How do you curb the overly excited for food bunny?

[Stickerbunny]

Powder used to be a very, very slow eater. Since he’s moved in with Stickers, I try to spread their feedings out so he gets his share and he does, his weight is maintained and I watch them eat, he gets his half. But, she’s taught him to be a very… enthusiastic eater. And it’s starting to present some issues.

I used to give them their dinner, or salad and the buns would run to the food spot and wait. Nice, calm, good bunnies. As they started picking up on each others eating habits, they started circling excitedly for food.. ok still no problem, except I have to walk a little slower. But, now Powder gets so excited for his food he’s BITING me. I went to put their pellets down last night and Powder jumped up off the ground and bit my hand trying to catch the pellets mid-air., ignoring the container in my hand (he didn’t mean to bite me I don’t think, he was after the pellets he knew I was holding).

They have hay, they get salad, they get plenty of pellets for their weight… and I watch to make sure they get their fair shares. So, I know he isn’t _that_ hungry. He eats so much hay I am shocked his little frame can handle that much food, honestly. He’s just become such a dominant eater since they bonded, he has to get first pick of everything.

How do I curb his enthusiam a bit to save my poor hands? Not that bunny tooth marks isn’t fashionable, but it isn’t my style. I’d rather not have to wear gloves to put his dinner down.

[Monkeybun]

Yeah… Monkey gets super excited too. If she gets too excited, I tell her that she can just wait then. And I feed the others first. It has seemed to slow her down a little, but she does still get excited. I don’t think you can curb it completely

[LBJ10]

Would he understand if you were waiting for him to calm down before he gets his food? Maybe clicker training would help.

[mia]

I believe someone here gave me advice to just keep the food in my fist and not give any pellets till the excitement died down. That only got my hand bitten (not intentionally by the bun). A lot of times even without any food in my hands, both hands will be examined and my bun will still not believe they are empty even after inspection. If he had thought bubbles on his head, the thing that would ever be in it is food.

I usually feed one vege through the x-pen bars. While distracted with one vege, the rest gets put down.

[Stickerbunny]

Ha, keep food in my hands is something I learned not to do a long time ago. If he even smells a dust particle of food he’ll bite my hand thinking it is edible. Never let him sniff your fingers after you feed treats, unless you want to come back nipped. o.O lol

And I can’t wait for him to calm, since he NEVER calms down. He’ll just run circles/climb my legs/nip at my feet if I stall with the food. He wasn’t like this until his silly girlfriend taught him bad habits, he was so well behaved! Even if I feed him his salad (since I can toss that from out of his reach), he grabs up a piece of veg and then runs over to the pellets to munch them while his mouth is still full. *frown* Though, I guess if his mouth was full the bite would hurt less.

I haven’t tried clicker training him, just realized I forgot to respond to that part. I guess I could try, though I am unsure how successful it will be with the two. They are firmly in the camp of “we don’t do training” since they got together.

[jerseygirl]

Haha!

Well, I sometimes throw a few diversion pellets into the lair then dump the rest of the portion on the bowl while they’re distracted.

I also try wait when they’re being super crazy. I’m not consistent with it though.

If there is the slightest calm can you reward with one pellet immediediately? I know, tricky trying to hand feed them when they’re fired up…

Another way might be doing work like this outside if meal times. Using a cue word and rewarding with a pellet as soon as desired behaviour is shown, no matter how fleeting. So if you use the word “wait” and when *calm*, reward. Repeat repeat repeat. After they learn the cue word, you could use it at their regular mealtimes.

I think you’d have to do any work with them one on one since they feed each others excitement over food.

When I temporarily separate J&R for whatever reason, I often give the one I’m not with something to keep occupied. Atm I have dried apple branches which are proving popular.

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