egg
Warren Scout
Hi,
I'm new here and new to rabbits, although we had guineapigs for about 13 years before we got our bunny. I'm hoping to get some advice if poss as I'm not doing a very good job so far!
We have a 5 month old female mini lop bought from a breeder 4 weeks ago. The first 2 or 3 weeks were great, she was very chilled and calm, a tad shy but soon came round. She was used to being handled before we brought her home and was very tame. She's kept indoors and has her cage door open most of the time, apart from at night. She happily comes and goes and has the run of the living room.
In the last week she's changed quite dramatically. There are 2 problems which I'm not sure if they're related. One is that as of about 7 days ago every time she's out of her cage (which was most of the day) she obsessively chews the carpet. Not just one spot, it's non-stop on any part of the carpet. She doesn't eat the fibre, just rips it out. She's in sort of a chewing frenzy, it's literally non stop until I get tired and put her back in her cage. This is resulting in much reduced free run time for her which I'm worried about. I've tried clapping and saying 'no' which startled her at first for about a second before she carries on chewing another patch. She now takes no notice of me. I've physically moved her to another spot which makes no difference. I've put her back in her cage for 5 mins for a time out, but the behaviour starts again as soon as I let her back out. I tried dabbing vinegar on the carpet which she didn't like at first but after 5 mins she was chewing again. I'm at my wits end as I don't want her cooped up in the cage all the time but obviously can't let her destroy the carpet.
The other problem is she started biting clothes (not bare skin) but hard enough to go through and hurt. For example if I kneel on the floor she'll start biting me all around my legs but only in the places where my clothes are, never my hand or bare flesh. We used to spend a lot of time on the floor with her, she'd jump over us, sniff us, lick us but now all she does is gnaw on us but it hurts as it goes right through to the skin. We're afraid to sit on the floor now, which is so sad as I want her to have company.
She has LOADS of toys, cardboard things, boxes, tunnels, chewing things that she is no longer interested in as she seems to be compulsively chewing the carpet or us.
In complete contrast, when she's in her cage she's lovely. She allows our hands in, runs over to us & lets us stroke her, relaxes and never makes any attempt to bite us. I think she might be quite dominant as she never licked our skin, only clothes and when trying to discipline her by gently holding her head/shoulders down after biting/chewing she would have none of it. She'll force her head up against my hand (I don't want to press too hard).
Sorry this is so long but I'd be really grateful if anyone has any advice or tell me what I'm doing wrong.
Thanks.
I'm new here and new to rabbits, although we had guineapigs for about 13 years before we got our bunny. I'm hoping to get some advice if poss as I'm not doing a very good job so far!
We have a 5 month old female mini lop bought from a breeder 4 weeks ago. The first 2 or 3 weeks were great, she was very chilled and calm, a tad shy but soon came round. She was used to being handled before we brought her home and was very tame. She's kept indoors and has her cage door open most of the time, apart from at night. She happily comes and goes and has the run of the living room.
In the last week she's changed quite dramatically. There are 2 problems which I'm not sure if they're related. One is that as of about 7 days ago every time she's out of her cage (which was most of the day) she obsessively chews the carpet. Not just one spot, it's non-stop on any part of the carpet. She doesn't eat the fibre, just rips it out. She's in sort of a chewing frenzy, it's literally non stop until I get tired and put her back in her cage. This is resulting in much reduced free run time for her which I'm worried about. I've tried clapping and saying 'no' which startled her at first for about a second before she carries on chewing another patch. She now takes no notice of me. I've physically moved her to another spot which makes no difference. I've put her back in her cage for 5 mins for a time out, but the behaviour starts again as soon as I let her back out. I tried dabbing vinegar on the carpet which she didn't like at first but after 5 mins she was chewing again. I'm at my wits end as I don't want her cooped up in the cage all the time but obviously can't let her destroy the carpet.
The other problem is she started biting clothes (not bare skin) but hard enough to go through and hurt. For example if I kneel on the floor she'll start biting me all around my legs but only in the places where my clothes are, never my hand or bare flesh. We used to spend a lot of time on the floor with her, she'd jump over us, sniff us, lick us but now all she does is gnaw on us but it hurts as it goes right through to the skin. We're afraid to sit on the floor now, which is so sad as I want her to have company.
She has LOADS of toys, cardboard things, boxes, tunnels, chewing things that she is no longer interested in as she seems to be compulsively chewing the carpet or us.
In complete contrast, when she's in her cage she's lovely. She allows our hands in, runs over to us & lets us stroke her, relaxes and never makes any attempt to bite us. I think she might be quite dominant as she never licked our skin, only clothes and when trying to discipline her by gently holding her head/shoulders down after biting/chewing she would have none of it. She'll force her head up against my hand (I don't want to press too hard).
Sorry this is so long but I'd be really grateful if anyone has any advice or tell me what I'm doing wrong.
Thanks.