Rabbit Won't Stop Chewing on my Apartment
Johnny Sparks
I have a female blue bunny that is about 9 -10 months old. She is
spayed, and has a male companion, who has also been fixed. The female,
Pepper, just won't stop chewing on things. She chews on the the walls,
the baseboards, and pulls up my carpet. The male, Cleo, isn't nearly as
bad as she is, and I think anything he does do is because of Pepper's
influence. I have bought countless wooden things for them to chew on
and strewn them about the place, but Pepper won't even touch them. I've
also tried the water bottle trick, but it doesn't work either. I have
come to the conclusion that A) She is very determined to chew on the
walls regardless of the punishments, or B) she is amazingly stupid.
Anyway, what can I do about this type of behavior?
Thanks,
Johnny Sparks
Cheryl
Join the club. I think all female bunnies eat the walls, the baseboards and
the carpet. I just got my little Peaches spayed. Peaches, Rosie and
Jasmine are my newest females and they all chew on things. Rosie is 3 now,
and she is starting to mellow out. She still likes to grab the newspaper
and chew it. Peaches is 8 months old now. All I can say is wait about
another year, and she will mellow out. All my 7 year old bunnies and 6 year
old bunnies never chew on stuff. I think they all grow out of doing that.
If people would give their babies a chance to grow out of the chewing years,
there would be a lot less bunnies abandoned or given up. I know it is very
aggravating. Peaches has destroyed the carpet under the bed and she started
chewing the molding. on the wall. My husband says as long as the rabbits
are in the house, we don't get any new carpet. Anybody can tell rabbit
lovers by their chewed purses, chewed shoes, chewed books and magazines.
That is kind of a part of having a rabbit when they are younger. I would
say in another year, your rabbit should stop chewing stuff by herself. I
think it is kind of a hormonal thing, even though they are spayed. It is a
nest or burrow building action that seems to be guided or brought on by an
instinct. They are not stupid. It is an instinctive behavior that they all
do. They won't eat the chew things that you have provided because they
can't build a burrow out of them They all do it and continue to do it until
they reach a certain age. or that is how it has been with my buns anyway.
In the meantime, put plastic hose material on all your computer cords, phone
wires. Make sure your vacuum cord is not laying about. Mine has been
replaced twice. Maybe keep her confined to one room and bunny proof that
room thoroughly. Peaches and her mate H.T. who is 7 years old are both
confined to my bedroom, where Peaches still trys to make elaborate nests
under my bed. It is irritating and aggravating, but then I come over to her,
and she licks my hand and loves me and I forgive her everything. I have
been locking her up at night though. Her gnawing on wood keeps my husband
awake.
I hope this has helped some. I am sure others will write to add more or
better suggestions.
Good luck
Cheryl Gehrke
Johnny Sparks wrote in message <36F6675A...@usa.net>...
Robbin
dissolved a little hot pepper in water once and spritzed that on some carpet
the buns were chewing and it immediately stopped.
MoxShorPun
hope she grows out of it. Cocoa went through a huge dig in the couch stage
that was really a pain but she seemed to just slowly stop and she is at the
point where she rarely does it at all.
You may need to cover things up, which you can do in different ways depending
on how handy you are. My sister made cardboard bumpers for her baseboards so
her bunny chewed that and couldn't get at the wood. Other people have used
plexiglass over woodwork. You can get sea grass mats (found at places like Pier
One, Target, Costco) and use those in places on the rug where she chews. You
definitely do not want to take a chance on her ingesting rug fibers when she
chews.
I know some peole have put tin foil on areas they don't want bunny to go as
they do not like the sound of it when they walk on it. You may also want to
try double sided tape which has worked well for one person here.
Hope this helps:)
Kris
Looking for a bunny friend in Western New York? Hop on down to the Erie County
SPCA, Tonawanda, NY. We may have just the right rabbit companion for you.
S John M
"Robbin" <malonea...@hotmail.com> wrote:
Jackson, my nearly 2 year old Dutch Dwarf female essentially considered
the bitter apple spray a condiment. It did absolutely nothing to keep
her from chewing the areas of my her part of my apartment's walls and
base boards she seemed determined to... what I ended up doing was
getting untreated, unfinished 2x6 planks cut to the length of these
areas and laying them flush to the base boards she was chewing. I
suppose I never really "trained her not to chew there" but the end
result was her chewing the boards instead of the walls. Also, something
I discovered with Jack-- and I have no way of knowing if this is true
of other bunnies-- is that she's very much more inclined to chew wood
that she can throw her weight into... meaning something stationary...
like the baseboards; a little block or "chew toy" isn't really
something she seems to care for since it won't stay put for her to get
a good gnawing session going :-) Jackson's my first and only rabbit, so
the last year and a half has been a lot of me simply following *her*
instincts. And, really, in that they MUST chew to keep their teeth
worn, I quickly realized it was unreasonable for me to expect her
simply "not to"... of course apartment has seemingly random
construction material all over it and moving boxes in a quite a few
corners... but She and I live here in gleeful obscurity.
S. John
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Set/1299/jackson1-4.jpg
JP
Has it been a while since you have been around here? I remember
Jackson! She looks just like my Roo, markings and all. I will have to
email you a picture so Jackson can see her long lost twin sister. It is
good to know Jackson is doing well and so is his family. My Roo is the
same as Jack about chewing, she loves things that don't move. Mr. Pigg
is the same way but he enjoys the corners of the walls. I too have
cardboard boxes all over the apt and willow baskets everywhere. If you
give them enough things they can chew on they won't chew on the other
no-no's as much (maybe).
JP
Edward Moore
lemon juice over the edges, I didn't have any lemon so tried vinegar, which
has worked, he does have plenty of things to chew round the house and in
allowed to chew the bookcase (Its a cheapo natural wood one that will be
binned when we move anyhow) But the walls he can't as we rent and would lose
our deposit! He has stopped now and if he starts I will reapply either lemon
juice/vinegar again.
Hope this helps
Celia and Bunnie (another chewing rabbit!)
Sue and Alan
>Join the club. I think all female bunnies eat the walls, the baseboards
and
>the carpet.
Many of my baseboards are not the ornate type, instead they are just square
edged. The local building store sells a clear, hard plastic, L-shaped
corner protector in long strips. I put that on all the square edged
baseboard and you'd hardly know it's there.
We also suppy Twilight with more tempting targets. Alan made a hay box out
of plain pine for her. She can jump in, eat the hay, and chew on the box.
We have a trestle table in the dining room. Alan boxed in the legs with
plain pine to give her something nice and immobile to chew on.
Sue & Twilight
S John M
>Hi S. John,
>Has it been a while since you have been around here? I remember
>Jackson! She looks just like my Roo, markings and all. I will have to
>email you a picture so Jackson can see her long lost twin sister. It is
>good to know Jackson is doing well and so is his family. My Roo is the
>same as Jack about chewing, she loves things that don't move. Mr. Pigg
>is the same way but he enjoys the corners of the walls. I too have
>cardboard boxes all over the apt and willow baskets everywhere. If you
>give them enough things they can chew on they won't chew on the other
>no-no's as much (maybe).
>
>JP
>
Hiya! Yeah... I've been lurking off and on and after I got real
convinced Jackson was settled in and I had her diet balanced the rest's
just been an exercise in intuition. Jackson's turned out to be two
things: very expressive and very predictable. Clipping her nails once a
month, feeding her daily, and making sure she gets her at least one
hour of one-on-one time we play together and talk each night and there
wasn't much more to guess at :-) I don't know if she's special as far
as Dutch Rabbits go, but I sometimes think perhaps she is. Timid?
Bwhahahah! New people don't even phase her, sudden noises from the
people upstairs catch her attention but don't "scare" her, hell-- she's
even gotten to the point she'll charge the vacuum cleaner... *while*
I'm vacuuming. I'm pretty sure she just doesn't know she's a rabbit--
maybe having been here since I think ~10 weeks old and never exposed
other animals (except a Guinea Pig I had for a couple months, which she
never even acknowledged... Squeek, BTW, now lives at my Sister's) and
treated with respect for this long, she's accepted me as "top bunny"
(I'm the one with the food after all, LOL) but otherwise, it's her
house and she let's me stay here :-)
Some other items of note about Jack: she was simply not
interested in hay... then I decided to keep it in one of her "climbing
and digging" boxes and now she eats it regularly... presumably because
she thinks it's either paper or cardboard <g>. She never did go for the
litter box concept, so she has a few thick bathroom rugs I simply leave
in "that corner" and every couple days I just "empty the rug" and wash
it with a little bleach on hot: problem solved (she is incidentally
99.5% accurate... it's next to never I'll find a berry anywhere else).
S. John
Cyd
>>Join the club. I think all female bunnies eat the walls, the baseboards
>and
>>the carpet.
Linoleum. Sarah eats the linoleum. And Trixie eats (or tries to eat) the
industrial carpet. Spunky just eats his cage.
Cyd