How to call me for cuddles?

[Fluffykins]

So my fluffykins has firmly established the *annoying* behaviour of biting and scratching up his fleece bedding only when he wants me to go to him and pick him up. He has a hundred and fifty million toys, lots of space and playtime (the whole day is playtime)! But normally every evening he will start his scratching and biting of the fleece to get my attention.

So I have done cage timeout for a bit when he does that but I’ll be honest it’s so tiresome to keep getting up.. So I’ve not been consistent with it. The last time I did it I really didn’t want to let him back out to playtime so I feel bad.

I Love that he actively wants to be picked up; when I get over to him he’ll try to jump up my arm lol and keep nudging his head into my palm, if I don’t want to pick him up right then I’ll just pet him and after 30 seconds he gets it and lays his head really low for pets. The problem isn’t he wants my attention (at all)! It’s just the way hes learnt to get it.

I know he spits out what he tears out of the fleece but I still don’t want to be taking the chance of him ingesting it.

What behaviour can I try to teach him to do instead, to get my attention for picking up?

Thanks in advance.

[DanaNM]

I think you’ll just need to work on ignoring him when he does negative behaviors. Rabbits don’t understand punishment, so time outs won’t help. If he is doing something dangerous, and quick squirt of water can be a deterrent, but not a punishment. If he is in danger of ingesting the fleece, remove the fleece and swap with something safer.

Rather, only pick him up (but it’s very weird that he likes being picked up….so i’m kind of confused about that?!) when he is behaving well. Ignore him when he is being naughty. Often having a routine helps too (so, maybe he always gets snuggles right after dinner).

I am not sure training him to do a behavior to “ask” to be picked up is a great idea, because there will likely be times when you won’t be able to, so that might be frustrating to him! But you could work with him to wear if you sit in a certain spot on the floor, that means he can run over and get cuddles?

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Fluffykins]

Putting him back into his condo is probably the same as water in the face, actually water in the face sounds a bit horrifying!

I’ve strived hard to make his condo his fav place (It isn’t) but I’ve purposefully got it filled with toys and only feed him all the yummy food in there. It was important to me he didn’t fuss when he needed to be shut in the for night times. So putting him in time out is the way to show him his behaviour = losing me for a bit.

I’m not sure what I could use to replace the fleece, and it’s only in the run part I have to worry about it. He has fleece in his condo and has never touched that. Maybe I could put down lino? However I know he’ll hate walking on that.

Yes, he’s not your average binky bunny text book bunny

He loves being picked up. He loves going out places. He loves people. He doesn’t like raisens. Doesn’t like hay in his litter box. Loves tummy rubs. Etc. I’m glad for it.

I don’t think I can ignore him when he’s biting the fleece, I normally get up to physically move him and say “stop”. Nowadays when I use ‘that’ tone and call him when he’s biting, before even saying stop he stops and looks at me. He knows! But if I don’t go over, he’ll just start biting again.

He also knows if I’ve gone over to physically stop him biting, he *knows* I’ll pick him up for snuggles. I’m a sucker! And he’s smart haha. Got me well trained.

But it is tiring and I DO need it to stop, purely for his health. We do have our snuggle times but the prob is in the evenings he can sit on me for half an hour, I put him down for 5 mins and he wants up again! But it’s not always he wants to come up and stay in my arms, somtimes he just what’s to explore the rest of the house.

Ugh.

[Fluffykins]

He’s bonded to me, strongly. Some day when I’ve got a life to live again (currently no life) I might think about a mate for him if and when he wants it. For now, it works for us to have eachother. He has run of my tiny apartment, he’s as spoiled as a king and I have all my time, energy and love to give to him. I’d have no problem keeping him stuck to me all day haha it’s the chasing after him that gets me!

Somtimes he just wants playtime *around me* rather then in his run. I do the whole sitting in his run etc etc. We get plenty of play time together. So the problem isn’t lack of space or interaction or boredom. It literally is he’s learnt biting the fleece will get snuggles from me.

I guess I know the answer! I have to be consistent with the time outs maybe. Maybe change the fleece to lino. What if he just learns to bite the lino?

[Author]

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