Badly behaved rabbit - help please

Hello everyone,

One of my rabbits, 1.5 year old house bun called George, is getting increasingly out of control and I was wondering if anyone had any advice.

What used to quite funny has become a real nuisance, and his behaviour is becoming increasingly stressful and is getting worse every day. I can live with the occasional chewed cables and such, that's fine. But George is obsessed with food and you can't turn your back for a minute without him getting into some sort of trouble. Just today I found him on kitchen table helping himself to some chicken that had been left there just for a few minutes. :? He keeps climbing to places he shouldn't, knocking things over etc, you just have to be constantly aware and not leave any chairs within a metre of any high surfaces or you'll find him there etc.

He's also getting into some dangerous situations, like just this week when I came home I couldn't find him anywhere. After a lot of searching I found him in the kitchen bin, and by the looks of it he had spent the best part of the day there as he was filthy and stained with his own urine. I still can't work out how he managed to get in there, as there's a lid and there were no chairs near the bin.:?

It's come to the point now that my OH is saying he can't take his behaviour anymore and the idea of living with this constant stress for the next 6+ years is just unbearable. I had to go away for work for a few days and it was George that was keeping him on his toes and stressed the whole time, not our three year old daughter. It doesn't help that George got some health issues, he's a snuffle bun and started having some health problems within weeks of moving to ours and has cost us a fortune in vet fees. He came from a rescue but the rescue place stopped all contact with me as soon as I informed them of his health issues and asked for advice.

He's neutered, has plenty of space and toys and chewing things. He can also go outside daily to our 29tf x 9 ft roof terrace/balcony for some fresh air unless it's raining. He lives with another rabbit, his mum, who's the most lovable gentle creature ever and loves being stroked and cuddled, unlike George. I don't know his family history but I suspect he could be an outcome of sibling breeding as his mum is just about 6 months older than he is. Not sure if that could cause some behavioural problems, only had them for less than a year so not an expert with rabbits although I am learning fast!! He's also a very unpredictable, and might come and bite you for no reason. Not great when you have a toddler around. He's also not very nice to his mum and keeps biting her, he's a real ASBO teenager!

Saying no or loud noises such as clapping hands have no effect on him. He understands the word no and you can just tell from he's expression when he's caught that he knows he is doing something he shouldn't, yet he just carries on.

Would anyone have any advice how to stop him from being such a pain? He's getting bolder, more disrespectful and arrogant every day and I don't know what to do with him anymore!

Could you shut the kitchen off and just leave him in the living room?

I've covered my cables with cable tidies so Doughnut has no interest now and because she constantly nibbles the corner of every lining paper I've put plastic corners up and now put clear perspex along a few walls so she can't get to them. Now she knows she can't reach the wall to nibble she's given up trying.

She also knows the word no but would still sit there with her nose virtually touching the wall as if to say well I'm going to do it anyway.

I don't know how you can teach them to be less naughty, I'm just trying to prevent things from happening. She is now left out the whole day in the lounge/diner and no damage can be done. She's too little to jump up on chairs and can't even jump up onto the sofa.

It's a case of channelling his energy into something else, whether that's providing something to dig in or chew, or clicker training with him. And finding out why he's doing these things.

I know a lot of people provide digger boxes for their rabbits. Just a cardboard box with lots of newspaper in or a telephone directory for it to be ripped up. Depends on what he likes doing. Doughnut isn't really a digger more of a chewer.

It could be that he is in pain - I would advise taking him to the vet for a check-up just to make sure that he doesn't have any trouble with, say, his teeth.

Is he a good hay eater? A big box of hay, as well as being the best thing to keep teeth and digestive system in good order, is a good boredom breaker.

Thank you everyone for your responses.

I don't think he is in pain as he has been seen by vet frequently and has had his teeth checked under GA and they were fine. I will mention it to the vet though when I take them in for their vaccination and check-up in the next couple of weeks.

He has chew mats and other chew toys like cardboard, and he has some soil he can dig outside although he doesn't seem interested. I tried the box filled with newspaper before but he never touched it. He always has plenty of hay and he likes eating it, but not for long periods of time.

I might look into clicker training, never knew you can do that with rabbits! One of the vets that saw him for his snuffles said that he is very playful as he kept pulling back a strand of hay that the vet tried pulling away from him, like a dog would pull a toy. The vet said that was quite rare in rabbits, not sure about that though. I played that game with him with willow sticks for a while and think he liked it but I had to stop because it encouraged his biting and nipping behaviour.

cpayne: I remember your thread about letting Doughnut free range, think I responded as well. Hope that's gone well! I sometimes wish I had gone for something smaller than NZ white, my rabbits weight 3.8 and 5 kg and are very capable of jumping onto chairs and even tables! Getting a big rabbit seemed like a good idea at the time as we have a toddler and thought she wouldn't be able to pick them up. Might have to lock them out of the kitchen, their "base" is in the kitchen at the moment but it's not really working. Think I'll get some gates and move their base to the lounge. It's a shame as I liked the idea of them free ranging.

Well they will still be free ranging in the lounge. If they jump on the dining table can't you just move the chairs away from it so he can't jump onto it. Maybe just shut them out of the kitchen and just adapt a few other things in the other rooms.

Now Doughnut's well she's a right little pickle. Hence the perspex but it's good as you can't notice it. The free ranging is going fine, no damage at all and she jumps in her two litter trays to do a tiddle. I do have little pills near the door to sweep up but that's about it.

Sounds like he's a chewer like Doughnut. Could you do him some toilet rolls stuff with hay to entertain him for a bit. She also loves her tunnel so maybe a cardboard box turned upside down with a cut out so he can go in and out and also jump on it.

Sounds like he's quite clever so needs entertainment!

cpayne said:

Well they will still be free ranging in the lounge. If they jump on the dining table can't you just move the chairs away from it so he can't jump onto it. Maybe just shut them out of the kitchen and just adapt a few other things in the other rooms.

Now Doughnut's well she's a right little pickle. Hence the perspex but it's good as you can't notice it. The free ranging is going fine, no damage at all and she jumps in her two litter trays to do a tiddle. I do have little pills near the door to sweep up but that's about it.

Sounds like he's a chewer like Doughnut. Could you do him some toilet rolls stuff with hay to entertain him for a bit. She also loves her tunnel so maybe a cardboard box turned upside down with a cut out so he can go in and out and also jump on it.

Sounds like he's quite clever so needs entertainment!

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We've been moving the chairs away from the table but it's a pain as the moment you forget to do that there's a rabbit having some roast chicken on the table! Also think George is getting braver with his jumping as today the chair was about a metre from the table and he still managed to get there. Gonna have to get a gate of some sort as there's no door in the lounge. Not sure what type to get though as he has managed to jump 3 ft+ gate I have and also squeezed through the bars before.

Glad to hear that the free ranging is working for you! It's so nice when you can do that, I used to have a dog crate with a pen attached but it was such an eye sore, much easier to clean this way as well!

George isn't really into toilet rolls, he does like cardboard boxes though.

My OH suggested converting an old book shelf into a climbing frame as he likes to jump and climb, not sure if that would work. Might post another thread in the housing section about that!

How about a (not too tall) cat tree for him to play on if he likes to climb things?
There are some amazing ones about, zooplus.co.uk have some that are really cheap.

If he is jumping other barriers, maybe consider a dog gate into the lounge? They look like baby gates and attach to the door frames in the same way but are much taller. They contain my uncles bull mastiff quite well although if she tried she could probably jump them. I am sure they would be a very effective barrier for a rabbit though

I'd only had my bun Dipsy for a couple of months, and he was very quickly becoming the bunny from hell, and like yourself, it really wasn't funny, not when things were becoming down right dangerous. It got to the point after a particularly bad weekend that I really just couldn't take anymore, and made the decision that I had to find a way of channeling all his energy positively, and find a way of taking back control of MY house, or he would simply have to go.I've never given up on a rabbit in nearly 20yrs, but then I'd never had a 'Dipsy' before, and initially I thought I would be really sad about sending him back, but actually it would have been brilliant to have that dam rabbit gone, and all his 'trouble' with him as well, and I can tell that you are probably at about the same stage.

I had him checked out at the vets even though he had already been seen, but he was fine other than just hell bent on making our lives hell and destroying the house :evil: After discussing at length with the vet and searching online I purchased a clicker for £1, and a book from ebay 'Clicking With Your Rabbit' (yeah right :roll and thought right this is it, make or break time, and if it doesn't work :wave: bye bye Dipsy

Day 1. :shock: OMG this is really good he seems to be really enjoying this. He's listening to me, watching me, could this be the answer??

Each day, Dipsy improved and although he was still naughty, it wasn't like before, and he seemed happier and stopped biting, and kind of seemed more at peace with himself, until 2 weeks later, Dipsy What a GOOD bunny :thumb: He was funny, affectionate (briefly), and seemed to have found his way and had something to focus on, and I really had fallen in love with him :shock:

My vet explained to me that often, very aggressive and or naughty buns, are often the most intelligent, and kind of frustrated because they are not being mentally stimulated enough, and this is when it turns to the terrible behaviour, and often biting. For a bunny such as this, all the toys in the world won't help, because simply tossing a silly toy about, or digging in a bit of soil, just doesn't need much effort or thought, but the clicker training really gave him something to think about and focus on, and because he then had that in his life, over the past year, all his bad behaviour has gone now, and he is just happy and chilled.

It might sound like you need lots of time and it will be really hard work, but actually they recommend that you only start off with 10 minutes daily, and I'm sure you spend a lot more than that clearing up all the chaos he has caused :roll: A year later I most days spend 10-15 minutes clicking with Dipsy, but sometimes because of work or not being well etc, it doesn't always happen, but I think if George really takes to this, a minimum of 4 times a week would be fine.

It's not about just teaching them lots of tricks, all Dipsy does is come when he is called, go in and out of a tunnel, put his front paws on my arm when I hold it up for him, and then when I lower my face to his, he will just bop my nose, he will lay down, sit up, and yes he will do a spin, but it is just hilarious, and what makes it more fun and enjoyable is to put some music on that you enjoy.

You need to keep your commands very short, say his name and what you want him to do, and you need to find something that he absolutely loves to eat, and that he only ever gets as his reward when you are clicking him, and I guess for George from what you have said Colonel Sanders could be your man :lol::lol: but please think about giving it a go, because I'm so very glad that I did and that Dipsy is still here with us.

There are lots of videos on You Tube as well if you want some ideas of what to do, and how to make it good fun.

Thing is, he is not actually being naughty. A bit mischievous maybe, but not badly behaved. Everything he is doing is part of normal rabbit behaviour - foraging, jumping and investigating mainly. Rabbits aren't dogs, you can't control their behaviour the same way and you can't train them out of things that are their nature (not that you'd want to anyway, or you'd be impacting on the RSPCA five freedoms).

If what he is doing is annoying you, you need to take away the temptation. Keep chairs tucked into the table so he cant jump up, get a pedal bin with a secure lid and don't leave food anywhere he can jump onto.

Being inbred is unlikely to cause behavioural problems, so dont worry about that. There will be a reason for his biting - you just haven't found it yet. If you want to solve it then you need to discover why he is doing it. The biting combined with the fact he got snuffles shortly after moving into your home would suggest to me that he is stressed by something. You also need to look into why he is biting his mother and what kind of biting it is - the move or his illness or his unhappiness may be affecting their bond.

Ultimately, if you can't cope with them inside, then you can always move them outside.

Ideally instead of being free in the whole house they would have a room just to themselves. You'd be able to put plenty of levels in (chairs next to windowsills, cat trees, tables to jump on), tunnels, areas to dig (put a box of dirt inside a dog crate which has some sort of barrier for 30cm tall all the way around the sides so the dirt doesn't go absolutely everywhere). Plenty of hidey holes, plant pots to sit in, food in different holders to make him work for it (dangling hay balls, home made carrot trees, hay boxes with different sized holes) and of course toys. Is that something you could provide for him? Or even just a fenced off area in a room and you could have an aviary indoors which he couldn't just jump out of the top!

Thanks again everyone for your responses and the great advice!

I will definitely look into getting some sort of cat tree or climbing frame for him, and will also buy a dog gate to keep him away from the kitchen. We had a baby gate before but he jumped over/squeezed through it.

RogerRabbit999 your Dipsy sounds exactly like my George! It's such a relief to read someone has felt the same way about their rabbit that I do for George at times, admittedly I have considered giving him up for all the trouble he is causing. But then again I could never give up his mum, Bess. I will definitely look into clicker training, it actually sounds like a lot of fun! Hopefully George will be the same as Dipsy and really get into it. Will look into getting one tomorrow!

Nessar - I suppose I might have been a bit harsh calling him badly behaved but suppose this week has just been particularly hard. I know he is just being inquisitive and displaying normal rabbit behaviour. It's so difficult to try and predict his next move, the bin for instance has been there for the past 10 months and it was never an issue and I still don't know how he got there, the lid was closed when I found him! Sorry I wasn't very clear about the snuffles, he didn't get it straight away after moving to ours, he had some other health issues first that have since been resolved. The snuffles started later, he always sneezed a bit but then started having proper sneezing fits. For a long time the vets weren't sure if it was allergic or snuffles, the snuffles was only confirmed when he was boarded for a week when we went away and it really flared up. It's under control at the moment.

He is definitely a highly strung rabbit and he has a weird relationship with his mum as she mainly grooms him yet she is the dominant one as he is like a little boy lost when she's not around. He mainly bites her to get her to move out of the way, the same with us (although his nipping has been a lot better recently and hardly ever happens). I've never seen her bite him.

I would hate to restrict their space now that they are used to so much freedom and they are perfectly toilet trained. But think will definitely move them away from the kitchen, and look into making their environment more interesting. We live in a flat so there's no endless amount of space and unfortunately a permanent move outdoors is not an option. At the moment when we are home they can come and go to the roof terrace as they please but I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving them there all day without supervision for a number of reasons.

Thanks again everyone for your responses, I really appreciate them all, this is such a helpful place!

He sounds like Scamp - loveable but a little terror :lol:

I fished him out of our swing top bin a few times (jumps on the lid and drops through the swing and couldn't get back out), eventually I added an extra cupboard door so the bin was shut away. He can also jump on the kitchen sides, and clear a baby gate.

The solution is really a mix or really good bunny proofing and diverting his attention to more appropriate things. So he has a dog gate (they are taller) which is covered in mesh (otherwise he oozes through). He's confined to one room apart from closely supervised exercise time.

Food is really important to rabbits - they'll usually spend a lot of time looking for it and your food is as fair game as theirs. I would restrict his food leaving only the hay freely available and make everything else something he has to work for - whether that's pellets in a treatball or as a reward for training, carrot strung on string so he has to stretch and chase it to munch through, leaves pegged up similarly or food wrapped in paper, shut in egg boxes or cardboard boxes etc. Really make he work for everything. The longer he spends on foraging activities the less time he has for causing trouble.

Nipping is a fairly normal form of communication - particularly 'get out of my way', it's part communication part asserting dominance. The key when it's aimed at you is to never let nipping get him what he wants ie don't give food faster or move. It's not an aggression thing it's just a tactic to get what they want and if it doesn't work they often abandon it.

Good luck

Tamsin said:

He sounds like Scamp - loveable but a little terror :lol:

I fished him out of our swing top bin a few times (jumps on the lid and drops through the swing and couldn't get back out), eventually I added an extra cupboard door so the bin was shut away. He can also jump on the kitchen sides, and clear a baby gate.

The solution is really a mix or really good bunny proofing and diverting his attention to more appropriate things. So he has a dog gate (they are taller) which is covered in mesh (otherwise he oozes through). He's confined to one room apart from closely supervised exercise time.

Food is really important to rabbits - they'll usually spend a lot of time looking for it and your food is as fair game as theirs. I would restrict his food leaving only the hay freely available and make everything else something he has to work for - whether that's pellets in a treatball or as a reward for training, carrot strung on string so he has to stretch and chase it to munch through, leaves pegged up similarly or food wrapped in paper, shut in egg boxes or cardboard boxes etc. Really make he work for everything. The longer he spends on foraging activities the less time he has for causing trouble.

Nipping is a fairly normal form of communication - particularly 'get out of my way', it's part communication part asserting dominance. The key when it's aimed at you is to never let nipping get him what he wants ie don't give food faster or move. It's not an aggression thing it's just a tactic to get what they want and if it doesn't work they often abandon it.

Good luck

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OMG that just made me laugh so much :lol:

Jumping on to the kitchen work surfaces :shock:

I just love rabbits. x

nessar said:

Thing is, he is not actually being naughty. A bit mischievous maybe, but not badly behaved. Everything he is doing is part of normal rabbit behaviour - foraging, jumping and investigating mainly. Rabbits aren't dogs, you can't control their behaviour the same way and you can't train them out of things that are their nature (not that you'd want to anyway, or you'd be impacting on the RSPCA five freedoms).

If what he is doing is annoying you, you need to take away the temptation. Keep chairs tucked into the table so he cant jump up, get a pedal bin with a secure lid and don't leave food anywhere he can jump onto.

Being inbred is unlikely to cause behavioural problems, so dont worry about that. There will be a reason for his biting - you just haven't found it yet. If you want to solve it then you need to discover why he is doing it. The biting combined with the fact he got snuffles shortly after moving into your home would suggest to me that he is stressed by something. You also need to look into why he is biting his mother and what kind of biting it is - the move or his illness or his unhappiness may be affecting their bond.

Ultimately, if you can't cope with them inside, then you can always move them outside.

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this


people who have buns freerange in the house bunny proof the house. use things to protect the cables barriers and and pen panels to protect things and keep the buns out of places

unless you make it so they cant do these things they will do them

Tamsin said:

He sounds like Scamp - loveable but a little terror :lol:

I fished him out of our swing top bin a few times (jumps on the lid and drops through the swing and couldn't get back out), eventually I added an extra cupboard door so the bin was shut away. He can also jump on the kitchen sides, and clear a baby gate.

The solution is really a mix or really good bunny proofing and diverting his attention to more appropriate things. So he has a dog gate (they are taller) which is covered in mesh (otherwise he oozes through). He's confined to one room apart from closely supervised exercise time.

Food is really important to rabbits - they'll usually spend a lot of time looking for it and your food is as fair game as theirs. I would restrict his food leaving only the hay freely available and make everything else something he has to work for - whether that's pellets in a treatball or as a reward for training, carrot strung on string so he has to stretch and chase it to munch through, leaves pegged up similarly or food wrapped in paper, shut in egg boxes or cardboard boxes etc. Really make he work for everything. The longer he spends on foraging activities the less time he has for causing trouble.

Nipping is a fairly normal form of communication - particularly 'get out of my way', it's part communication part asserting dominance. The key when it's aimed at you is to never let nipping get him what he wants ie don't give food faster or move. It's not an aggression thing it's just a tactic to get what they want and if it doesn't work they often abandon it.

Good luck

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hehe I named my bun scamps too hehe because like your scamp HE IS INTO EVERYTHING!


I have found him on shelves, in the washing machine........ on tables, on top of the rat cage, behind the sofa, INthe sofa and in the black bag full of their litter tray muck........... (he was proud of that one)