# rabbit throwing a temper tantrum!?



## moonstruck (Aug 10, 2008)

i got him on monday

http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/other-pets-exotics/427585-how-big-should-12-week.html 

this is him in that thread

he's been an absolute angel untill tonight, like the perfect rabbit, he was really quiet and lay down for me petting him and liked to come out for a run around each evening. He'd been getting better each day actually, a little more used to me and a little bit cheekier. 
Then tonight he's just started sorta "throwing a tantrum" like a small child does. He's throwing his food bowl around and chewing and tugging on everything and thumping and banging and throwing his litter tray, and he nipped my arm when i went to take him out :gasp:
it's the complete opposite of how he's been the last five days

it's a good job i don't sleep at normal times anyway or i'd be very much woken up and very much annoyed right now.

help? can they be trained out of this? best method? advice?

He's making ALOT of noise at a stupid time in the morning and i don't want to give in and let him out for a cuddle.


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## Shazza4505 (Apr 8, 2006)

Bunnies tend to like throwing stuff about and re-arranging things, and generally choose bad times to do so. Has he got some toys? Willow toys to chew etc? You will get some awesome toys here Pampered Piggies but the online shop is closed for Christmas now.


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## corny girl (Aug 30, 2009)

Rabbits are not Dogs, they can't be trained :whistling2:. He is displaying normal Rabbit behaviour now he has settled into his new home. You should of seen the state of some of my hutches, bowls would be buried under shavings, shavings would be piled up in one side of the hutch. They were so messy at times but you just have to live with it.


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## Tink82 (Dec 17, 2009)

moonstruck said:


> i got him on monday
> 
> http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/other-pets-exotics/427585-how-big-should-12-week.html
> 
> ...



Sounds to me like he is displaying dominant behaviour, I presume that he is not neutered as he is from a petshop? I suggest getting him done as soon as, this should calm his behaviour (though keep in mind it doesn't always work!!) it may be due to you coming into 'his' living space. 

The thumping with the back legs is because he feels threatened or frightnened by you coming into his area, that is most likely why he nipped you after. I know it is cold out, but you could try to spend some time on the outside of his run, talk to him etc but don't enter or touch him. let him smell you and get used to you. Feed him treats from your hand. gradually work you way in, slowly, if he starts to kick off again, then back off so as not to distress him. He is letting you know who is boss of his hutch!! I highly recommend getting him neutered to stop his behavior turning to habbits that are not undoable later in his life. 

As Shazza4505 said, get him lots of toys to keep him happy, bunnies are very clever animals and need a lot of mental stimulating. The centre of toilet rolls are good, seagrass mats, willow balls, hang veg on string and make him work for it. He will love you for it! be creative

It will take time for him to settle and get used to you and how you behave, good luck :thumb: 




corny girl said:


> Rabbits are not Dogs, they can't be trained :whistling2:.


 That's actually not true, they can be trained to do a number of things, mine comes to me when I whistle in a certain way. They can be litter trained and kept indoors also.


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## purpleskyes (Oct 15, 2007)

Gilbert will only do this when he wants out of his cage? He doesnt do it very often as he spends a great deal of time free roaming during the day and he has a nice big cage so when he is in there he usually just lays down and chills out.

How often are you letting him out of his cage? and for how long?


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## moonstruck (Aug 10, 2008)

hey everyone, thanks for replying

Thanks Tink, he's a house bunny 

he comes out for a few hours at various times in the day, i usually just leave him out unless i have to go out the room for a while, i don't like to leave him unwatched, just incase.

He's been lovely with me and hadn't nipped me before or since, he is definately comfortable with me, when i sit down on the floor he comes over and nudges me untill i pay attention to him lol.

He has some sections of willow to play with of different thicknesses and sizes, a willow tree has just been cut down in the garden so i have penty of chewy bits for him

he currently has a very big "cage" which he's in when i'm not watching him. it's actually the underneath of my bed, i have a single divan bed completely hollow underneath with sliding doors at the front, so he has about 6ft by 3ft of space. I thought this would be better than a cage as he has much more room? If this was a bad idea feel free to tell me, it seemed a good idea to me. i just slide the door open when im in the room and he runs in and out as he pleases. He has his litter tray under there and his bedding box, food bowl and water bottle (wth a dish underneath to catch any drips :2thumb and some sections of willow. He already wees in his litter tray but poos everywhere else lol. 

i want to get him neutered asap, but it's awkward as i'm not too well and can't go out on my own, i was going to make an appointment this week but i've been worse than usual


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## Shazza4505 (Apr 8, 2006)

I think its great he has space, just a couple of concerns.

Is he able to comfortably stand up under your bed? 
Does he get natural light when the door is shut?
Is there a good air flow under the bed?


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## purpleskyes (Oct 15, 2007)

Shazza4505 said:


> I think its great he has space, just a couple of concerns.
> 
> Is he able to comfortably stand up under your bed?
> Does he get natural light when the door is shut?
> Is there a good air flow under the bed?


I was wondering this as well being shut in the dark all the time cant be good for him? 
As a general rule a rabbit should be able to comfortably stand on their hind legs when in their cage/hutch/enclosure.

You wont be able to get him casrated until I believe its at least 5 months old? someone else can correct me if this is wrong.
: victory:


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## Shazza4505 (Apr 8, 2006)

purpleskyes said:


> You wont be able to get him casrated until I believe its at least 5 months old? someone else can correct me if this is wrong.
> : victory:


That depends on the vet. Some say wait until 5 months for males and others say as soon as the testicles decent which can happy at about 12 weeks. I suppose it depends how many rabbit castrations they do?

But for females its definatly 5 months at the youngest


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## Jake_the_snake (Oct 12, 2008)

_I think you can get a male neutered as soon as his balls drop. You could get it done sooner, but its a more invasive surgery putting your bunny more at risk. Getting females spayed is different. I was advised by my vet to wait until she was at least six months old before getting her spayed._


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## Tink82 (Dec 17, 2009)

Jake_the_snake said:


> _I think you can get a male neutered as soon as his balls drop. You could get it done sooner, but its a more invasive surgery putting your bunny more at risk. Getting females spayed is different. I was advised by my vet to wait until she was at least six months old before getting her spayed._


It's not as bad for males, hence why than can be done at a much earlier age, I believe 12 weeks minimum or until their balls drop thereafter.


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## Tink82 (Dec 17, 2009)

moonstruck said:


> hey everyone, thanks for replying
> 
> Thanks Tink, he's a house bunny
> 
> ...



Provided the room is bunny proofed there is no real need to put him away everytime you leave the room. Make sure all wires are out the way or covered (If he did bite one, it just breaks whatever it was) 

As for him living under your bed, sorry hun, but that's just not suitable or hygenic for either or you, plus it is too dark and the dust can cause him a number of problems. If you need to shut him in at all, try a dog cage like this Dog Crates Company Dog Puppy Crates And as some one pointed out he MUST be able to stand on his back legs in it. 

How big is your bunny?? 

My house bunny has free run of downstairs all day and then is put into the kitchen at night, even if Im out as there is nothing he can damage or hurt himself on. 

Are you restricted to one room??


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## moonstruck (Aug 10, 2008)

hey, thanks all.

he can stand straight up on his back legs under there, the sides of the bed are canvas so there's free air flow for him, and i have some LED push lights (battery, not plug in) that are on in the day. he wouldnt get much natural daylight in my room anyway because im on the ground floor facing the road and dont like people being able to see in, so the curtains are shut most of the time.

he has to be limited to the one room because we have dogs
but outside bunnies usually have far less space than a whole room if they live in a hutch with a run?

and thanks tink, it's good to know that about the wires, i've already made sure they're way unaccessible anyway, but are you sure he wouldnt get shocked if he did get one, it'd definately just break the object? i made sure they were well out the way because i was scared of him getting shocked.

i genuinly don't understand why him being in the space under my bed is less hygenic than him being in a cage? if it's always kept clean, i really don't understand :S sorry if i'm just being dumb, i don't mean it offensive or anything i just don't understand what i've missed?


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## pigglywiggly (Jul 19, 2008)

yes he would get a bad shock, my old houserabbit bit through the fishtank wire and got a massive shock.

couldnt pick her up for about 6months afterwards.


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## moonstruck (Aug 10, 2008)

omg, she's lucky she's alive
that's what i thought would happen if he was to bite one, just with tink saying it'd just break the object


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## fenwoman (Apr 15, 2008)

moonstruck said:


> hey everyone, thanks for replying
> 
> Thanks Tink, he's a house bunny
> 
> ...



How on earth do you get to clean his 'cage' properly? Do you have to crawl right under your bed into the little space in order to brush everything out and wipe it down?


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## moonstruck (Aug 10, 2008)

fenwoman said:


> How on earth do you get to clean his 'cage' properly? Do you have to crawl right under your bed into the little space in order to brush everything out and wipe it down?



the space isn't that little :S i used to have to crawl under anyway to get stuff i kept loosing at the back when i used it for storage

slide the doors to the left, clean the right side, slide the doors to the right, clean the left side. it's actually quite a lot easier than when i used to clean my outdoor rabbits as a kid :2thumb: but they did have hutches the size of sheds :whistling2: and beat me up when i went into them


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## Tink82 (Dec 17, 2009)

moonstruck said:


> hey, thanks all.
> 
> he can stand straight up on his back legs under there, the sides of the bed are canvas so there's free air flow for him, and i have some LED push lights (battery, not plug in) that are on in the day. he wouldnt get much natural daylight in my room anyway because im on the ground floor facing the road and dont like people being able to see in, so the curtains are shut most of the time.
> 
> ...


Both my current and previous have both bit through quite a lot of things plugged in and had no shocks. Also heard someone say hers bit through the hoover cable whilst she was using it and it didn't affect the rabbit at all. 

hygene is more for him, the dust under your bed will cause him airway problems, sniffles etc. My previous rabbit had a trip to the vet with sneezes and snuffles from being under my bed. Personally, I wouldn't house a rabbit under my bed, it cannot be healthy. I wouldn't keep him in your bedroom but that's your call really.. 

I think you need to look at your situation and move him to somewhere more suitable, can't the dogs go elsewhere or outside??


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## Tink82 (Dec 17, 2009)

moonstruck said:


> hey, thanks all.
> 
> he can stand straight up on his back legs under there, the sides of the bed are canvas so there's free air flow for him, and i have some LED push lights (battery, not plug in) that are on in the day. he wouldnt get much natural daylight in my room anyway because im on the ground floor facing the road and dont like people being able to see in, so the curtains are shut most of the time.


He needs natural light, regardless.. Get some nets in your window and open the curtains!!


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## Shell195 (May 31, 2007)

It doesnt sound ideal. He needs to be able to see out at what is going on around him as he will be a very lonely bunny on his own in the dark 

Cant you put him in a dog crate in your room??


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## Tink82 (Dec 17, 2009)

moonstruck said:


> the space isn't that little :S i used to have to crawl under anyway to get stuff i kept loosing at the back when i used it for storage
> 
> slide the doors to the left, clean the right side, slide the doors to the right, clean the left side. it's actually quite a lot easier than when i used to clean my outdoor rabbits as a kid :2thumb: but they did have hutches the size of sheds :whistling2: and beat me up when i went into them


How are you getting on hun??


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## cpiggott22 (Apr 1, 2009)

Hiya, I don't know much about bunnies but I can definitely vouch for the fact that chewing through electric cables gives you a nasty shock! I always unplug everything in my room when I let my rats out but I used to have my laptop plugged in because I could see all but 10cms of the cable and thought I'd be able hear them chewing....big mistake! God knows how she survived it but one of them chewed through just enough to expose some of the actual wire so that when I went to unplug said laptop I brushed up against them and got a very nasty shock that turned my whole arm bright red! If that's what it does to a human, how on earth did a tiny little rat survive that?? It must have hurt like hell....needless to say, I now leave my laptop cable downstairs during freerange time!


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## Tink82 (Dec 17, 2009)

cpiggott22 said:


> Hiya, I don't know much about bunnies but I can definitely vouch for the fact that chewing through electric cables gives you a nasty shock! I always unplug everything in my room when I let my rats out but I used to have my laptop plugged in because I could see all but 10cms of the cable and thought I'd be able hear them chewing....big mistake! God knows how she survived it but one of them chewed through just enough to expose some of the actual wire so that when I went to unplug said laptop I brushed up against them and got a very nasty shock that turned my whole arm bright red! If that's what it does to a human, how on earth did a tiny little rat survive that?? It must have hurt like hell....needless to say, I now leave my laptop cable downstairs during freerange time!



I *think* it has something to do with their teeth. Don't hold me to it, but if they got a shock, why would they do it again and again?? None of mine ever have, you'd see them bolt/panic etc.


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## Pinkchi (Nov 23, 2009)

From the pictures he definatly doesn't look 12 weeks old.
His behaviour is probably down to his hormones. Getting him neutured will help calm him down though he may never stop chucking things around his cage.

House rabbits are best kept in an indoor cage with a playpen attached, or in a 48" dog crate used as a base and free roam for a large portion of the day. My 3 house rabbits have an indoor cage thats left open with a large pen around it so they are never shut away. I also found it very easy to litter train my buns, and do not have woodshavings or other bedding in their cage or pen, they just have vetbed, soft cat beds and wood cat litter topped with hay in the litter tray.

Heres a pic of my set-up to give you an idea








This is an old pic, they don't have the rug anymore and the floor is wooden flooring instead of the lino

Golden Bunnies Rabbit Forum - Powered by vBulletin is also a good rabbit frum if your looking for more in depth information x


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