Overwhelmed by destructiveness – does it get better?

[Jazzable]

I’ve had my rabbit since october and I love him so much. But I’m feeling quite overwhelmed by how destructive he can be.

This morning I realised he had got onto my desk at some point in the day couple of days, and destroyed basically every computer cable. I’m going to have to replace loads of stuff, and I feel really disheartened. He got onto my desk a couple of months ago and did the same thing and since then I’ve been really strict about not leaving chairs out (he uses them as steps up), which worked well. But he only needs to get up there for such a short time and he can destroy everything, it’s like cables are teeth magnets to him. It makes me feel hopeless about all of my efforts because it only takes leaving a chair out for a few minutes and looking away and everything can be trashed again. But I don’t know what else to do either. I could try to put protective covers on every single cable, but there are a lot and I don’t know if it would even be possible to really protect everything.

He also cannot resist the urge to pee wherever I sleep. Which means at the moment he is just banned from the bedroom. But THAT means that he goes crazy at the bedroom door every night when I’m in there and he’s not, and destroys the carpet trying to dig under the door. I wedge a towel under there which helps a bit but isn’t perfect. The other day I opened the airing cupboard and he wandered in, and since then he’s started trying to dig under *that* door as well.

He has free range of the whole house. After this latest story my mum suggested putting him in a cage/pen at night and when unsupervised. But this thing is, I’ve done that, when he first came to me and before he was properly litter trained. And he goes crazy if he gets confined – it’s like once he’s had access to a place, he considers it his territory and he will NEVER forget that it is his right to get there and will live in a constant state of rage if he isn’t allowed. If I need him out of the way for a short time, I close him into the bathroom because it’s the least destructible place for him to let out his anger at being locked up – he just pees all over the place to express his frustration, which at least doesn’t do permanent damage.

I know I’m painting the picture of a nightmare rabbit but he’s really good. Under most circumstances he’s great, he’s litter trained except for the rare above exceptions, and he’s so friendly and relaxed most of the time. It’s just that when he does get destructive or overexcited, the consequences are so bad and it really stresses me out. He’s fairly young – about seven months (he is neutered), so I guess I’m hoping he will chill out some more as he gets older, and stop being quite so adamant in his inquisitiveness and destruction.

I don’t know. I’m having a bad time for rabbit-unrelated reasons and this just fees like the top of the pile and it’s really stressing me out. I guess I’d appreciate some reassurance that rabbits calm down a bit with age (how long does it take)? Or even some advice about how to keep a free-range rabbit away from vulnerable things, while also keeping the bun happy? 

[Kelli]

I’m a fairly new bunny owner and have two bunnies. We have a condo for them that we built that is about 4 feet by 2 feet and has three levels. It feels like for the two of them, that’s enough room when they don’t have free roam of the house. Maybe your bun needs a bigger confined space.

Our bunnies come out when we are home and can supervise them. They are NEVER out to roam when we are not. There is just way too much for them to destroy. From what I’ve heard, bunnies are attracted to the smell of the rubber in electrical cords. They aren’t being naughty, they just like them. We went through a crap ton of cords too and I thought my husband was going to cook them (kidding but he was soooo pissed), until we found the right free roaming quarantine area to keep them in when we are home. They have access to my bedroom, hallway and kitchen but that’s it, but that’s where are almost all the time. Those areas are totally bunny proofed and if they chew pants or shoes, that’s our fault for leaving them out.  They have also chewed the bottom portion of the bookshelf in my room, but I just deal with it.  They seem to have gotten bored with that and have stopped.

Does your bun have toys or things to chew on in his cage area?

[Luna]

We’ve all felt frustrated/disheartened at some point . How long ago was he neutered? He could be going through a hormonal surge.

Are the computer cables at different points all over the desk, or just a bunch in one spot? If you can post a pic, I could try to suggest a good setup. Luna is a cord chewer – I’ve managed to hide every cord in the room now.

Is there room to put his cage next to your bed while you sleep? Maybe he’ll be more calm when confined if he is close to you?

[Jazzable]

He doesn’t actually have a cage, because he’s just free range. He’s got a corner in the living room where his food goes, and a pile of wood branches next to it for chewing – although he shows very little interest in chewing them actually, ha. And there are toilet roll tubes and cardboard scattered around too which he does chew. I’ve had cardboard boxes around on and off to give him places to hide in, but he never seems interested in going into enclosed spaces anyway so he usually just destroys them from the outside!

He’s a french lop, so basically a giant breed, which I think is why the idea of him being in a cage seems way too confining. I’d consider the bathroom to be a large enough ‘cage’ kind of space for him to be in (it’s a medium-sized bathroom and it’s pretty empty so lots of floor space), but it’s like I said – confining him just causes him to be more destructive, and then when I do let him out he’s crazier with energy too. I really do think the best solution is to give him as much territory as I possibly can all the time, and try to keep his attention away from vulnerable things.

He was neutered about two months ago, so everything should have pretty much settled down. I also haven’t noticed any real changes in behaviour from before or after the neutering, he’s just always been like this. ?

The cables are mostly together, clustered around the bottom of the computer monitor – but there are things I need to be able to access, like the DVD drive and USB hub. I’m wondering about putting some kind of container to stuff all the cable excess into and then the things I need to reach could be on top so I can open it and get at them. I’d be interested to see/hear about your cable setup @Luna!

Also interesting thought about having him nearer to me at night. The lack of cage is what makes that tricky though – to be able to have him in the bedroom but not be able to get onto the bed, I’d have to put like a four-foot fence around it because he is so big.

Another difficulty is that my flat is pretty open-plan. There’s a hallway area, a door to the bedroom, a door to the bathroom, and then a door to the main room which is kitchen/living/dining. So it’s not possible to e.g. exclude him from the ‘office’ while still letting him hang out in the living room where I spend most of the day time, because they’re all the same room.

Thanks for the answers, I already feel a little bit reassured that I’m not the only one who gets stressed by this ?

[Luna]

I’ll post some pics of my setup tonite . Hopefully it will inspire some ideas!

[Vienna Blue in France]

Oh getting disheartened it is so hard. (I’m having it with my dog at the moment, but on to other things…)

I have a French lop and he was bonkers at the beginning and you should allow for at least SIX months after neutering before you see any changes. But, of course any cables hanging or carpets to be chewed will be just too much for any bunny to resist!
The only thing I can think of is to cordon off with a smart puppy pen, with a door in one of the sections to be able to pass easily. I have one and its brilliant,
It will give you peace of mind and make the bunny safe too. Few of us have complete 100% 24/24h free roam bunnies over the entire house, for these very reasons…..

It will feel better tomorrow. Promise.

[Ollie]

I am currently struggling too with a 6 month old rabbit. He was never the most social rabbit to begin with (unlike our other rabbit) but he got on and generally didn’t destroy anything. Since we got another rabbit (in a well separated pen) he has become destructive, anti social, aggressive, grumpy and it’s hard to stay positive.

But you’ve got to because they don’t know right from wrong…or maybe they do ?

[Jazzable]

I had him in a puppy pen for a while when he was new too, but he very quickly grew out of it…


I really think it would need at least a three-foot high divider for it to reliably contain him, which would be either very expensive to buy or a lot of hassle to make! I do understand that restricting his territory will make things safer from him, but I’m also really reluctant because I love having him free range. I love that he runs up to me when I come in the front door, and hearing him bimble around the house doing his own thing all the time. And it’s really going well most of the time! I feel like it’s so close to working out that I don’t want to give up on free-ranging.

[Luna]

His pics on your Insta are adorable!

[Jazzable]

Thanks! He makes it easy, he’s very photogenic

[Luna]

So here’s my cord management system:

1. All my cords are connected to a surge protector that sits on top of my desk.

2. The surge protector and another cord run along the wall behind the desk, then plug into the outlet by the floor. I put the plastic covers from the hardware store around them just in case Luna breaks through my next home-made cover (she hasn’t figured out a way yet!).

3. I made (though I’m sure you can find one to buy) a three-sided box out of bunny-safe wood (ie. untreated poplar), and placed that over the cords coming out of the outlet. I made it only three-sided so that the cords coming down from the desk slip into the top of the box.

  

Luna doesn’t jump on the desk, so I don’t have to worry about the surge protector, but maybe this will help give you some ideas for enclosing the cords that go into your monitor as you suggested earlier. When I was trying to think of ways to keep my cords safe, I Googled “cord management” and looked at all the images in hopes that it would spark some ideas/designs. I would have used c&c grids if I had them, but this seemed to be more bulletproof (and eye-pleasing if that’s something that concerns you  as it does me).

[Luna]

I also try to buy bluetooth at any opportunity (headphones, mouse, etc.)

[Jazzable]

Thanks for the details! That looks great. I think I’m going to try getting some kind of tough box/container to put on the desk and stuff the cable excess into when I’m not using them. Then if the first firewall (i.e. the desk being inaccessible in the first place) breaks down, there is a backup to protect valuables. D:

Now I just need to fix or replace all of the damage.. sigh.

[GarfyTheLop]

We bunny proofed our room before we brought Garf home, this is one of the things we got :
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0076XNIAI?aaxitk=43t2EZzT6-NngBCxnmg2FQ&pd_rd_i=B0076XNIAI&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_p=1668198547&pd_rd_wg=EiXBQ&pf_rd_r=CKBY3B7Y1XE9SPAMN8YZ&pf_rd_s=desktop-sx-top-slot&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_w=BqpNx&pf_rd_i=cable+tidy+box&pd_rd_r=3d3a2a47-bf0c-441e-9425-db0b198f2be9&hsa_cr_id=3348558490702

[Jazzable]

Oh that looks great, thanks for the tip!

[Luna]

GTL – That thing is awesome! I might buy that lol.

[Frosty]

Wow cool setup Luna! maybe dumb question but how did you get the wood box to adhere to the wall? Is it nailed in somewhere?

[Wick & Fable]

^ valid question. Looks like magic.

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.

[Luna]

Posted By Frosty on 3/08/2018 10:30 PM

Wow cool setup Luna! maybe dumb question but how did you get the wood box to adhere to the wall? Is it nailed in somewhere?

Thanks! It’s not a dumb question at all; good observation! There is a small gap between the back of my desk and the wall. The short answer is that I wedged the box in that gap, using the weight of the desk to put pressure on the box against the wall. Below is the actual, though much longer answer .

1. I measured out the gap (for explanatory purposes let’s say it was 1.75 inches). I bought an untreated poplar board that was Nominal 1/4″ x 2″ x 2ft, Actual 1/4″ x 1.5″ x 2ft (thickness x width x length). I also bought a wider board for the cover. 

2. I cut the 1.5″ wide wood to about 7″ long (label A). Then I cut the wider board covers (label B) and glued them to the sides. The total thickness of the box was now the 1.5″ + 0.25″ = 1.75″.

3. The total height of the box was 7″. About 2.5″ of that is behind the desk, and the rest is visible below it. 

I’m sure there are easier ways to affix it to the wall , but I wanted to do it in a way that didn’t damage the wall.

[Author]

Messages