Sending to bed? U/D no improvement

So we are back from our holiday and Molly and Junior came home yesterday evening. As well as they were looked after at my mum's, they are obviously happy to be home. We've had lots of running around and binkies. They were tired last night and were sprawled out so I decided to go and sweep out their pen so I could put them to bed. As soon as I opened the living room door, Molly ran ahead of me and took herself off to bed It was so funny

Unfortunately the laughs have stopped there. She is driving me crazy. She's trying to eat everything. Constantly

I touched up all the nibbled paintwork the night before we left and she is hell bent on chewing it again They've got a hay tunnel to chew, plus toys, hay and cardboard. I've tried everything from telling her no to moving her away to squirting her with the water bottle. She's just not getting the message.

I'm seriously considering taking her up to her bed, and telling her she's been bad.

Is there any hope that she might learn from it? I'm also not sure if I should keep Junior down if I do put her up

I know she knows she shouldn't be doing it because when I call her name she looks at me with a guilty expression, and she's now running away when I pick up the water bottle. She's even had the brass neck to binky away from me a few times

Thanks for any thoughts.

The only problem with that is if she starts to see her bed as a place of punishment she might not want to be in it at all

i agree she could see it as a bad girl thing

Have you tried putting that bitter apple spray made for that purpose on your woodwork? It can help detere them. I have heard of people using hot pepper oil...but that seems really cruel.

i can just picture it holly,
"Mmm wood and nap naps thank ooh mummy"

Hi Thumper glad you are safely back off your hols and hope you had a good time

I wouldn't take Molly upstairs to bed nor would I keep Junior down as it could be stressing for them both.

Last night I spent a good hour or so watching the Happy Hopper Videos on you tube (top of this page) and there are some really good ones on bunny boredom busters
and they have some brilliant ideas to keep bunnies amused and busy it may be worth having a look. I really enjoyed them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrDKTEcIigM&list=PL48DFB4972D7CA7F7&feature=plcp

Tuckerbunnies wrote:
Last night I spent a good hour or so watching the Happy Hopper Videos on you tube (top of this page) and there are some really good ones on bunny boredom busters
and they have some brilliant ideas to keep bunnies amused and busy it may be worth having a look. I really enjoyed them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrDKTEcIigM&list=PL48DFB4972D7CA7F7&feature=plcp

Weren't the ones of Stewie awesome? He worked that PUZZLE to get noms!
I wonder how Jay and the fabulously talented Stewie are doing? Does anyone know?
I miss them.

I'm glad you and the buns are home and safe.

What a little madam! The binkies away from you definitely mean she is finding herself funny I shouldn't laugh - I know how annoying it is. Willow is the same when she comes into the living room... Maybe try the bitter apple spray like has been suggested? I agree that sending her to bed might make her build an association between bed and being bad, and splitting her and Junior will probably be stressful for them both. Good luck, maybe she is just telling you off for abandoning her!

I have to admit, I haven't found the bitter spray to be a deterrent. It could just be Nibbler, (or I could have just bought a rubbish one) but he just carried on chewing through it...

The bitter spray did nothing to stop daisy - and yes he was always worse when he has come back from somwhere. Ok as oil did work though. I wiped it on everything with a tissue , stinks for a few hours but then it's fine.

We also used to do "three strikes and you're out!" but what used to happen I'd he'd do it anyway and then because he knew what would happen next he would take himself out in a mood!

Katieb wrote:
We also used to do "three strikes and you're out!" but what used to happen I'd he'd do it anyway and then because he knew what would happen next he would take himself out in a mood!

that's so funny

Thanks guys. I hadn't considered that she might then associate the pen with bad behaviour. I wasn't in my right mind I lost a whole nights sleep travelling home from Bulgaria and I'm all over the place

I wasn't planning on keeping Junior prisoner downstairs, he would have been free to follow her upstairs - which he would have!!

Molly and Junior's behaviour since we got home isn't even funny They are driving me up the wall I can't take my eyes off them for a second when they're out of the pen. I really don't know what to do with them.

They are chewing everything and they (Molly!) keeps kicking the megazorb out of the litter tray all over my living room carpet.

Last night they (Junior, I think!) pushed my glass of pineapple juice off the table It went all over the carpet, the nest of tables, phone charger etc.

I really don't know how they can be bored. They have cardboard boxes, willow sticks, toilet roll tubes, a hay tunnel, general bunny toys.

I really don't get it They are usually out of the pen by now but I can't face bringing them down yet. How ridiculous it that?!

ETA, Thanks Holly, I asked OH to order some of the spray but I don't know if he's done it yet. It's worth a shot!!

Maybe they just want some mummy time as you have been away and are trying to get your attention?

Or this is the bunny punishment for having a holiday

You've been on holiday! You left them without asking permission. You are being punished.

Thumper2001 wrote:They are driving me up the wall I can't take my eyes off them for a second when they're out of the pen. I really don't know what to do with them.

Humum relates to this. Gizmo has been frequently checked for a forked tail, small horns growing from his head, or a number on the skin under his fur. He destroys everything. Humum let him out earlier, having blocked off all the places upstairs he could reach to do any damage she was not willing to live with. Only to find he has dared go downstairs for the first time ever to gnaw at the skirting boards in the hallway

All she can really do is leave us in our pen apart from when she is willing to watch over Gizmo - it's why she built us such a huge pen in the first place.

She has got very attuned to the noises he makes when he is doing things he shouldn't be - stripping wallpaper, gnawing woodwork or digging at carpets. A sharp 'Gizmo' is followed by the sound of a binky landing and the appearance in the doorway of a small blue-eyed innocent-looking bun.

Humum says if anything should happen to me he will be living outside so fast his paws won't touch

For your two - would it be possible to have another pen downstairs so they could still come down and spend time with you, but only out of it if they behaved? It would be different from their home pen / safe place so it might not be an issue if they associate it with being a 'norty pen'...

[b]Ruffin is a swine at munching anything she can I think with the exeption of the dining room door which is kept closed most of the time the rest of the doors are reshaped as with the skirting boards she has even chewed the plaster of the corners of walls we have never managed to stop her if you tell her off she will run of to the next available door and munch that

Did they stop at your Mum's ? because this could all be part of being back home and settling in, rabbits don't always take kindly to change in fact they hate it and this could
very well be their way of getting back at you but I'm sure once they are settled again their behaviour will get better

There seems to be a lot of badly behaved buns all of a sudden LOL!!

Hugs
Jo xx