Bunny chewing everything!

[Bella's mom]

Hi everyone,

Hope you are all well. A few weeks ago I had to take one of my bunnies to the vet as he was gnawing on the cardboard box that came with my bunnies from the Humane Society! A tons of Meds later and now knock on wood he is better. Now both my bunnies are biting their cage, the plastic casing around their case, the blanket they play on. During the day I am not home since we work and our kids are in school. I give them plenty of Timothy Hay, Romaine lettuce, and pellets and they have chew toys. They get a few hours every night out of their cage to run around. We have a big dog fence that we attach to their cage and we spend hours with them both nightly. On the weekend we spend more time with them. We are trying to discourage them from eating or biting things they shouldn't. Is there something like a deterrent that I can use? Thanks so much everyone!
Isa!

 

[Luigi]

Your post seems to imply that your bunny got sick from chewing on the cardboard box. Was this the case? There is no reason why chewing or even ingesting untreated and unfinished cardboard should give a rabbit health issues, as long as they don't ingest too much. If I'm missing any information or assuming too much, let me know. My bunny, Luigi, gnaws on cardboard boxes ALL the time. On a daily basis. He has eaten chunks of these boxes over time, but I watch him and never give him any with glue, staples, tape, or heavy ink.

As for cage biting, Luigi does the same. He has chewed off small bits of the plastic from his cage (isolated incident), but he bites and rattles on his cage every day when he wants to be let out. If your bunnies are doing the same, either they are bored or they are trying to tell you they don't want to be caged. It's definitely not a good habit. I would gently poke my bunny with a stick to get him to stop, but he'll do it again minutes later anyway.

Sadly, chewing and gnawing on things they're not supposed to is totally normal behavior for bunnies. That's why it can be so frustrating for us humans. May I ask what specific chew toys you provide your bunnies? Try different toys and swap them around, so they don't get bored. Have you tried giving them pesticide/pollution-free and non-toxic tree branches to gnaw on, like willow? Luigi LOVES them and will completely demolish them until there's nothing left but the bare branch. The key is to redirect them to better alternatives, and keep a lot of different toys around so they are sufficiently distracted and don't go around chewing on inappropriate things.

 

[Bella's mom]

Thanks so much @Luigi ! The box had no staples or glue! It was one of those boxes you put together and they slept in it and on it! During the day he must have gnawed at it for several days! Rocco did not gnaw or bite the box but Gregory did and Gregory was the one that we had to bring into emergency! It’s weird because when we get home we take them out to play and they sometimes run into their cage and bite it! Not sure about the daytime as we’re at work and school! As for toys we have many sticks, chewable carrots and different chew toys! I’m going to get more as I’m running a bit low! Thanks for your reply and suggestions! Much appreciated!!

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Unfortunately, rabbits chew. Anything the can fit their mouth around is chewable, or so they think. Look for the posting "cardboard castles" as a lot of us use boxes for them to play with/in and as long as it doesn't have a photo quality pic, which is on a plastic applique, cardboard is okay and so is newspaper as it is vegetable ink. We had one boy that loved boxes, grocery bags, and tubes that used to have paper on them. My rule of thumb is that if you don't want it chewed, block it off or remove it.

 

[Bella's mom]

Unfortunately, rabbits chew. Anything the can fit their mouth around is chewable, or so they think. Look for the posting "cardboard castles" as a lot of us use boxes for them to play with/in and as long as it doesn't have a photo quality pic, which is on a plastic applique, cardboard is okay and so is newspaper as it is vegetable ink. We had one boy that loved boxes, grocery bags, and tubes that used to have paper on them. My rule of thumb is that if you don't want it chewed, block it off or remove it.

Thanks so much my friend. They used to have a box they slept in but since Gregory chewed it up and swallowed some of it I decided not to get them one to sleep in. We had to rush him to the hospital. I can get them one to play with when they are supervised. Thanks so much @Nancy McClelland much appreciated!