House buns

I have a bonded group of 6 who are house rabbits but with the exception of Barney, they're all destructive and will chew anything that comes into their path.

They normally live in the kitchen which isn't too bad as there's not that much for them to chew (although there will be trouble if they chew the newly plastered walls when they go back in there! :lol

Anyway, I see all these pics of buns lying in front of the fire and I get really jealous as I can't let mine in the living room or it would be in complete tatters! I'd so love to have them proper freerange but do I just have to accept that that won't happen with my buns?! Any advice would be great. I used to have the most amazing house bun, he was so well behaved and didn't chew anything at all but then he did have bad teeth, bless him.

I'm currently not letting mine into the livingroom either, because of the wires I haven't secured, and I wouldn't want my sofa to be nibbled/peed on.. I'm not sure they would have though, but I can't afford to find out.

They're not that destructive really, my two. They have plenty of space (hall way, kitcen, bathroom), and they only occationally chew the skirting boards. I give them news papers, cardboard boxes and branches to chew and destroy. I think this keeps them occupied over longer periods of time.

I have sprayed "get off" (smells like lemon) on skirting boards on occations as we rent, but really I don't mind very much, when they're so well behaved in general


So my advice for you based on my experience, would be to give them lots of brances, boxes etc to chew. And give them more space if you have a hallway attached to the kitchen for example. Also, when you let them in the livingroom, try teaching them not to chew. Say no if they do and take them away from that spot. If they're not responding after a fex times - put them back in the kitchen. Clickertraining I think, can also help prevent destruction. If they're being trained they have to work hard, and they will get more easily tired out, and wouldn't have so much spare energi. But it's difficult to train several bunnies at once, so you have to take them one by one for example into the livingroom to train.

Our's were really bad at chewing one particular peice of furniture, I've put a hanging hay rack and some cardboard in front of it now and they go for that instead. I think the key is distraction.

Nigel was a total menace when we first got him. He chewed through any wire he found (including a mains extension -boom!-frazzled whiskers:lol:, phone chargers, laptop cables, the iron cable while I was ironing, the hoover cable while I was hoovering, the phone line several times :shock he pulled up carpet and dug it, he climbed up and stole bags of bird food especially peanuts, ate the post when it came through the door, chewed my shoelaces and was generally a small walking riot!!!

My O/H nearly killed him so many times :shock: but he grew out of that phase once he was neutered and reached about 6-8 months old. Also, he is allowed free reign of the house so nothing is new and he's not bothered by it anymore. When things are new and smell different he wants to chew them.
My other two are terrible when they come in because it's all exciting to them and they whizz around like maniacs, pooing, peeing and chewing like there's no tomorrow!!! :lol:

obviously protect all wires. Ours are covered with cable protectors and things like cushions too.

Give them loads of things to distract them like toilet rolls, hay, apple twigs, treat ball, a digging box full of newpaper

Don't leave them unsupervised

If they start to chew/dig shout a very loud no. then give them somthing they can chew insted.

Out of my 6 only 2 are housebuns, Bertie and Fizz have the run of the house apart from bedtime. . Bertie is very good and Fizz isn't too bad but she does leave her poops everywhere :? she used to be so good but since I had the 4 outdoor buns inside to bond she's marking everywhere

I've recently had a new sofa and wouldn't let Fizz and Bert in if they were chewers, Bertie loves to come and lie next to mum on the sofa

ecudc said:

obviously protect all wires. Ours are covered with cable protectors and things like cushions too.

Give them loads of things to distract them like toilet rolls, hay, apple twigs, treat ball, a digging box full of newpaper

Don't leave them unsupervised

If they start to chew/dig shout a very loud no. then give them somthing they can chew insted.

Click to expand...

no doesnt work for me.. i have to oy the little monsters :lol::lol::lol::lol:

Of all the rabbits i have ever owned only three were 'natural' house rabbits, two of those I have currently.

The others were all evicted at about 8 months old after their behaviour became unmanageable and have become garden rabbits.

TBH Im not sure how much can actually be 'trained' and how much is just 'the way the rabbit is.'

I do know that rabbits behaviour rubs off on each other though....

Mine are all destructive except Mo but again, thats because he has bad teeth.

I guess I'm rather lucky though becasue they only have an issue with wallpaper, so I just took it all off well up to waist hight anyway. Roxy definitely learned that little trick from Barney though and he picked it up because the wall paper was loose :roll:

I do think you can train some things though. The first couple of weeks we had Barney he would dig at the carpet but if I clapped and said no firmly he stopped and he doesn't do it now.

I think destraction is the best form of training though, if they have plenty more fun things to do they're less destructive...I guess it depends if they think destruction is more fun :lol:

alvin only seems to go at the wallpaper now if im late with his veg or pellets :roll::roll::roll:

sometimes he stands there with his mouth to the wall without actually taking any off... deffo an attention thing with him.. his little legs kick out as he runs away.. it really is like hes laughing at me as he goes back under the sofa :lol::lol::lol::lol:

Sooz22 said:

I do know that rabbits behaviour rubs off on each other though....

Click to expand...

I definitely agree with this. I wouldn't say T was an angel before, but since he and Bell were bonded she's led him into all sorts of mischief.

I've accepted that they are a destructive pair and try and minimise what they can damage - too late for large patches of carpet, bannisters, doors :roll: - they have loads of cardboard boxes to destroy, but still always prefer the more exciting things they shouldn't have :lol: :lol:

Dennis chews anything and everything. He must always be supervised. He has wrecked so much of my stuff ...:roll:

wispa also runs off kicking her legs when she gets caught ripping off wallpaper!!

funny thing is they dont touch painted walls, not even the sticky out skirting boards!!

mine lie in front of the fire but only when they are let in at about 7pm. they are confined to the dining room during the day until after we eat (zola wants human food so we dont let them near us!)

when allowed in the living room they are totally supervised, if we are leaving the room they go back in the dining room

Mine have chewed all the bottom of the door in the kitchen and the hall, legs of chairs, chewed a massive hole in the plaster board after chewing the old wallpaper off (I didn't mind that, saved me doing it :lol and Mylo is a for chewing all rugs/carpets/fleece/towels. Little *******, they've got loads of chew toys as well.

I think I just need to keep them in the bunny proofed kitchen and not them in the living room. I need to sto with these grand illusions I have off 6 buns sat around my feet and on the sofa with me :lol::lol::lol: