Desperately need HELP

[feather78]

I have posted some of these questions before and never got many responses, but I really, really need help. I'll list the problems so it's easier to read. First, background: Houdini is a 3 year old neutered male. He is free range, and only goes in his very small cage to eat, drink, and go to the bathroom. He recently had a bladder infection of some sort, and Baytril cleared that up.

1) When he was sick, he was peeing everywhere, including on the couch. Now he doesn't have the infection anymore, but he is still peeing on the couch, which obviously has to stop.

2) He won't eat hay. I have tried different brands, put it in his food bowl, spread through his cage, and in an edible basket in the living room. He rarely touches it.

3) Houdini refuses to eat anything but his alfalfa pellets, lettuce, and sometimes escarole. I tried for over a month to get him to eat timothy pellets, he never touched them. The vet wants him off alfalfa pellets completely and eating mainly hay, which sounds great, except that he won't eat the hay (or timothy pellets). She told me to just completely stop giving him the alfalfa pellets, so I did, and now he is going crazy, I think because he is hungry. He's all hyped up and running around like a nut and attacking us. All he has eaten in the past few days are a few pellets that were left in his food dish.

4) He pulled up the rug under the couch. I blocked off the couch. He pulled up the rug in front of the couch. My landlord and boyfriend want to kill me or get the rabbit in the cage. I don't have room for a bigger cage, and he hates being in there (and the only time he was ever in there was when I first got him and after he was neutered), so I really don't want to do that. I got him some toys and a box of newspaper, but he still digs up the rug.

PLEASE HELP!

EDIT: I was just looking at another thread, can I try giving him orchard grass instead of timothy hay? Or does he really need the timothy hay?

 

[Suz]

I'm allergic to timothy hay, so I have every other kind of hay imagineable for Muppet.

You could try oat hay, alfalpha hay, orchard grass, bermuda grass, botanical hay. However, I have every single one of these at home and offered them to Muppet. She won't eat any of them. I've come to the conclusion that she is just not a hay eater. Some rabbits aren't.

And Muppet only eats afalpha pellets as well. But she is a young Flemish Giant, so that is what she should be eating. She flies through the pellets like you wouldn't believe.

Your vet may want him to be eating certain things, but Houdini may not be that kind of bun! For me, I wouldn't worry about it and just feed him the pellets he likes. It's either that or force the timothy pellets to him. Animals will eat whats in front of them if they get hungry enough. But I don't think it's nice.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

Since he was peeing on the couch, it now smells like him. Get a pet enzyme cleaner and use it on the couch. Block off the area so he can't go there anymore. Cleaning really well and breaking him of the habit should help.

Him getting lots of pellets probably isn't helping him want to eat hay. Many rabbits prefer pellets over hay, so will eat the pellets first. If they have enough pellets that they don't get hungry between feedings, they are going to hold out for pellets rather than going for hay. Try some different types of hay. Timothy is the most popular, but there are other types that may be more appetizing for a rabbit. As long as it is not alfalfa, it is fine for adults.

If you really want him eating the timothy pellets, you need to not give into him. Even giving him a few alfalfa pellets can make it harder for you. Make sure he has the timothy pellets avaliable, but not too much so you can see if he has eaten any. If he gets hungry enough, he will eat them. It is important to make sure he is eating and pooping. If his poops become small or he stops pooping, you should get him to a vet. You can try soaking the pellets in water to make a mush and try to give him that through a syringe. It may get him to want to eat them.

He sounds frustrated. The change in diet could be making him annoyed and he wants to get the frustration out. You might need to get a pen to confine him when you are not home and you can let him out when you can supervise. Working with him and maybe training him to do something could help so he can focus on something else. A new toy or something could also help.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Ditch the alfalfa pellets and use the timothy ones. He will eat them eventually. We had one that wouldn't eat any hay, so we cut his pellets way back till he started eating hay and now he's perfectly content with hay and his allotment of timothy pellets. The urinating is a bit harder. If you can, completely wash everything he goes on and then spray it with a 10 per cent of vinegar and water--this helps cover the urine smell. Also, you could pick up a wire playpen and use it to control the area that is available.

 

[feather78]

Thank you SO much for your suggestions. I will definitely get a pet enzyme cleaner to clean the house, and he won't be eating any more alfalfa pellets. I just worry that he will starve to death, but I also don't want his calcium levels any higher. Should I give him some lettuce or escarole, or should I just focus on the hay and timothy pellets now?

I will also look for an exercise pen- even though he's confined, at least he can run around, so I like that. Korr_and_Sophie, I definitely agree, he seems very frustrated. That's exactly how I would describe him now. What kind of things were you thinking of that I could train him to do?

Thank you, I really appreciate your replies!!!

 

[Suz]

He won't starve himself to death if there is food in front of him. He'll give in eventually, when he gets hungry enough.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

feather78 wrote:

. What kind of things were you thinking of that I could train him to do?

Thank you, I really appreciate your replies!!!

My rabbits do agility. I don't usually do it in the house, but you could set up a couple jumps and get him to go over them. Other obstacles can be used too, cat tunnels work great and fold up small when you don't need them. Weave poles are also fun and get your rabbit to think, I trained one rabbit to do them in about 15 minutes.
You could also try getting him to do other tricks like spinning on command, coming when called or to follow a target. Many people use clicker training and there are some articles out there on how to do it.
I am considering teaching my rabbits to bowl. A set of the plastic kids pins and ball would work, but pop bottles could also work. You can start by setting up one or two and getting him to knock them over, add more and increase the distance he has to go to get to them. You could also try getting him to move the ball to knock them over.
Rabbits are intelligent and can be trained, sometimes easier than a dog. Praise and a good petting seems to be enough motivation for some, but others may like a treat. Be careful using treats as the rabbit may get frustrated when they don't get the treat. Praise gets the rabbit to have more fun and they don't seem to worry about a reward, they do it because they want to.

 

[slavetoabunny]

Suz wrote:

He won't starve himself to death if there is food in front of him. He'll give in eventually, when he gets hungry enough.

I agree. I've had to go the "tough love" route too.

 

[feather78]

The training sounds so fun, I'm going to have to read more about that.

He is eating the orchard grass, he seems to like that a lot more than the timothy hay. The only problem now is his poop is twice the size as usual. Is that bad or is it just because of the change in his diet?

 

[feather78]

And it helped to know that he wouldn't starve himself- I kept repeating that to myself over the weekend! Even today, he runs over whenever he hears a plastic bag, thinking it's his food and follows me around, nudging me toward his cage. I feel bad, but I know I would feel worse if he gets sick because I am not feeding him right!

 

[Suz]

Good!

It's hard I know. I had a golden retreiver when I was a kid that would never eat when my parents went out of town. I was so worried that she was starve to death, and my dad just laughed at me (maybe because she was a little overweight to begin with). If they ended up being gone longer than a week, she would always give in and eat again.

Just think like this. I hate beets more than anything. But after about 3 days of being only offered beets and my stomach crying out for food, I'm pretty sure I would give in! And they would probably taste awesome because it was food!

I think if a creature were to starve itself to death, there would have to be some major depression or other mental issue happening with it. But that's just my two cents worth.

BTW - My rabbit's poop became huge too after changing her hay/pelletsfrom what she was being fed at the farm I got her at. And she's super healthy and happy now, so I wouldn't worry.