i can’t stand my rabbit anymore

[Oliver Griffin]

i’ve had my rabbit for a little over a month now, and i can’t stand her. it’s gotten to the point where my entire family is telling me to give her away, but there is no place i could give her to. no shelters, breeders, rescues etc for rabbits in my country.

if i leave her in her cage at night, she tugs at the bars and wake the whole house up (her cage is around 12 square feet, she is only in it at night). if i let her free roam at night she digs at the door (of my room) and jumps on my face. from day 1 i’ve tried to show her that the bed is my territory and that she is not allowed there. at first it seemed like she understood that, but now she jumps on it and pees and poops on it. i am a very jumpy person, so whenever she jumps on my face i push her away, obviously pretty hard since she wakes me up very suddenly (and i dont know its her, its like a reflex for me to push something away when it scares me). so i cant let her free roam at night, because i might hurt her, and she already lost my trust because of it. she no longer grooms my legs, she lets me pet her but not as much. is she ever going to trust me again?

my parents are turning our terrace in a room soon, and they said i can let Haru live there. would that be okay?

until then, what can i do?

[Azerane]

Hi there. I’m sorry that you are having trouble adjusting to life with your bunny. It cam be challenging especially when you sleep in the same room as them. Rabbits are naturally active early morning and late evening. The terrace room sounds like it will be a nice solution.

In the meantime try to give bunny plenty to do in his cage. Interactive treat toys to keep him busy rather than chewing on the bars. Is the pen on a hard floor? If so it may be rattling quite loudly. Putting a soft blanket underneath the pen may help cushion the sound a little.

[Bam]

Your bunny is being a young bunny with lots of energy. That’s normal and she will of course mature with time. It will be great if she can have the terrace room if it’s bunny proofed and secure from predators and weather (heat rain wind snow).

Meanwhile you should block her from accessing your bed. You can teach a dog not to lie in beds, but even dogs can grab the opportunity to lie in the bed when no one is there. Trying to teach a rabbit that it mustn’t be in the bed is pretty much a dead loss. Your bed is the best place in the room, it has lots of your scent and it’s soft and comfy.

She gnaws at her cage bars and jumps on you to elicit a response from you. Get up, play with me, mummy! Even a negative response from you is more rewarding for her than no response at all. I had a bun that liked to jump on me when I was asleep when he was young. I kind of missed it when he grew up and stopped :/

You and your bun has only known each other for a month. That’s a very short time for a rabbit to start to trust their human. You have not ruined her trust. She seems like a bun with a good amount of bunnitude. That’s a good thing.

Anyway, I think you can develop a good relationship with her, but you’ll need time and patience. Digging at carpet is a natural behavior in buns, esp girl buns, but it’s impractical so you’ll need to put something down on the floor to protect the carpet. You can make a dog box for her with torn up newspaper for example. Give her chew toys or twigs from pesticide-free Apple- or willow trees. Make her work for her pellets by putting it in a treat ball (there are DIY ideas for treat balls and other toys if you google). Give her a cardboard house if she doesn’t have one (upside down cardboard box with two “doors”). Buns often like to remodel cardboard houses, or bunstruct them as it’s also called.

[Bunny House]

Hi,
I didn’t read if she was fixed or not. This can negatively attribute to her bad behaviors. As said above, you can’t teach bunnies like you can dogs not to do things so they only true way to prevent them from an act is to block off the area like with a pen or nic grids. And I agree with everyone one else above. You can put cardboard boxes( with no tape) and let her destroy it, mine love to rip it to shreds.

[LemonBreeze]

Hi. The first 2 months I had my rabbit I had just wanted to give him back, or to a shelter. I didn’t know where to put him, how to take care of him properly, etc. The only reason I kept her was because my mom loved her and I decided to keep him for her. I learned that I was capable of taking care of him, and I gradually grew to like him more. Now he’s my amazing little bunny and I love him so much. So if you can, I would recommend keeping her for at least another week.

As for your cage problem, I had the same problem. My rabbit would jump on my face while sleeping, one time dangerously close to my eye, and I couldn’t stand it. And when I put him in an x-pen, she rattled the bars and even jumped out a couple of times. I wasn’t able to sleep for 3 days, I even had dreams while still being awake one time, idk what it’s called but it was very strange. Well I made a cage out of an old crib, very fancy ik, and put it in the basement with a sheet to cover the top. To this day I still bring her down there at night, and bring her back up in the morning. And I can’t even hear her from my room even if I give him his loudest toys. So I would try something like that.

Whatever you decide, I hope you can find a good solution for both you and your rabbit!

[Q8bunny]

The suggestions above are very good. Bunnies need time to adjust to new homes and families. Forming a meaningful bond with a bunny takes even longer. But it’s really worth the effort. The terrace sounds great, if suitably set up. Hang in there.

[Muj Mom N Bun]

I say ditto to all the responses you’ve gotten. Please don’t give up on your rabbit just so soon… a month is quite a short time. As for pulling on the bars at night, can you consider fixing some cardboard inside the cage against the bars so that your bun 1, can’t get to the bars, and 2, will keep busy tearing and chewing the cardboard down and thus getting some free bunstructive entertainment at the same time? Also, how much exercise time does the bun have during the day? I definitely saw quickly when I first got BunBun that the more exercise, busy time she got in the evening, the more she was settled down at night.

[Ivet]

Hi there,
Here is back-up story for me and my Barnie. I got him like 4 months ago? It wasn’t easy at the begining. He had pretty big cage (but still not big enought to be there for hours), but after reading a lot about bunnies, I decided he will be free roam. At the begining it was all great but then he started to pee on me and my bed (imagine being wake up not from jumping but peeing). otherwise he had very good littter skills. So I put him in the cage at nights and secure my bed through the day. He didn’t like being in cage at all. He was making so much noise. I thought that he will destroy the cage. He was 3/4 years old at the time – puberty for bunnies. I made an appointment at vet and let him be neutered. But before neutering he needed to be vaccinated. So it was pretty hard month or so. BUT from the first day after neutering he stopped peeing on my bed. He peed on me twice since that – but it was because new kitty at the appartmen tried to invade his space and he was telling me it’s not okay Sometimes he jumps on me too but I consider it funny. So don’t give up!!

[Nichole]

Rabbits can be loud. When I shared a room with my rabbit I started wearing earplugs. It helps a lot. When I moved and had a walk-in closet I put the rabbit cage in there and closed the door at night. Having that extra barrier between the cage and my ears really helped.

[Author]

Messages