and you should. Jack is missing his lower incissors, they are broken by the root – according to the vet, he has probably been biting his cage too violently and they broke. And his old owner does remember an incident. Just as a warning.

Give Buster a lot of things to chew, so she at least transfers some of her biting habits to more harmless things. I agree completely with anything that Beka just wrote

[Deleted User]

When I had a caged rabbit biting his bars, I wired a large piece of wood to that area and he learnt to chew that, he liked it, and the begging habit stopped and turned to just recreational chewing. The wood has to be big, though, and stationary. Now, if your bunny just moves on to another side of his cage, you could run cardboard pieces along those sides too. Any chewables will do. — Apparently the bitter apple is safe to us but I don’t know if it will stick to bars very well.

[Beka27]

I am not a fan of the pet sprays. Either they do not deter the bun (many buns LIKE them!) or they work for about an hour when it’s fresh, and then the bun is repeating the behavior.

I also don’t recommend spraying any kind of deterrent or perfume in a cage where your bun is locked up. If the odor is too strong and offensive, there is nowhere for the bunny to escape it. Think about being in a confined location (bathroom or airplane seat) with the old lady with gawd awful, strong, lingering perfume… and you can’t get away from the smell.

[RabbitPam]

The bitter apple sprays never seem to work well, and some bunnies actually like the taste.

You could wipe the bars of the baby gate with white vinegar, which will clean and disinfect it as well as leave an odor he won’t like but won’t be as strong as a spray.

But not the cage bars. As Beka said, just ignore him and not do anything, until he quiets down. Reward good behavior.
Sammy will chew her bars, but that’s 5 minutes before my alarm clock goes off, and she stops when she knows I’m up. At night, I go Shhhh from my bedroom, and she stops pretty quickly. I think it’s a combination of learning that I’m still in the other room even though she can’t see me, and knowing that my shhhh means she can chew all night be I’m not getting up. On occasion I have heard her increase furiously, but when I checked on her it was because something was wrong, like a tipped batch of pellets in her water or her litter pan scattered around.

Lots of substitute chew toys – always a good idea.

[<3 tallulah]

i think some buns just really love chewing!! Tallulah loves it yet harvey only chews what he’s supposed to. We have the run out back inbetween 2 sheds and tallula had actually chewed holes in the shed!!! we had to place pieces of wood along the sides of the shed because they were easier to replace than the side of a shed lol!!!

i do agree that if they have lots of toys etc to chew it will stop them doing it as much. my buns absoloutly love toilet roll tubes filled with straw or hay.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Try doing things to keep her up during the day-keep lights on and maybe a radio or TV. Then when it’s bed time-put a sheet over the cage of course make sure they have plenty to do! The sheet really works well

[Denise12]

Thank you guys…..
I started spraying her with water in a spray bottle last night and saying “SHHH”. It seems to work for a minute, but then she just goes right back to it. How does a spray bottle with water work? I feel horrible doing it, but I’m really frustrated and she’s making me crazy lately. I don’t want to be mad at her!
I let her out in the kitchen this morning and she immediately started biting the gate! She should have been running around!

Another crazy thing happened last night i’m really upset about. I was eating dinner in the living room and my husband and I heard a big thump. She somehow jumped over the gate in the kitchen. I think what she did was climb on top of her cage (which is kind of by the doorway) and leap over the gate onto the floor. I was so scared that she broke something or hurt herself, but she seemed ok. It is really the only area that works for us where she can run around besides a pen in the living room….then we can’t really pet her in there and lay down with her and I don’t like doing that too often. Anyway, my kitchen is rather small (1br apt, 4th floor walkup) and if i move the cage to one side, she’ll climb on the kitchen table, to the other side, she’ll leap over the gate now!! Sorry for a long post, but i’m really upset about this today.

She’s 4 months old now…still a little baby and she is the cutest bunny and we love her so much!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Adalaide]

When I started using a water bottle to get Freya to stop chewing everything in the house I thought it would never work. She’d chew, I’d spray, she would look at me and I swear she was wishing me dead. This would last a few seconds and she’d either go right back to chewing or move like 2 inches to start chewing again. I was convinced I was the worst bunny mom ever and Freya really hated me. Then suddenly it worked. She’d stop and find other things to do. Instead of spending every moment with a bottle in my hands I was able to enjoy her company and just keep it close at hand. I think in the past week I’ve used it only once, maybe twice and that’s about all we need anymore. Usually she sees me pick it up and knows she’s in trouble so she stops. I also tried to never get her in the face, she’d get super pissy if she got water on her face.

[Denise12]

Ok, so i should spray at her feet/body more?
She did give me the saddest face when I sprayed her and i felt horrible

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