How can I stop my house rabbit digging at doors?

Laethia

Hiya,

I love my house bun but he has been really annoying me lately. His 'base' is the kitchen, but when I am home i have him in the living room with me (he has a litter tray in there). If I am home and he hears my voice he digs frantically at the door - fair enough, he might have been lonely as he is used to my company 99% of the time.

However when he is in the living room he hops around and binkies for about 10mins and then he starts digging and chewing at the door to get out!! Why?! Ideally I'd leave the doors open so he could run from room to room, but the hall has a telephone cable pinned along the wall and a corner with wallpaper on = bunny's fave chew toy.

How can I solve this? I've tried "no", and he knows it is naughty, so he waits until I am not looking!:rotfl:

Gosh he can be a frustrating best friend!:eek:

Thanks

PS this is money saving because I am renting and don't want to lose my deposit

mumslave

He is probably bored. I have had house rabbits and the only reasons I have known them to get destructive is not being neutered or/and feeling bored. Try getting him some new toys, or making some up of your own. Even some greens stuffed in a loo roll could amuse him. Is he ever outside? If not, maybe try getting a box you can fill with earth and let him have a dig, after all thats what rabbits do.

Laethia

Thanks for replying! He is neutered BTW, thank goodness *remembers the terrible bunny-teens*

Most toys I give him he totally ignores...apart from his keys which he throws as a trick to get treats but he won't play with them alone. I let him outside for 4 ten minute sessions a day but he soon wants to go back inside. His attention span is pretty limited
I think the digging thing is his frustration that the doors aren't open!

I wish I had enough money to get him a friend

mumslave

why not get a rescue bun? There are heaps out there. My first rabbit was a rescue bun, turned out to be the best one I ever had, he was very well 'house trained' never did a pennies worth of damage and was very loveable. Just didnt like people much lol, except me.

Fire_Fox

You can clicker train a rabbit, that would keep his brain working and be something you can do together.

Laethia

I'd love to get a rescue bun, but unfortunately its the insurance costs etc that would be the killer for us at the moment.

I'm very tempted to retry the clicker training thing - he is very smart and understands a lot of commands/requests but he is very stubborn and seems to view ignoring me as a hilarious game! Eg if he is in the garden "Buster come!" gets answered with a mad toss of the ears and feet flicking if he is not ready to come inside. The one thing to be thankful for is that our cables are so well protected even I can hardly get to them now!!!

Fire_Fox

Clicker training is a method of conditioning, done right I don't think they get to ignore you!

Laethia

:jexcellent! Thankyou! I must have been doing it wrong before. So the principles of it are click, treat, click, treat, click no treat and so on? Is it purely reward based training? How do you teach them NOT to do something with it?

When we tried clicker training before I think the main problem was a) he wasn't neutered and b) OH was also included in the training, maybe a sole trainer will work better!

ClareEmily

Hi there we have a house bunny and she can have a crafty chew at things, she hates it if we close any doors, as she needs at all time to have an escape route (being a prey animal), we use a hamster pen panels to block off telephone leads etc, as you can see used it for our Xmas tree, we could probably do with a higher one. We also rent.



We also use distractions such as loads of different hays in her litter tray when she is downstairs about 4 tunnels and cardboard boxes.

Go join the rabbits united forum, you will find loads of advice there http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/.

Clare & Biscuit Bunny x

ClareEmily

blimely pic is HUGE

ClareEmily

P.S She is also a lazy moo and doesn't play with any toys.

But she loves boxes all sizes, tunnels, willow baskets filled with her fav hay (burns green oat hay and timothy), pine cones.

Also my handbag, my hubby's shoes and getting behind furniture and in the tv cabinet...such a joy.