I have a 6 months old mini rabbit and recently she has started to bite her cage and shake it a lot for a while. She usually starts doing this at night and stops when she sees us, but starts again immediately when we go back to bed.
Do you know why she does this and if there is any way to get her to stop doing this? I’m not sure if she does this to seek attention when she gets bored, if she is trying to get out (she gets to run around free for a couple of hours per day) or if it has something to do with her teeth or something.
This is keeping us awake at night and I’m worried about her eating the paint she bites off the cage. If you know what we can do to stop this it would be much appreciated.
Alexa P2008-12-18T08:57:21Z
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My show rabbits do the same thing all the time. I have come up with different ways to get them to stop chewing and pulling on wire.
I have used these different methods:
1) Try giving the rabbit some timothy hay to nibble on at night.
2) Toy wooden blocks can helpful by giving the rabbit something to play with.
3) You could try some apple bitter spray to put on the cage wire. It is used to stop dogs from chewing but works well in rabbits. You can find it in most pet store.
4) Try putting some different objects in the cage. Rabbits are naturally curious and like to play. Make sure the objects are safe for chewing because most will chew on them bit.
Rabbits are nocturnal, night time is their time when they are most active in nature it is less likely that a Predator can get them. Rabbit's need to chew to keep their teeth down, you can give her something else to chew, there are many rabbit safe chew toys as well as giving her a toilet roll core stuffed with hay for her to chew and nibble, or even a small old phone book to rip and chew, but this means that she is still chewing (maybe not as loud as the bars) aside from moving her cage out of the room during the night or for everyone to wear ear plugs, there's not too much you can do to stop the night time chewing.
We have a mini-lop rabbit that does this. He does it purely for attention. As soon as we walk over to him and he sees us, he stops, cuz he thinks he'll get out, but as soon as we walk away he starts doing it again. I'm not sure what to do to stop this behavior, as everything we've tried doesn't stop our one rabbit from doing it. But try letting her out of the cage for longer periods of time and spending more time with her. It could be boredom or lonliness. I don't know about over grown teeth though, although that could certainly be whats wrong. Try adding more toys, that could also help cure boredom.
Once a rabbit is done wrong, it may hold a lifetime grudge.
Rabbits can be litter-trained just like cats. Your rabbit is probably pooping in the same place all the time, right? Probably a corner? Buy a small animal litter box, fill it with litter (NOT cat litter, they'll eat it and it's poisonous to them, buy speciality litter like Critter Country), and he should poop in there from now on. If he's REALLY young (like he can fit in the palm of your hand) he's too young to be litter trained just yet and you'll have to wait a month or so.