anything to stop cage pulling?

[CoolWaterRabbitry]

Lera, my 4 month old havana doe, has started the nasty habit of grabbing the wire of her cage and pulling back repeatedly.

Now, she's free fed, has a hanging toy with chewies on it, has a chew block, and a toiletpaper roll filled with hay. She's out of her cage daily with at least an hour and a half of playtime, and at night she's with me while I work on papers. She's quite clingy, and when I go in to do the morning and nightly feeds, she won't dig in, she'll sit at the door of her cage until she is taken out. Now mind you, after she's put back she eats just fine.


I don't mind that she's clingy but I don't want her to ruin her teeth (they're perfectly fine for now). Is there any way to stop the wire pulling? Or will I have to get her a vertical bar cage? :?

 

[elrohwen]

Are you letting her out of the cage or giving her attention when she's doing this? The way you said she's clingy and waits for you at the door makes me think you're inadvertently rewarding her behavior by giving her exercise time. Make sure you only look at her or pay attention to her when she's being calm. If a spray bottle works on her, you can try a quick squirt when she's rattling the cage, but don't give her any other attention (like eye contact or talking). Once she is calm, let her our, give her a treat, or give her lots of praise.

Also, how large is her cage? Sometimes giving extra room to run with an attached pen can help immensely. Also, an hour and a half per day really isn't enough - she should be getting a minimum of 3 hours and those hours should be when she's active (you can let them out for 3 hours in the afternoon, but they'll sleep the whole time, so it's not effective). More exercise may help her calm down when she has to be confined. I have a very active girl and being confined too long, even in a 4'x4' pen, drives her nutty.

 

[CoolWaterRabbitry]

No when she waits for attention I normally finish feeding and leave the room. I think she's really just used to the attention I give her in the evening, typically I'll put her in the playpen and thensit with her on the couch, but the last few days I haven't been doing that (just too busy) and I think that's a big part.

She's in a 30"x30" cage stackable cage its quite roomy for her at the moment but when she's bred and kindled I'll most likely increase the size, the playpen covers 10+ square feet (its a normal 9 panel pen that I've added extra NIC panels to).

Now that I really think about it, since its something that she just started doing, I'm pretty sure its due to me being busier with work and new house issues.

Thanks though , now I can try and figure something out for her.

 

[Amy27]

Rabbits are more active at dust and dawn so I wonder in the morning when you feed her if she just has lots of energy to burn off. Is there anyway you can give her more room now to see if that helps. Then you wouldn't have to increase it when she kindles.

I have a rabbit that gets 13 hours out a day plus her cage is a huge laundry room. So I know she gets lots of exercise time. However, she still bangs on the baby gate bars closing her in her room. When she use to be in a cage, I would put a blanket over the cage and that would stop her from banging on the bars. But you have to be careful the rabbit doesn't eat the blanket.