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stroppy rabbit

Good Morning

O.K - still learning, so yet another query I'm afraid.

Eric (seperated from brother Ernie this week) is really stroppy.

Both Rabbits are being neutered in just under 4 weeks and I know hormones are raging.
But I put Eric in his Hutch for bed last night and he had a paddy. Chewing Newspaper and generally bad attitude. So I let him out for a short run and put him back. He was fine. He had Hay and food to eat. So i left him to it.

This morning, I went up to his hutch to say good morning and get him out and he just kept picking up his food bowl and trying to throw it. Then he tipped it over, so it was upside down.
So I thought, pent up energy, let him out.
No. He just sat there as though to say "I'm not happy with you. I think I'll stay here. So I ignored him, and he did finally decide to get out and actually just pottered over to his run and got in. He did a few binkys and was fine.

I can only put his behaviur down to a few things:

He was in his run almost all day yesterday(except 45 mins run around yesterday morning)
He seems to have taken a dislike to his peletts and straw. He will eat it if he has to, but I know he prefers grass and spinach and carrots.

But I am concerned about how much of the spinach and carrots he can have??

Should I be looking for different pellets and straw, or just leave him to it, in the hope that if he's really hungry he will eat whats there?

As for the behaviour, I think he just wants to be free all day to roam the garden. But I am not around to let him do that. So he has to stay in his run. which is 6 ft long.

How can I get him to get rid of the excess energy through the day. He has a tunnel, a football and toys and usually a good hour run around in the evening.

Unfortunately, now the two boys have been seperated, I have to give them each 1 hour run around seperately, whereas before they could have 2 hours together. If that makes sense.

Sorry it is so long, but how do I deal with a very active, stroppy bun.

Thank you all again
 
Does Eric have any toys in his hutch or are all his toys in the run? If he is separated from his brother, he may be feeling a lilttle bored and lonely, rabbit-safe toys may help.

Personally, I'd go easy on carrots and spinach, carrots are high in sugar and spinach is very high in iron and calcium I think. Grass wiss fine and you may like to try spring greens, cabbage and swede in small amounts. Do you feed him hay at all? Rabbits need to eat their own volume in hay everyday, so they need lots of it. You can buy pretty good quality meadow hay from horse/agricultural animal feed merchants if you shop around.

Behaviour wise, it may be a case of hormones settling and may calm down soon. He probably could do with a bit more exercise too, have you thoguht about borrowing/renting another run from a rescue centre, so both rabbits can get a bit more exercise? Or you could look into making your own out of untreated wood and weld mesh.

Good luck!
 
Hi Frisky Clover
Thank you for responding - I am new to rabbits and am learning very fast.
I love my 2 so much and only want them to be happy. As everyone does!
So to answer your questions:

Yes he does have a couple of "Rattles" but just tends to toss them out of the way!
But he does have things in his run, but he seems to get really bored after he's been in the run for 5 minutes.
He just loves to be out grazing on grass and running about. He does rest in a large bucket and sleeps contently in his run, but otherwise he wants to be running.

How often can I give Carrots and Spinach - he would quite easily eat his own weight in these if I let him!!!!
Hay - he definately doesn't eat enough Hay in fact neither does Ernie.
I think I might change brand and see if that helps. I guess though if they eat plenty of grass, would that be o.k instead?

I would love to be able to let them both run free all day, but since I work, they only have about an hour in the evening now they are seperated. Except on Sundays, when they pretty much have all day to run around.

As for extra runs - my Dad is really good at making things from wood, but he has just had a knee replacement and can't do anything yet. But I have been looking on this site for ideas and have lots of images to show him.
I think I will contact a rescue centre to see if they can hire anything to me in the meantime (brilliant idea)

Thank you so much for your help and advice - really appreciated.
In fact I might just put a thread out to see if anyone lives close by, so they can come and look at my arrangements and see if I'm soing o.k
 
:wave: he throws the rattles put of the way because hes playing with them:lol:

try old carboard tube middles form clingfilm or paper towels or if anyones had carpet or lino on a carboard roll the middle of that. or the good old favourite cardboard boxes with "windows" cut out.

were the two fellas fighting that bad cos you can keep them together till theyre fighting then have them neutered and keep them side by side then try rebonding them?
i know i shouldnt say that but bonded pairs are so much easier...and i know folks on here andother sites who have brothers togehter..sisters togehter etc.
in fact some vets will neuter bucks earlier..like they have to cats...our female kitten came into heat at almsot 4 months old so her and her bro had to be done! my first bunny had to be spayed at 4 months as she came into flase pregnancy cos she famcied our old neuter tom cat! she claimed him and anything that he used including the lounge as hers and his anyone else was in for it from her:shock::lol:

one of our vets has kept two brothers and their sister togehter since she took them on as tiny babies..and all 3 have been done and live togheter happily. so it is possible.
ouch your poor dad..hope he gets better soon.

hows about aviary panels cable tied togehter for now?

nope carrots full of sugar..and can give dicky tums...the tops are full of calcium which is bad for buns in excess as it leads to bladder crystals sludge and kidney probs as does spinach..too much broccoli/cauliflower.
the best hay to give is timothy hay...our latest addition whose been here about a year now didnt eat one blade of hay when he came to us....our bunny his size mucnhed her way thru a load in front of him and he copied her if that makes sense....
deprive him of food..well give him the min quantity and shut him in for the night....with a lovely heap of fresh timothy hay grass..the green coloured one not the yellow straw like one...they are funy like that. also im sure in petersfield the pet place sells readigrass if not theres enough horse feeds places around that might....readigrass is great malty smelling dried grass blades simple as that. in thepet shops you might find a red flashed bag called alfalfa king...make sure you pick up the alfalfa king timothy hay grass its about £8.50 a bag.
if youre ok to shop online theres loads of places we all use like..

the hay experts...http://www.thehayexperts.co.uk/

west wales willows.......http://www.westwaleswillows.co.uk/

dust free hay......http://www.dustfreehay.co.uk/

bunnybazzar.......http://www.bunnybazaar.com/default/off/category/Food_and_Hay/Hay

http://www.chinchillas2shop.co.uk/

to name but a few! these are ones ive ordered from over the time since bunnybasics stopped trading.

there are runs on ebay im sure folks here will direct you! good luck
 
My little bunny is quite stroppy at the moment, may be its the crappy weather!
He likes to get into his run but he hates the whole getting from his hutch to his run part. He hates being lifted so I put him in his carrier to get him into his run, there times I need to remove his litter tray from his hutch before I can get him out as he tries to tip out and throw it everywhere:roll:. He also has a little wooden log in his hutch and he tries to throw it about to, Im gonna get battered one of these days:shock:

I had to separate my two males as they started fighting. I 've got one happy,cheeky bun and a stroppy bun!
 
Hello Again

I had the most wonderful day with Eric and Ernie yesterday.
Ernie is a treasure anyway and I know you shouldn't have favourites but..........
Eric though was a delight yesterday. I think because I could let him out for a good old run, he was fine.
He didn't like mehaving to groom him initially, but after a few minutes settled down for about 15 mins.
I have also introduced some new hay, which they both seem to be enjoying more than the old one, so some progress there too.

They both rub noses through the wire on their runs, so still some contact, but Eric did try to bite Ernies nose a couple of times, but I told him off and he gave up biting.

So we're getting there. I just think Eric is very nervous.

Anyway, just to prove that Eric is not always a handful, here are a couple of pics...................

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