Hello. I am Ana, a new rabbit mom, 21 years old! And I desperately need help with my little bunny. I’ve read multiple post on this forum before and after getting my rabbit, to get to know her and the species in general as I’ve never owned a rabbit before. I love her so much but she’s developed a habit that worries me, she bites the cage aggressively at night, in the morning or whenever she wants to get out of her cage. I know this is referred to as a common behavior but I think that its something else.
Here’s a little backstory on me and my rabbit, I think it will be helpful to know.
My baby’s name is Dove, she is 6 months old this month and I rescued her on December 28th. I don’t know the exact circumstances of how her life was before I got her, someone said she was found in the streets, or came from a hoarders house and she was very underweight when I got her. She’s very loving and hardly causes any trouble, she’s one of those rare bunnies that love to kiss and cuddle. She’s well behaved for the most part, she can be mischievous and get into stuff but that’s not a problem for me. A few tricks I’ve taught her are “kisses” where she will stand up to my lips and want me to kiss her, she binkies on command when I say binky dove! Dovey dovey! and Do a little dance! I’ve also taught her how to play tug of war. She is a joy to have a round.
My family is of 3 humans who love her so much and give her almost constant attention daily, the only time she’s ever alone is when she is sleeping in her cage in the afternoon and late at night. She is happy most of the time, she binkies and plays often throughout the day, she will take naps with me and let me rub her tummy. She’s always licking and grooming us, even if she’s in a mood. She trust me and my family a lot according to what I’ve read about rabbits, this is further why I don’t understand her biting behavior.
She understands the command “No”, and she knows what she can and cannot do. I managed to litter train her within the first week of having her which is great! She knows not to tear things up, and she has tons of toys to chew on and play with. We got her spayed at 5 months, she’s healed phenomenally and is doing really well. Her furs grown back and everything.
I’m disabled so I’m home all day, every day. Every morning I take her out at 9 a.m. she stays out and I play with her till about 2 p.m. That’s the time she gets sleepy and naps for the rest of the day until 8 p.m. when I take her out again. From then she stays out until 1 or 2 a.m. She’s very active and playful so she gets lots of ecsersize. My entire room where she stays is rabbit proofed, and it is a pretty large room, she has her own play area, jumping platform and everything so she’s free to do what she wants. I would let her be free roam in the other rooms but we haven’t found a way to rabbit proof them yet, but as of now since she’s still a baby she is still very happy with the room she is in. So on an average day, she’s out for about 10 or 12 hours. She gets plenty and I mean PLEEENTY of attention from all 3 of us every day since we got her. On a busy day for us, she’s out for at least 8 hours. By time we put her to bed at night, she’s exhausted from a full day of love and play. At bed time we shut everything down, no lights no t.v. nothing, she understands its bedtime.
Probably the beginning of the 2nd month of having her, she’s started her biting on the cage habit, she didn’t bite it at all the first month. She would do it non-stop all night and it was really aggravating. Through the night and the next morning I did research on why she could possibly be doing that. I read tons of stuff and basically know all the answers by now. Without going into detail, I tried some things like make sure she is happy with her living area, etc. After fixing some things up in her home and making sure she is happy, she would still do the biting at night so It wasn’t her being unhappy with her cage. I read probably on this site, that it can simply be protest at this point, she doesn’t wanna go to bed as a child would and is throwing a tantrum.
I read that the best way to discipline a rabbit, is to speak rabbit. So every time she would bite on her cage, I would stomp my foot like a rabbit. Thankfully she would respond! She would stop what she was doing and look at me with attitude lol. Whenever she tried to bite her cage more, I would stomp more, and she would be side tracked. Eventually she would give up and sulk, I would turn my back to her to show my disapproval in rabbit language and she wouldn’t bite the cage for the rest of the night. The next few nights after discovering that technique and implementing it, she eventually stopped biting on her cage altogether.
So that was fine for a while, she was potty trained, she didn’t bite anymore, and it was basically perfect. A few weeks after, she started the habit again, but in the morning. and the night I don’t what it was but she got so mad she was throwing stuff in her cage around, including her water bottle. After some research we figured it might be because we had given her a piece of apple the day before. But she started biting her cage again every morning and night after that. At this point she was 5 months and we thought maybe it was because she needed to get spayed. So we booked the appointment and everything got done. The first few days after her getting spayed was peaceful lol we thought maybe she would stop now. But nope, she was wanting to play and be active again after the first week. And the biting started once more.
At a desperate attempt to figure out what’s wrong I wondered what she would do if she had her way. She must be biting on the cage because she simply wants to get out. So I let her out for a whole night to see what she would do and if she would go to her cage on her own, because in the afternoon when she is sleepy, she goes to her bed on her own. She didn’t even know what to do with herself, she loafed in the corner of the bed while I tried to sleep. She would go to her cage to use the potty and drink water and she’d either roam around the room, or go back to her “post” loafing on the corner of the bed not even sleeping. (She spreads out when she is truly sleep.) After many hours and no sleep I put her back in her cage so she could get at least some shut eye, but she tried to bite the cage again. Even though she had been out ALL day and had absolutely no reason to do it. I thumped at her a few times and she eventually went to sleep since she was so tired.
We’ve done everything, we tried to make a concoction of apple cider vinegar and lemon and put on her bars to keep her from biting, but nope she liked the taste. We still thump but she just thumps back (she gives up after a while but its about a half and hour to an hour of battling). I really don’t know why she does it at this point, she has plenty of love and affection, plenty of play time, we respect her and her privacy. I’ve read tons of articles on rabbit language and the hierarchy. She’s not a dominant rabbit at all she’s definitely not a queen. I think she may be a “guard bunny” as far as that goes. Me and my family have a few theories on why she might be biting on her cage, when my brother sleeps in that room she doesn’t bite on the cage as much or as long, neither with my mom, but with me she goes ham. We thought maybe she wants my attention the most since I spend the most time with her? We really don’t know but its making me sad at this point. We’ve read tons of articles on why she might be doing it and we have addressed all the things that those lists have mentioned. Even on this website we have read tons of forums on it and have done what they suggested but it doesn’t work.
In the morning she will bite on the cage as well. I want to take her out at 10 every morning, but I have to wait till she is done because I don’t want to take her out while she is misbehaving then she will think that biting gets her what she wants. She’s happy with her cage, she has a good diet, she’s been spayed, she trust us, she has plenty of toys and activity and love. I know she’s still a baby but It seems to be getting worse at this point, we’ve had to clamp down the cage at night to stop the noise. She’s also developed some other habits that she hadn’t been doing before. She licks and grooms me a looot seems excessive, she has a salt lick and I know licking is affection but I don’t know. After I pet her she will randomly start digging in the floor or the blanket or something. I don’t get it.
I’m a new rabbit owner as I’ve said, I never even thought I would have a rabbit. I’m trying my best to learn as much as I can about my rabbit and the entire species. There isn’t as much information on them as dogs or anything. I’ve read through the House Rabbit Association, and tried to educate myself as much as I can. It seems like I’m doing everything right as a bunny mom, so I don’t know what could be causing this behavior or if it will get better. My baby Dove has a very distinct personality and she’s very unlike what most people describe rabbits to be. So along with learning more about the species I have to figure out what she personally is like. I feel like I know her the most out of anyone in my family, I know when something upsets her. I just don’t know why she is biting on the cage like this every morning and night. I don’t want her biting on the bars because it will mess up her teeth, and it just disrupts the peace of the household. I think I have a very special rabbit, if it wasn’t for this problem I think she’d be perfect.
I know this post was super long but I really don’t know what to do. I don’t know any rabbit people where I live and I don’t have anyone else to ask. I think I’ve read just about everything about the matter and more. Please if anyone knows what I can do, I need all the help I can get. I want to know how I can have her understand that she can’t do what she is doing, and I want to know why she is doing it. I’ve heard it can be because of her age. Getting a 2nd rabbit isn’t a possibility for me so please don’t anyone suggest that.
Thank you to whoever took the time to read this. I love my rabbit so much and just want her to be the happiest that I can make her.
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he learned that if I’m in, he’s out and if I’m out he’s in his pen. 
