Skidd bunny is making me frustrated!

[SkiddBunnydidit]

My husband says the rabbit Skidd is not intelligent enough to know I'm putting him in timeout. He says I cannot punish him like I would a dog or a cat but I don't know what else to do because he Skidd was so sweet now the past week he's getting down right sneaky and defiant!

He has every toy imaginable to chew on, yet he chews my walls and baseboards vigorously fast especially when he sees me rushing over there to pick him up. He snorts and growls at me occassionaly biting me. He jumps up on my leather couches that he's shoow'd off of every30 mins and pees and poops all over them. I don't have the time to wash them daily. He knocks down stuff and jumps to reach and pull down electrical cords and bite them in 1/2. There not even in his reach because theyre put away where he cannot get to them, so he hops onto of tables knocks stuff off breaking things so he can reach them. He eats my sons books. He pees and poops on our clothes. Please help. This rabbit is potty trained and used to act so sweet. He's making le Lise my mind please help. Advice!

 

[MarisaAndToby]

It sounds like he may have reached sexual maturity, and at this point his hormones are outta control.

I would imagine that a neuter would help a great deal with his bad habits.

How old is he?

 

[SkiddBunnydidit]

Thank you so much for the reply!! I'm not certain how old he is... The employee at the feed store (where we bought him) said he was the last one of the previous litter. That's why he was so much larger than the other buns in the tub. I picked him up today to see if I could tell if hes hit sexual maturity and... I don't see testicles. ...:? Maybe I'm overlooking them. No offense Skidd bunny Today he pooped on the couch 2 times. I don't know what his deal is. Is he being bad deliberately or am I doing something wrong?

 

[MarisaAndToby]

Well if he used to be good and now he isn't, I would think it's because he needs to be neutered. A drastic change in behaviour like you describe usually means that.

My bun is unaltered but he doesn't really have any bad habits. When I pick him up I can't see his boy bits, in order to see them I have to move the fur out of the way. Once you do that they really can't be missed.

How long have you had Skidd? If you've had him for a while then maybe he is actually a she? That would explain the missing bunny balls.

 

[Lucy500]

MarisaAndToby wrote:

bunny balls.

Hehehehe, bunny balls.

My Bonkers is going tru something similar, but he is taking it on his mommy, peeing, pooping, making circles and a very distinct grunt at me. I swear everytime he sees me he wants to get it on with my feet! He hasnt got destructive though, im waiting for him to get a little bit older before neutering him.
I think thats the case with your bun, I know it can get stressful, but think of it as having a teenager in the house. Only difference is that ywith a bunny you have the options of cutting out the hormones! LOL

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Neutering usually makes them a much better behaved rabbit.

 

[LadyKat]

I use to be doubtful about the whole neutering/spade thing solving the behavioral issues but now, a month after the spay, I am changed person and Smudge is like a new Bunny.

Smudge use to chew on the floor boards and walls, but 99.9% of the time leaves them along now. Smudge use to attack the faux leather ottoman but now ignores it, Smudge use to viciously attack me every time I tried to pick her up/hold her but now she will let me do it, but not for long.

Getting you rabbit fixed is probably the answer to your problem.

 

[jujub793]

Definitely sounds like either a hormonal problem or possible that you have another pet in the house he's feeling jealous and territorial?

 

[SkiddBunnydidit]

Thank you for the replies! We've had Skidd... :? Around 2 months. If Skidd is intact a girl and not a boy I will be shocked! The lady at the feed store confirmed he was a boy... But with no "bun-bun balls" how'd she know- right? Well, boys do have wee-wee's! Duh!

My husband and I are getting so frustrated with him. Neither one of us have ever owned a rabbit. My idea to get Skidd to be a playmate for my 2 yr old. Cade (my 2 yr. old) is occasionally rough with him when loving on him but suprisingly theyre both usually unseprable. I'm very consistent where I do not want Skidd to go to the bathroom and places he is not allowed. The white leather couches, he poops on them every chance he gets. He also chews the walls and has just started digging and ripping up the carpet. He chews through electrical cords that I've put out of his reach... I know I'm being repetitive. I just didn't think a "low maintenance" animal would end up being so HIGH MANTENIENCE. My husband has already mentioned Skidd staying in an outside hutch twice.... I don't want him to be outside. Especially after I spent so much time and effort potty training him which also was not easy at all like I read in bunny articles, etc.

My husband thinks although I have so much love and patience for Skidd that I'm expecting too much out of a "rodent". I know as "bunny forum people" were obviously bias because were the ones that take care of the bun but do you think there's truth to what my husband thinks of my frustrations with Skidd?

 

[MiniLopHop]

Rabbits can be extremely smart when the hormones are out of the way. Mine know things like "go home", breakfast, oats, banana, dinner (note the food theme hehehe). They are also good at communicating their wishes; Becky will put her paws on my shins to ask to be picked up, Houdini will hop off the chair when he's done snuggling and put himself back in his room, etc.

The challenge you have is that the rabbit (may be a he or she) is being swamped with hormones, so their minds are so focused on breeding. The peeing on the couch is marking territory. Any place that smells like people is an easy target. He's saying that the space is HIS, and everything in that space is HIS, no other rabbits need bother (granted he's the only one, but it still works in his head). Digging at the carpets and biting cords makes sense if he's trying to make the area more attractive for a female, or she is looking to make a home. Digging is a very natural part of being a bunny and is intensified from the hormones because they are preparing a burrow for young or clearing "roots" ie cords, from running paths. Chewing the woodwork is also expanding their burrow and runs. About a month after getting fixed a bunny starts to behave more normally. The hormones SCREAMING at them to prepare to BREED and give birth dwindle so they are much better companions.

To help with your sanity until you can get the hormones under control, bunny proofing is your friend. NIC cubes are great because they can be strung together with zip ties to create low fencing along walls to prevent wall chewing. If all wires are on the other side it keeps them off the menu. For now you may have to block the couch from access, clean well with vinegar to remove all traces of smell. Push in chairs to limit access to higher surfaces. If he is a big jumper you may just have to keep things cleaned off (I have two cats and a big jumper, anything breakable is behind glass doors of a hutch). I suggest literally crawling around on the floor and look at your house from a rabbit's point of view. It's amazing what you can see from that vantage point.

I would not consider my rabbits low maintenance pet or suitable toddler companions. I love them dearly, but they require daily interaction (unlike my cats) and are very delicate. As long as you are the one really taking care of the rabbit though I think they can teach a child a lot about compassion. Best of luck

 

[Krulala]

Our female, Coco, did the exact same thing when she became "of age." She was so well behaved and litter box trained. Then all of a sudden she was chewing on everything and peeing on all the furniture that we spent the most time on (couch, bed, etc). Rufus, our male, peed/sprayed on walls, and of course never left our female alone.

Happy to say that paying fixed all the bad behavior for us as well. She will still chew on something things, though, especially if we don't keep her entertained with other chew toys enough.

Good luck!

 

[bowser]

Your story sounds a little familiar :biggrin: I rescued a bunny from the road about a week ago. He is fabulous 99% of the time, and we have bonded really well, but he is approx 3 months and some naughty behaviour is starting to emerge.

He constantly pees on the couch, I only have to turn my back for a second and hes up there, sometimes he even pees on me while I'm sitting there.

He started spraying on me yesterday too, and did it again today. Both times in the kitchen after I had given him a treat.

My partner has started to say that it is getting to difficult and that we should put him outside - but if I compare him to kittens we have had in the past, he is a breeze, and the loyalty out weighs anything I have experienced with another animal

 

[jeanluc_pippen_merry]

I've experienced this with my bunnies and like others have said, between 3-5 months is when their hormones kick in and they go through their "terrible teens" phase. Neutering helped mellow my boys out and if you find they are still chewing and digging a lot then offering them alternatives can help, such as a place they can dig in and blocks of wood they can chew on. Unfortunately they usually prefer to chew on things you don't want them to rather than the things you specifically got for them to chew on.

I have noticed that rabbits are very crafty little creatures and even the most rabbit proof fortress is usually not as rabbit proof as you think because they can and usually do find ways around it, at least in my experience. Cords "out of reach" are never really out of reach. If they can jump on the tables, chairs etc then they can probably get to the cords. I have no idea why they like chewing cords, but they do. >.<

For me the best thing has been to get hard plastic tubing to run the cords through. This way they can chew on the hard plastic but it will take them a very long time to get through it. But you will have to replace it at some point and it should be checked every week or so just to make sure it's still safely guarding them from the cords. I also have 1m high play pen pannels all around my desk and the underneath has all been covered as well so there's no possible way for them to get at the cords and the TV area has a play pen set up around it so that they can't get to those cords either.

And i say safely guarding them from the cords because although it will end up costing money to fix or replace chewed cords which is always annoying, if a rabbit chews through live wires they have a very good chance of being electrocuted and dying. So it's very important to keep them away from cords. Plus i don't know what happens to the metal bits of the cord that they swallow but i can't imagine it being very good for them. Hopefully they don't ingest much and it just passes right through withought rupturing anything.

I have had problems with my rabbits chewing on my walls as well and still don't know how to get them to stop so all i can do atm is shoo them away when i see it happening. So a long term solution to this would be very helpful for me as well. I also had the digging problem but ever since i gave them a couple of dig areas, they don't really dig anywhere else any more.

Although rabbits seem to be the perfect pet for a young child, they are probably not. A sudden fright can give them a heart attack and kill them. It's not uncommon for rabbits to kick in distress and end up breaking their own backs. Rabbits by nature do not like being picked up. They are prey animals and associate being picked up to be petted with being picked up to be carried away and eaten. In the interest of both bunny and child i would make sure that play time with the bunny is supervised. There's not really much a bunny can do to a child to hurt it aside from a bite which i don't believe is that common in bunnies otherwise im sure i would have come across at least 1 out of my 3 (soon to be 4), but there is a lot that a child can do to a bunny to hurt and even kill it accidentally so supervision is advised whenever children are handling bunnies. I was told of one incident where a child was innocently just hugging a bunny and literally hugged it to death. It was very innocent but a perfect example of how fragile they are, and how it may not have been able to breath would probably not occur to many children while they're cuddling them, if any at all.

But as far as changing the behaviour, neutering would be the best course of action, though it does not always work but does in most cases i believe. Also, you have to remember that rabbits aren't like dogs, they could care less about pleasing their humans, so discipline will not work with them and may even make their behaviour worse. It's possible that if you have been trying to discipline the bun as you would a cat, dog or child that it has started associating you with something unpleasant or as a threat. I could be wrong so if i am hopefully someone will correct me. But from everything i have learned so far this seems to be true.