Free Roaming Rabbit Frustrations

tajallen · Jul 3, 2017

Hello, my name is Taj.

I have a free roaming Netherland Dwarf named Kylo. He's just one years old so I know he's going to be rambunctious. He's been neutered and litter trained. For the most part, he's actually a good bun, except when it comes to a few things. I know these things are rabbit things. I recently decided to try free roaming in my bedroom. I put some barriers up to protect the base boards and my wooden dressers. I

Recently he's been pulling on the barriers around my dressers and chewing up the sides. I try to spray the apple cider bitters solution as often as possible and he seems to leave it alone until it wears off. Kylo only seems interested in three things: getting under the bed, chewing the dressers, and chewing/digging the carpet.

I placed a rag rug down for him to chew and dig that up, but he moved it! Now there's a good size hole in my carpet and I rent an apartment. I'm frustrated and he's gone back to his cage in the basement with no carpet while I calm down.

I want this to work, but now I have to figure out how to replace carpet and I'm a fed up with him chewing on everything, especially in the middle of the night. :cry1: I don't mind a little chewing on my stuff, but I can't afford for him to chew and dig up carpet. He has wooden toys some plastic toys. He has a small wooden bed. He has rugs. He just does not seem to be interested in anything, but finding new ways to ruin the apartment.

Watermelons · Jul 3, 2017

Its not his fault. Hes a rabbit.
It sounds like better rabbit proofing is in order.
He should not be free roam unless you can supervise the entire time. Otherwise he should be contained in an xpen or something to keep him safe. You can buy a rug or end piece of carpet and put that down under his xpen so he leaves the stuff thats nailed down alone.

samoth · Jul 3, 2017

I have a bonded pair of free-range rabbits that have access to all three carpeted rooms of the second floor, the carpeted stairs, and the landing below the stairs. Yeah, getting them to behave is difficult and takes a lot of time. I'll give my experience, since I went through the same thing.

Background: Both rabbits are from the Humane Society. Fermi (male dwarf harley, 1 year old at the time) was acquired in August 2016. Bose (female dutch, 3 years old at the time) was acquired in September 2016. Both were neutered about a month before I got them.

Fermi had perfect litter habbits and wasn't very destructive. I had him free range after a couple weeks with no issues. He went between the rabbit's bedroom and my bedroom, and loved hanging out under the bed. He also pulled up pieces of carpet here and there, so I had to get a rug that fit under the bed -- problem solved.

Bose was another story. She's a much more destructive rabbit, and at 5.5 pounds, can throw her weight and chewing around much more than the 3.5 pound dwarf. She definitely didn't spend her first 3 years as a house rabbit.

I started her off in the rabbit's bedroom. This meant re-confining Fermi (who chewed a piece of carpet up in the room because he wanted out once; his only instance of this). Once I got her litter habbits a bit better, I removed the barrier and let them play a bit in the hallway. I kept them out of my bedroom (which has a large wooden rolltop) and ended up opening the study for more play area (this was intended to be the designated 'rabbit free' room... that didn't happen). Bose took to that room well, but still had a carpet chewing problem.

Despite heavy rugs, she'd still chew up carpet here and there, so I could only let them out when I was home from work. Every evening, I'd let them out, and they'd run to the study to hang out. I'd hang out there with them and read, keeping an eye on Bose to verbally correct her ("nei," or no) when she started to chew, and then putting her on cage time ("CAGE TIME!" and physically direct her to her x-pen in the rabbit room, where she'd stay for 20-30 minutes). It took literally 3-4 months of this, but eventually, she learned to not chew carpet.

They've both been free range 24/7 since then with minimal issues (stuff happens -- it's part of being a rabbit owner). I also learned Bose's capacity to obey verbal commands, which was rather unexpected. (Fermi, on the other hand, only recognizes "treat treat," and nothing else. But luckily, he's well-behaved.) Due to fortunate rabbit territorial stuff, Bose will not go into my bedroom. I think it's a respect-for-the-alpha thing, since Fermi spends a lot of time in there sleeping under the bed. (I still have NIC grids around the rolltop and bookcase, just in case.) Basically, they each claimed their own separate rooms, plus their shared communal rabbit room where they're fed and have litter boxes.

Bose also learned to move the barrier at the bottom of the stairs (two angled 36" high dog x-pen pieces that are rather heavy), so I had to work with that as well. My couches have skirts, which she will inevitably chew if she's in the living room.

There's really no one-size-fits-all way to handle house rabbits. You really just need to spend time with them, learn, and work with them in a way in which they will respond. Start them out in a smaller area, and gradually expand as their behavior improves -- if behavior digresses, shrink the area and repeat. You'll need lots of rugs, NIC grids and x-pen segments, chew toys to give them something more interesting to chew than your stuff/house, personal training, and, above all else, time -- as in personal time you physically spend with them.

Unfortunately, they will still probably chew carpet, though, so if you find out how to remove that instinct, let me know! Remember that rabbits are grazers: in their natural environment, they eat grass. In their new environment, carpet has become the new grass. And it's right there, under their nose -- and mouth. It's hard to not take a chomp now and then.

It's a long road, but it worked out for me in the end

tajallen · Jul 4, 2017

Thank you samoth for sharing your experience! I know there are things that rabbits will just do and as a first time rabbit owner I'm still adjusting even a year later.

My bf and I decided to put his cage in our bedroom so Kylo sleeps in there at night. I let him out until I leave for work or we leave the house. We bought some more rugs to put about the edges of the dresser where he starting his digging and placed some weight on top.

So hopefully we can keep trying to make this work. He's not a bad rabbit. He has very good litter habits and is very loving. He's definitely a little sassy. He's done well free roaming the past three months with the amount of bunny proofing I've done. I just adjust as I notice him finding new things.

Sometimes, if I'm lucky, after I tell him no so many times he grows bored of whatever it is, like the baseboards. This is first time being so extreme with the carpet. So I now know how crazy he can get with the carpet:headsmack

mark · Jul 6, 2017

This is a great thread, thanks for sharing your experiences! We also do supervised outings, pretty much any time we are home and awake. When we go to sleep, Kimchi goes into her pen (unless one of us in napping on the couch, which is in the room she roams free in). And when we leave for the day, or go out, she is caged in the puppy play pen we keep her in. Although it's a little heartbreaking for us, it's vastly safer and certainly less destructive on our rented condo than if we were to leave her free-range at all times.

I am 100% certain that she would get into way more mischief if we left her out all the time!

tajallen · Aug 15, 2017

Just a quick update. Kylo is now in our carpet free finished basement with a new friend haha. Before I moved him, I bought some grass mats and then placed some herbs and hay mix I bought from my local Bunny shelter on top. I also put it on some rugs I bought to cover the vent near the window because he likes to sit there and contemplate life there while grazing on the poor carpet.

This REALLY helped because he loves the mix and he will get distracted and nibble on that instead of the carpet. The few times he did try to get to the carpet I sprayed a strong smelling perfume (so he won't go near it) and then I placed some rag rugs from Five Below (they cost $5) in those areas the next day. I don't too much care about decor anyway. Lastly, he likes behind the couch so my rabbit shelter suggested buying a cement form to place back there. He likes to run through the tube to hide. I had to buy two and then I just placed one inside the other to fit it behind the couch.

These things made my life easier. I also added some distractions in the room like a digging box and some hanging pieces of cardboard and some paper lunch bags of hay and goodies, and more grass mats. That seemed to be enough to keep him busy until I got home.

With the new bun here, I've decided to go ahead and just make a big open cage and an added x-pen I can open when needed. I will be doing close supervised outing as well. :thumbup