Bunny rattling bars

Walter came to us about a year ago. He is a free range indoor bunny and has the run of a bedroom during the day and house during the evening. He has only ever been shut in the cage during our major move over the summer for about 4 hours. However, both my bunnies use a small pets at home feraplast cage as a hay store and one as a toilet.

Sometimes Walter goes in the cage to nibble and then just stops and starts to rattle the bars. He only does it for a couple of minutes then seems to realise and leaves the cage. Its odd.

I cant work out if its a habit he picked up before he came to us (he was a rescue with an unknown past) or is he bored?

He has lots of toys and games and Betty never does it but I do worry and I always look for new ways to keep them busy. He doesnt do anything else thats destructive except shredding toy wicker balls. :roll:

I just worry that he needs something more but i dont know what

Does anyone elses bunny do it?

Aww, it's generally stereotypical behaviour you'd link with boredom/frustration but not a habit you'd expect in a freerange rabbit! I think with his unknown history it may well be something leftover from prior to when you got him.

How often does it happen?

Mine have a puppy pen, which is closed at night (to prevent sofa nibbling), and open or more usually completely disassembled whenever I'm in (or others are in), yet they will walk up to the stored or opened up panels and shake/nibble the bars! I've seen Lilly nibble the mesh on their run (which is just open to the run, and they've never even once been shut in...)!

I just think that in the wild they'd nibble any undergrowth to make a path through it and nibble any roots in their digging of burrows, and chewing and shaking the mesh is just their way of trying to make a new route through anything that may be even slightly in their way!

Mine have lots of toys and get A LOT of attention, but sometimes, trying to rearrange their environment is just what they want to do!

Tamsin said:

Aww, it's generally stereotypical behaviour you'd link with boredom/frustration but not a habit you'd expect in a freerange rabbit! I think with his unknown history it may well be something leftover from prior to when you got him.

How often does it happen?

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Not massively often. Just every few weeks or so. I kind of hope in a quite sad way that it is just something left over from when he was a baby, and that hes not bored. Although the thought of him being bored and frustrated at any time in his life upsets me.

Maybe its just his way of keeping me on my toes and ensuring he has many many toys!

My Buster does it. Sometimes for attention but he will do it when his pen is open, he knows it's open but likes a chew on the bars

*Funny*Bunny* said:

Mine have a puppy pen, which is closed at night (to prevent sofa nibbling), and open or more usually completely disassembled whenever I'm in (or others are in), yet they will walk up to the stored or opened up panels and shake/nibble the bars! I've seen Lilly nibble the mesh on their run (which is just open to the run, and they've never even once been shut in...)!

I just think that in the wild they'd nibble any undergrowth to make a path through it and nibble any roots in their digging of burrows, and chewing and shaking the mesh is just their way of trying to make a new route through anything that may be even slightly in their way!

Mine have lots of toys and get A LOT of attention, but sometimes, trying to rearrange their environment is just what they want to do!

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Aww Im glad its not just Walt! Hes is more of a nibbly bunny than a diggy one He likes to make tunnels through things (cardboard boxes, blankets and tunnel tubes) so it might be some part of a weird bunny game.

Jojo123 said:

My Buster does it. Sometimes for attention but he will do it when his pen is open, he knows it's open but likes a chew on the bars

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Such strange little bunnies! :roll: :lol:

I wouldn't be concerned if it's only now and then. Of course he could just not be too bright and forget there is a door there and get cross the bars are in his way :lol: It must be weird to have branches that you can't chew through.

Tamsin said:

I wouldn't be concerned if it's only now and then. Of course he could just not be too bright and forget there is a door there and get cross the bars are in his way :lol: It must be weird to have branches that you can't chew through.

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Walter is brave and beautiful and very affectionate but i dont think he is quite as clever as his little sister :lol: