Cage chewing

Hellooo!

My little bun Finley lives in a dog cage and has done since we got him, however recently he has taken to biting and pulling on the cage door when he wants to come out. It's incredibly loud and I do worry about his teeth when he does it (the force he puts into it is incredible!)
Now, my OH has exams coming up and the last thing I want is for him to be woken up all through the night by Finley wanting to come out.

I've tried ignoring him and only letting him out when he hasn't done it in a while. I've also tried spraying him with water when he does it, that seems to stop him temporarily but not completely. I've tried shouting NO at him when he does it and putting vinegar on the bars but instead of being put off, he sat licking the bars for a while!
I don't know what else to try, but it drives us crazy. I haven't had a decent nights sleep in weeks!

Can anyone offer suggestions or has had experience with this?
Thanks!

sounds like attention seeking maybe some boredom breakers or some cardboard may help keep finley amused

He has toys and cardboard tubes but he doesn't really pay them much attention. Maybe I should try some different ones

hmmm one easy one I used once was a loo roll insert stuffed with hay and herbs it may get some interest

lucyface wrote:Hellooo!
........I've tried shouting NO at him when he does it and putting vinegar on the bars but instead of being put off, he sat licking the bars for a while!
......

This made me chuckle. I dropped a spinach leaf that was dressed with a raspberry vinaigrette salad dressing on the footplate of my wheelchair. Rory vacuumed up the spinach leaf, then looked surprised and then started licking the footplate to get every last bit of the dressing off. Then he started to scrape of the rubber coating on the footplate with his teeth! He has since learned to drop the footplate that is folded up when I'm not using the chair and sit on it licking and trying to scrape the rubber off. They must like that bitterness! He looks so silly sitting up on the footplate!

You could try some of the sprays and stuff you can put on the cage to make it taste bad? Although I've not heard great stuff about them really working all that well.

Could you not move him into another room?

Can you bunny proof the room and let him free-range overnight?

I've thought about the sprays but wasn't totally sure they were safe for him or if they would even work. Has anyone heard of success with them?

I am currently staying with my boyfriend and his parents, they aren't particularly keen on my animals so no chance of moving him out of the bedroom.
The room is already bunny proofed to some extent, the main problem we have with him at the moment is weeing on the bed and duvet. Every time he gets up he instantly wees, its a nightmare changing the sheets so often! There is no way we could stop him jumping up if we were asleep.

Thanks for all the advice, I will try and give him some new (quiet!) toys to have overnight and see if that occupies him.

Floppy digs at the side of cage that opens, he's out most of day tho, only put in when Im cooking for his safety. He seems to climb on the top of it tho, worried he hurts his legs. They seem to make a racket if no one is talking/playing etc with them, even with toys floppy likes a cuddle & nose rubs.

I think the more they get out, the more they dig at the bars because they just like being out.

You might need to give him different toys every couple of days so he has variety. If he has a lot of stuff, he will start to see past it and just get bored. Toilet rolls stuffed with hay with a few pellets right in the middle are good; treat balls on the smallest opening setting; egg boxes filled with hay and some pellets or some chopped up veg; they love apple twigs too.

I hope you can keep him happy so you get a better night's sleep. xx

I would probably say space maybe his issue. My boyfriends rabbit used to chew the bars of his cage, and when we attached a pen to his cage it stopped a bit. When we got him a wife bun it stopped all together lol. Mostly for him he was destructive and loud when he was bored/frustrated. Finding him something to entertain it should stop it. I don't rate the chew stopper sprays, the just don't work

How big is the dog crate and how often is he shut in?

Could you not just pen around the bed so he cant get on there then let him free range?


hope you find a solution soon x

I would recommend swapping the toys around every couple of days, and giving him toys that involve food. Not one that are food i.e the treat sticks etc, but incorperate his food into the toys

For example, if you give him his pellets in a bowl, change it up into stuffing them in a toilet roll with some hay - that will keep him amused longer than food in a bowl. Willow toys are great for boredom too. If possible, add a puppy pen to his cage too, so he can have increased space

How old is he and is he neutered? Neutering could help with the weeing issue. Ultimately it sounds to me as if some of that weeing behaviour is because he wants to claim you as his. He does sound as if he might need some company. The cage rattling is going to be partially because he is bored. How long does he spend out of the crate and how much exercise does he get? This is an old, but well known, you tube video that illustrates well the need for run and binky space for rabbits.



Bruce and Flo both bomb around the garden and don't really want to do it so much in the house. I can really tell if they haven't been out in a while as they get really irritating and norty.

Floppy has increased his widdling at the kitchen door, but its him claiming the kitchen as his, the dogs sit by the gate hoping to get in, so its knocking his nose out of joint, he moves outside today or tomorrow. A dogs crate isnt normally very big, they offer hight more than width in most cases, we only use ours after opps to control jumping about for few days.

It is an extra large dog cage he is in. I change his toys every so often. He is out of the cage most of the time, only locked away at night and when we are not in to supervise.
I am planning on getting him a friend but he is not neutered yet, i guessed that might be the reason he is peeing everywhere.

In our previous house he had full range of a large living room and he loved running about and binkyed all the time. I've moved twice since then and each time, the room he lives in gets smaller, he barely has any space at the moment. Not enough space to add a run onto the cage.

We are hoping to move again in the coming months, then he will have more space to run again.

Hopefully the next move will give him more space, in the mean time maybe have him neutered will help things, I keep meaning go have floppy booked in.