Can't Sleep

[Kathy]

I'm getting really frustrated now because thisis the 5th night in a row where Romeo's woken me up with his constant"digging." He has chloroplast on the bottom of his cage and he runs toevery corner and digs like mad. Even my poor Parrotlet that lives inthe same room as him is getting fed up. This goes on all night long, Idon't think the bun sleeps at all!

Is there anyway I can deter this or minimize the digging? He has lotsof toys in there. I'm thinking of taking the chloroplast out and usingsomething soft - what other options do I have for easy cleaning?

Thanks.

 

[Haley]

I noticed theres not much on the floor for himto chew. Could you buy some grass/straw mats to put down in the cornerswhere he chews? Another thing I do, if I catch Mr. Tumnus chewing thecoroplast, I put a flattened cardboard box in front of that area (likegranola bar sized box). Another idea is to put a few little containers(carboard boxes or something) stuffed with hay in those areas.

Just a few ideas...

 

[Kathy]

Oh, I guess I should've mentioned that this picwas taken while I was in the process of cleaning his cage up He hasa couple of different sized cardboard boxes and a straw mat in there atall times. I replace the boxes constantly once they've been chewed upto prevent him from getting bored, yet he seems much more interested indigging.

I'll try stuffing the boxes with hay, thanks!

 

[SOOOSKA]

Hi, cute bunny. Have you tried to puta phone book . Our Daisy Mae loves playing with the phonebook, but now that i think of it she digs at that too, so maybe that'snot the greatest idea.

Soooska:apollo:

 

[Kathy]

Well, digging isn't really the problem here -it's digging on chloroplast. Those things can be LOUD, lol. At onepoint in time when I first got him, I used towels as the flooringinstead but they shifted all the time and it was harder to clean up ingeneral.

I'm thinking of moving my parrot's cage away from Romeo's cage. It's sofunny, when Kiwi (bird) gets woken up in the middle of the nightbecause of the digging, he'll throw a fit and basically do some madchirping and I swear you can hear the anger in his voice. Usually, thatdoes it, and Romeo stops (for a few hours).

 

[maomaochiu]

I agree with soooska. a phone book can do miracles! a straw mat is good too.

 

[maomaochiu]

forgot to say, Romeo is soooocuuuuuuuute!! very much like the one i was thinking to getmaomaochiu for companionship!

 

[maherwoman]

Any possible way it could be that your babyneeds more time outside the cage to run around and use up moreenergy? Any time my babes do this, it's usually becausethey've got too much energy to burn, and need more time out to runaround and burn it off.

From what I've been able to tell from having my buns, it isn't reallynatural for them to not sleep all night. Mine usuallysleep/eat during the night, and during the daytime, and are truly awakefrom about 5am-8am and 5pm-8pm. Bunnies are naturally moreawake during dusk and dawn. Of course, they're wake up when Ilet them out in the evening (around 8pm usually, and for a couple hourseach, or for however long they want to be out, if it's less than that),but other than that, they're usually just hangin' around, not doingmuch except for sleeping and eating (and Flower's seemingly-constantdrinking).

Anyway...just a thought...something to consider.

 

[Kathy]

I think he does get enough time out of his cage.Maybe I should let him run free for a good while right before settlinginto bed - maybe that'll tire him out! I find it odd that he doesn'tsleep much throughout the night as well. I think it may be because bothmy boyfriend and I are out of the house for many hours during the dayand we think that he uses that time to sleep. So by the time we gethome, he's up and ready to play some more.

Hopefully.

 

[jordiwes]

I think getting some playtime right before you go to bed is a good idea.

Although our bunnies are most active 10pm-2am.I had a certainboy bunny (won't mention any names) scraching on my bedroom door at1:30am last night!

 

[maherwoman]

That'll probably work great!

Kathy wrote:

Maybe I should let him runfree for a good while right before settling into bed - maybe that'lltire him out!

 

[ec]

I think it's a great idea and definitely worth a try...

BTW, my bun is very active starting around 2:00 am. I tried having herin my bedroom one night, and finally had to take her back to her area(x-pen and condo in the living room) because she kept me awake....

 

[Eve]

Sorry to hear Romeo is waking you up all the time.

This isn't really a solution to the problem, but some nights when I getfed up with the bunnies digging all night I just put in some ear plugs.They make the digging barely noticable.

 

[Guest]

maybe you could attatch wee wee pads to the bottom of the cage somehow??? and some other soft things

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

If it's just the digging at the coroplast that'sbothering you, thenI suggest a box full of shreddedpaper.It can be messy but it is one of my bunnies favoritetoys. Some rabbits are just naturally diggers which is something wehave to deal with, especially considering he's inside at all times anddoesn't get to actually dig in anything (like dirt).

That being said, Zoey is like that too. She is constantly digging atthings and she gets a lot of time out to run and play (oddly enough shedoesn't dig in the dirt). The problem is, she is so energetic that shewould need to get out probably8 hours daily to actually workit all off and unfortunately between my school schedule and theweather, that just isn't possible. Their hutches are right outside mywindow and I can hear her running around and diggingall nightlong! She is psycho.

Keep in mind he's still a baby but based on Zoey, he could be like thatfor years. Zoey is 1 year and 3 months old and still not showing anysigns of slowing down.