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bunny eating towel

B

BunnyGriffin

New Kit
HELP ME! I am a new bunny owner (less than one year) and i put a terry cloth towel in the cage to romp around with and pull around, but he seems to be chomping on it and pulling threads, there aren't any holes or tears... but his poos are connected in threes (gross i know) lol. help what should i do. he is devastated that i took his towel away and is moping as i speak.
- april
 
You did the right thing taking it away! Can you try him with a fleece pet blanket, or some vetbed?
 
Is he bored? Is he a single bunny? Any chance of you bringing him in as a house rabbit?
 
My rabbit, Muppet, has a towel that he LOVES to savage. It's more crochet than towel now :shock: But fortunately he doesnt eat it (unfortunately small blue threads are permanently tracked through the house though!).

If yours is eating his, then taking it away is necessary, no matter how miserable he is. He'd be a lot more miserable if the threads caused a blockage in his insides.

Has he got other toys to distract him? How about a nice Yellow Pages, they make a great ripping-up treat? Muppet seems to find shredding those very enjoyable :) Some vine balls?
 
is the towel 100% cotton? IF it is, then it's natural material. Long term exposure to natural matl. inside his stomach won't cause anything like cancer.
 
Yes it's a terry cloth 100% cotton. he tore up and ingested too much of the phone book - had to remove that - and then got the pout again from bun. he's beginning to take a liking to anything "Chewable" and he's just under a year old and always used to naw on his old cage which had metal bars on the front. so when my husband made the new one he made it out of wood and put chicken wire on the front and we haven't had a problem since. except for anything i put in his cage he chews and eats. he quit chewing on the litter boxes and the pellet bowl. but it's strange.. he's a chewer and a eater. yet he gets enough food... but not enough hay as i've found out. not fixed and since i live in ohio - no shots were required or even spoke of at my vet visit in feb.
 
Now - another thing. my husband has been mentioning that maybe he needs a friend. however, i've had bun since he was just a month old and he's pretty independent and i'm worried about "bonding" and possible fights. please help me. i really would like to get him a friend . but i dont want baby buns and i'm not sure if he'd do well with another male. he's NOT aggressive AT ALL towards anyone. and we have two other dogs that i'm sure he can smell (but i won't introduce to because my american bulldog would bark once and bun would die of a stroke) but anyways, he's friendly and happy. no bites to anyone - no bad behavior other than this "chewing thing" lol help!
 
The best thing to do is to get him neutered. This will stop the hormonal behaviour, and also stop the babies :D
Some rescue centres do a bonding service as well, so it's worth asking.
Male/ female pairs are usually best.
 
I do think more hay will help - it should be most of his diet: he should be eating his own body size (volume) in hay a day. It's up to you whether you top that up with both veg and pellets or just one, but the pellets should be very small amounts (eggcup full) - think of pellets as pudding! If you had lots of pudding you'd eat that rather than the main course wouldnt you? Rabbits are the same, so you keep the pellets down to ensure they eat plenty of hay.

Rabbits teeth grow continually so they have to chew things to wear their teeth down. Munching hay performs that function for them. (Hay is also essential for good rabbit digestion.)
 
I have a 12 week old bunny and he is chewing fabric a lot too. He has access to it when he is sitting with me and then he bites my clothes or the sofa or cushions - anything fabric. He is not interested in the rasberry stick I have given him, just fabric - or newspaper. I thought it might be about 'moving the furniture' becuase he is exploring so much. I'd love to hear more perspectoves as I don't understand this part of bunny behaviour, neither of my girl bunnies did this (I had them as adults, though)
 
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