Please help – first time bunny owner here!

[lunalove]

Hi everyone, my four month old mini lop named Luna is being a bit weird!  I’ve been training her to react to the word “down” in relation to the sofa, as she always pees on it.  It’s working pretty well – i say it firmly but not loudly, point to the ground, and she usually hops off after a few times repeating it.  Sometimes I’ll have to pick her up off the couch, which she HATES.  I’m absolutely covered in scratch marks  

Anyway, my main concern is her behaviour.  I’ve noticed that over the last week or so she keeps jumping up onto the sofa in the evening.  I’ll tell her to get down, or pick her up and place her on the floor.  After I do this she’ll follow me for a few steps, as if looking for an emotion or food or… something?  Often she will hop right back onto the sofa as soon as I’ve sat down again on the other sofa!  I thought she was lonely and looking for attention, so I sit down on the floor with her afterwards, but that doesn’t seem to be what she wants. 

Anyone have any idea?  My chest and arms are sick of the scratches and I want Luna to be happy!

[Sarita]

It seems to me that she has gotten into a routine and just thinks that this is fun…

She gets up on the sofa, you put her down, she follows you…no telling what she really wants though if anything. It could just be her playing games with you.

No rabbit likes to be picked up so scratching is par for the course if you dare pick them up – sometimes you must do this though.

For the couch you can try putting something crinkly like aluminum foil where she jumps, they usually hate that and it can be a deterrent.

[lunalove]

uh-oh :/

the worst thing is, she loves crinkly things! one of her favourite ‘toys’ is a sheet of of tissue paper!

also, in the four minutes that have passed she has jumped up there a further 5 times -.-‘

[Monkeybun]

It’s the texture of tinfoil they usually don’t like. Try it, she may hate it

[lunalove]

haha ok I JUST tried the tinfoil trick… and she loves it!!! she’s playing on the sofa happily on top of it now lol

[Sarita]

LOL, okay the crinkling won’t work.

I think then the best thing to do is try to block off the area that she keeps jumping on – she obviously enjoys this but rabbits are notorious for peeing on couches. If you block it off, and she can no longer get on the couch, she will hopefully find something else that she thinks is fun to do…of course, that may be worse than peeing on the couch :~)

She is also starting to go through puberty so that is part of the reason for her behavior.

[lunalove]

ahhhh, so she’s nearly a moody teenager then haha!
I’m not sure what to block it off with but I’ll figure something out.
I’m always really worried that she has a bored and horrid life I bought her a dangly chew toy, willow sticks, a williw ball, a wooden chew block, and built her a little bunny castle – but she plays with hardly any of it. I love her sososososo much and I want her to be happy! I feel especially guilty since her favourite thing to do seems to be climbing all over the sofas and chewing the wall paper… but of course she’s not allowed to do that now!

[Monkeybun]

maybe try getting her one of those concrete forms from a hardware store… nice big thick cardboard tubes. Stuff it with crinkly paper, and she may love it

[lunalove]

oh that’s a great idea! thank you

[emkvet]

Also, don’t be disheartened…after you get Luna spayed and properly litter trained you can decide if you want her on the couch. My spayed Netherland Dwarf Hazel is allowed on the couch, and she does great up there! She sleeps next to me while I do my homework, and she doesn’t use it as a bathroom! You just have to get through this puberty phase – good luck!

[BarbaraHeidenreich]

I would focus on making it very reinforcing for her to be where you want her to be. In the animal training world there is this thing called “The Matching Law”. It basically says given a choice between two behaviors (hop onto the couch, or be on the floor) the animal will do the one that earns the most or better reinforcers. So if it is more fun to be on the couch either for your companionship, or because she likes a higher place to “perch” or the texture of the substrate, etc she will go there. (My bunny LOVES sitting on the window sill ) This means you either need to make the floor more reinforcing or perhaps create a similar type area that is acceptable for her to hop onto and reinforce her there. Whichever place has more value is the one she will go to. As was already mentioned you can also remove/reduce the reinforcing value of the couch and also make it harder to get to the couch as additional strageties to implement. Hope that helps!

[Author]

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