behaviour question (she's keeping me up all night!!!)

[starseed]

hi everybody! i'm new to here, but not new torabbits. i had outside rabbits from about age 5 to 10, and i got myfirst house rabbit when i was 19.

this one, however, is proving to be a chore.

some nights she's quiet as a churchmouse, normally she'll dig a littleat around 6am, but a couple squirts from the water bottle and she'lltake a break till i get up for work. (around 7 or 7:30am)

sometimes, like last night, she'll start at around 1am, and no amountof "Mahle no!" or squirting will stave her off for more than a fewminutes. i think last night she took a break for an hour or so tosleep, but aside from that i didnt get any!

most of my buns, aside from litter training, i've just kinda let dotheir thing, but i would like to get into some training and i figurethis is as good a place to start as any.this one isn't fixedyet, so i cant REALLY concentrate on litter training at the moment,since she likes to mark territory when she's out. (because of this sheis caged while unsupervised. no worried, once i get her fixed andtrained the cage will be open most of the time.) but she's really,really sweet, and although she despises being picked up she LOVESattention and will squish for petting whenever approached.

yeah, i apologize, this post is kinda meandering, much like mybrainwaves at the moment. the point is I NEED SLEEP and i dont knowwhat to do...any thoughts are welcome.

thanks

derrick.

 

[Snuggys Mom]

Hi Derrick,

Can you give her a digging box when she's out for playtime?You can put paper in it and she'll probably love it. That maysatisfy her digging urge. Just make sure she doesn't eat toomuch of the paper.

I use a basket with old magazines.

Laura

 

[Lissa]

I'm not laughing...

....really

:rofl:

Your story reminds me a lot of when I got my first house bunny,Angel. I didn't sleep for DAYS! I resorted to earplugs. You may want to invest in a pair.

lol

 

[Bassetluv]

Hi Derrick, and welcome to the forum! Can't sayI can offer any really great tips, but am wondering the obvious...is itpossible to move her cage to an area where you can't hear her at night?Does she have any toys with her that she could play with (something notvery noisy). Does she have lots of things to chew on, if she likes tochew? Since bunnies tend to be more active in the early morning andlate evening, shemight bebored and wants out toplay and exercise...I suspect that with some rabbits as well, once theyhave experienced playtime outside of the confines of a cage, they don'tlike being confined any more, and they let you know it.

Wish I had more to suggest to you...but I'm sure you'll get lots ofinput from others who've had more experience with this than me.

(LOL Lissa...I was thinking of suggesting that too...)

 

[JimD]

Our Binkie dug out of boredom.

We doubled the size of her cage, added a sleepie hutch, and gave herlots of toys. This seemed to have relieved her frustration and she nolonger digs. She even has enough room in her cage to run the Bunny 500if so inclined.

~JimD

 

[kgarver]

Mine would rattle his cage outof boredom. It sounded like someone banging on metal all night....talkabout not getting any sleep! I found that making him a bigger cage andgiving him more toys definitely helped A LOT too. He doesn't do itanymore since he has more room to run and play.

JimD wrote:

Our Binkie dug out of boredom.

We doubled the size of her cage, added a sleepie hutch, and gave herlots of toys. This seemed to have relieved her frustration and she nolonger digs. She even has enough room in her cage to run the Bunny 500if so inclined.

~JimD

 

[starseed]

dang i was afraid of that. so the solution is more toys and bigger cage, if not free-run, it sounds like.

no bassetluv, she's not really a chewer. and i guess digging is better than chewing...time will tell.

 

[Carolyn]

Welcome Aboard, Starseed,

Tucker fought me like your Trouble Bubble is doing.

I don't function well without sleep. :growl:

The HECK with catering to the little so-n-so. I ignored him. Sure, hedug, and banged his waterbottle, and had his temper tantrum. Didn'tmind me a bit. :no:

(If you react to the noise, they won't stop. Don't reward bad behavior. Don't react to it.)

I heard it all, but I pretended like I didn't have a clue.

It took a couple of weeks, but that Boy learned that he needed to adjust to MY schedule of waking up - Not His!

That rabbit is playin you!

Take what you like, and leave the rest.

Best of Luck, and hope you get your zzzzzzzzzzz's.

:bed:

-Carolyn

 

[bluebird]

I find a lot of does like to make a nest.howeveri sleep like a rock.i think the best thing is not have her in yourbedroom soo if shes noisy you can still sleep.bluebird

 

[starseed]

i know not having her in my room would do a world of good, unfortunatelyi rent a room so that's not really possible.

however last nigh i took her to the living room for play time, and sheran around so much she needed a three hour nap afterward! i wish icould post video, i got some good footage of her chasing the cats.anyway, last night she didn't make a peep!