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Please help.

Skye_2020

New Kit
Hi all,

I apologise in advance for the long thread but I need help.

We adopted a female bunny back in January and instantly fell in love her.

We originally got her a two story hutch in our downstairs extension and she had time out in this room(no problems)

we then did more research and got her an x-pen around 4 by 2 foot with free roam time around the living room,dining room and her room(a converted conservatory) from then she was horrifically destructive, she would destroy everything.

I thought maybe she needed more room so we upgrade to a 6 by 2 foot pen and tried around 4/5 different flooring as each time she chewed and stratched at it.

It got to the point, after 10 months of her destroying everything we gave her, we were considering re-homing her.

I absolutely wanted to try everything before we did so we adopted her husbun, the bonding process went amazingly and they now live happily in a manor pet housing pen 6by 3 foot pen with around 2/3 hours free roam time.

However, not 2 weeks later she has again started destroying things again, more so digging at random corners all over the house and chewing her lovely new pen.

I feel like we have given her everything she could possibly want for and she is just slowly destroying our home.

I give her new toys every other day, some in the pen and different ones outsides for "play time" she has 24hr access to hay and water, a digging box and more tunnels than I can count. I just don't know what else I can do for her, I knew rabbits were destructive but it's like she's got the devil in her sometimes.

My absolute last option is to put her back up for adoption because she is such a loving little bunny but she has me on the verge of tears most nights with her destruction.

Please can anyone advise me on what I can do.
 
Hi, what sort of damage is she making? With our two, we have done a few different things. Some of these might work better though depending on how a person wants to keep their house. Although I like to think ours is quite clean, it was worn when we moved in and neither of us has had the time or inclination to fix it up, which no doubt has shaped our bunny-proofing!

Some areas of our house I'm more particular about, so ours are limited to just downstairs. If they'd taken any interest in destroying our sofa they would be banned from the living room too, as can't think of a good way to protect it. Could you limit their activity to certain areas?

We have two large mdf boards in our living room which stop the rabbits getting to certain wooden furniture I wanted keeping nice, along with a wooden mantel piece. The boards were easy and cheap enough to order made to measure online. I decoupaged them so they look pretty and fit in with the room, but you could probably just paint some (with pet safe paint) if this sounds like something worth trying.

Some things (for ours nipping the rug) we have just been strict about, chasing them off whenever they go for it. You could also clap or put the rabbit in "time out" depending on the rabbit. Ours eventually and reluntantly got the message. I've heard there are bitter tasting but non-toxic sprays you can put places like this, but haven't tried them myself.
 
Sorry doing this in two posts - last one got deleted once!

Some of the things in our house we've just relented and let the rabbits nip as we weren't that bothered about them - as I said, some things in our house could do with upgrading anyway. The door frames and doors for example we eventually just gave up on. I think if you try and train them to do / not to do too many things at once they just get confused and none of it works well. That's been my experience anyway.

Is it possible your bunny has teeth which are too long that she is trying to wear down? If so she will likely nip anything and everything regardless of what you do as they seem to get quite desperate. Ours started biting into our kitchen wall recently when this was the case, after having shown no interest in it ever before. I've never seen a rabbit show any interest at all in chewable toys or sticks. Best thing for their teeth is hay - our vet told me to stop feeding them pellets to get them to eat more hay. I also switched to a fancier brand to encourage them to eat more, although our two are exceptionally spoilt. I also cellotaped a baking tray to that bit of the wall whilst their teeth were works in progress, and to help them forget the wall was there.
 
Last post!

If your girl isn't spayed yet, getting her done will likely improve any naughty behaviour and calm her down (as well as protecting against uterine cancer etc).

Lastly, although rabbits seem more interested in destroying human things than rabbit toys (how do they know??), the exception for ours seems to be cardboard boxes, large enough for them to go inside. They love destroying them, and will happily rip them to pieces / bite holes in them in preference to any of my things. Really can't recommend them enough. Plus if you are bored in lockdown and / or have a child to hand, you can cut them into amusing shapes like castles.

So long post, sorry if not very concise! Summary would be;

- Limit their location to areas you are less fussed about OR which are more easily rabbit-proofed.

- MDF boards or other physical barriers.

- Being strict and persistent about them not destroying certain things (monitoring needed for quite a while).

- Picking your battles and letting rabbits nip things you're ultimately not bothered about.

- Making sure the rabbit's teeth aren't too long (and encouraging them to eat more hay if so).

- Hiding / protecting areas they have started nipping which they might forget about, as a short term solution, whilst you sort the route cause.

- Spaying or neutering.

- Giving them large cardboard boxes to play with.
 
They need more space, 6ft x 3ft is not large enough I’m afraid, the rwaf advice is for a minimum of 6ft x2 ft hutch with a permanently attached run of at leat 8ft x 6ft. Most of us give our bunnies a rabbit proofed room. But they will undoubtedly chew and dig at things, that’s what rabbits do. If you give them plenty of space, stimulation in the form of things to jump on and off of, hide under, things to chew such as apple Twig branches, and a box to dig in, Plenty of hay to eat, then you will minimise damage to your possessions. Mine have all that but they still rip paper off the wall and dig out the litter onto the floor!
 
She sounds like an unspayed Rabbit who is very broody. So this is what is needed if not already done. Also, Rabbits need loads of hay to chew, this also helps to calm them down. I hope you can solve this problem with your Rabbit.
 
I have just read through your post again and wonder if you go back to square 1 where she was happy, then maybe this will work for now until she is neutered, if she isn't already. I have found that Rabbits like to feel secure and maybe too much space doesn't suit some.
 
Thank you so much everyone for your replies!

Sorry, I should of said in the original post, she is spayed and has only just had a vet check so she's all well and healthy :)

She switches between which damage she likes to do, mainly digging at corners(particularly where her treat drawer is), we limit them to the downstairs. It's mainly the laminate flooring and her actual pen that she destroys, we've tried the bitter sprays, she licks it off and carries on chewing 😂

She doesn't respond to clapping or any other loud noises but she does respond to time out reasonably well, so I'm thinking if we stick to that? We put her back in her pen and leave her husbun out with us to roam around for around 5/10 minutes, then let he back out and she does stop for a bit but does go straight back to it.

Also we do give her quite a lot of veggies on a night so we are going to reduce that by half and hopefully she will eat more of her hay, she only gets minimal, maybe 20g of pellets for her breakfast.

She absolutely LOVES any kind of chewing things that are the cardboard with hay stuck on it(if that makes any sense) like the JR farm hay cube? But I worry she will eat too much cardboard?

They do have an outdoor run which is 8ft by 3ft but it is closed for winter at the moment, I would love to give them free roam all day but we also have two cats.
Although, it does seem like the more space we've given her, the naughtier she has gotten.

I would hope to think she is happy, she binkies around everywhere and is very loving with us and her husbun and it would absolutely break my heart if we ever had to re-home her so I am willing to try anything!
 
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She is just being a rabbit. They dig, chew, run, jump. She may grow out of the digging to a large extent. As she seems happy, has a bonded mate and is just being a rabbit, it would be unfair to rehome her IMO. In the meantime, try some other distractions to keep he occupied:

Put a digging box in the corners she digs in anyway? eg underbed storage box with hay in, or even just a cardboad box of hay.
Scatterfeed her veggies when she is out, to distract from other activities.
Try some other distractions - eg toilet roll tubes stuffed with hay - on the floor, hung up, etc
A heavy, dry vase / jar with stems in to chew (eg foraged willow, raspberry canes, apple twigs, etc)
Put down mats that she can destroy - there are bunny chew mats available.
Even just putting down sheets of corugated card may help to save your floor - she can destroy that instead, and you can change it as needed.
Metal puppy panels can be used to limit the area of destruction (either to protect objects, or to keep bunnies in a specific area)
 
I agree with what shimmer suggested :) never really had any issues with Zeus digging or such but since I've had Athena(girl just under 3months) I've had to get creative as she seems super bunny active with chewing and digging and such.
They've got toys and are free roam, so figured she can't be bored. After some frustration and googling I realised it's just that she likes the feel of where she's digging/chewing and because it's familiar she'll stick to it.
Especially there's one spot that she kept digging on the wood floor, as I can't really afford mats and carpets etc at the moment I just laid a piece of cardboard on the floor. She's completely stopped digging there and have nibbled on the cardboard a bit but soon looses interest and eats hay rather :D
Also found that when their pen liner gets a bit dirty(when I have a lazy week and don't swap it out) she digs and chews at it, but stops as soon as I swap it out.
Sadly with (most)bunnies comes chewing and digging and poops [emoji39] i would say just put something over the area to distract her :)

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No offence taken at all. Any advice is welcome.

My boy is an absolute angel, must be a girl thing haha and she is so clever, I've gotten her some of the puzzle toys with 3 levels and she aced the highest level within 5 minutes, I think she just needs extra extra simulation.

I've just put a big Amazon order through for some grass mats, more tunnels, cardboard chewy thing and going to lay cardboard in the pieces of floor she likes to go crazy at and 🤞🏼🤞🏼 it helps.

I apologise for my original post, I feel I was in the middle of a slight breakdown 😂
I would never ever re-home her at all, she's like my child. Thank you so much everyone for your help, I'm so glad I've found this site.
 
No offence taken at all. Any advice is welcome.

My boy is an absolute angel, must be a girl thing haha and she is so clever, I've gotten her some of the puzzle toys with 3 levels and she aced the highest level within 5 minutes, I think she just needs extra extra simulation.

I've just put a big Amazon order through for some grass mats, more tunnels, cardboard chewy thing and going to lay cardboard in the pieces of floor she likes to go crazy at and �������� it helps.

I apologise for my original post, I feel I was in the middle of a slight breakdown ��
I would never ever re-home her at all, she's like my child. Thank you so much everyone for your help, I'm so glad I've found this site.

I'm so pleased that you won't rehome her, she sounds a very happy normal bunny to me, but I can understand your frustration when they get destructive. I'm sure others have already said, but a sheet or a large fleece blanket over carpet or flooring, would help protect that, and puppy panels to shut off any areas that you want off limits. Good luck anyway xx
 
Good advice here.

All our girls have been more diggy.

Primrose especially enjoyed an underbed box of sterile soil. I'd just pop a big bit of cardboard to catch any spillage and sweep it back in.

It did need daily checks for poop and we usually did it more in Spring as we found her very diggy then.

Also a compressed straw bale unwrapped and left for them to dig out seems to be a favourite for Blossom.

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