Why house rabbits need bunny proofing, Behaviour

Behaviour

Understanding why bunnies like to chew

Bunnies are instinctive and tenacious chewers, there bodies are equipped to be efficient at this task. They can quickly and easily gnaw through most materials you have chosen to furnish and decorate your home. It is how they explore their world and their curious nature means they are likely to want to try a bit of everything. The corners of cushion, the buttons of the remote control, the new shoes you have just bought. Eventually these marks will be left throughout the areas you share. Anything new to your home is as much exciting to them as to you and will be tried out regardless of how much you want it to stay looking new, it will only be acceptable to you bunny after it has tasted it first. Anything you have been using, such the remote control will get the once over as soon as your back is turned to see if it can be of any use to them.

Bunnies enjoy the taste and texture of a wide verity of materials that we would consider to be inedible; it can often be surprising what they have chosen to eat until the damage is discovered. They can also be incredibly motivated to putting all their energy into re-arranging your home to suit their needs, which given enough time can eventually do some real damage to parts of your home, unlike their natural environment doesn't grow back. Although this behaviour can mostly be avoided through some simple changes to your life style and your home, it isn't totally avoidable and learning to live successfully with house bunnies means largely learning what to with this behaviour, accepting these incidents almost with amusement and ultimately individually accepting responsibility. If you have failed to put your new shoes away after kicking them off when you get home then you are effectively leaving them out for your bunny and no amount of training or discipline will stop this.

Amandas facts about chewing

Rabbit owner Amanda Waters gives us the low down on problem chewing
"The reason for gnawing behaviour is manifold. Bunnies need to have food going through their digestive track continuously and in addition to their food they also need small amounts of non-digestible fibre to help push things through. Because their teeth grow throughout their entire lives, their front teeth growing anything up to five inches a year, they need to keep constantly chewing to ware them down. As they are the prey of many creatures they strive to maintain clear paths by chewing through obstacles to access areas of there environment discreetly and to use if they need to run to safety."

Understanding why bunnies like to dig

Bunnies are natural and adept diggers, female bunnies especially seem to have a strong urge to burrow. It is extremely unlikely that this type of behaviour can be avoided. With the almost curtain absence of soil in your home it is likely that this behaviour will manifest as the destruction of furniture and carpets or the vandalism of plant pots to the digging and scattering of litter tray material. In there natural habitat bunnies can reshape their whole environment with this activity and despite the surfaces you have chosen to cover the floors of your home with they will always try, all be it mistakenly find their way beneath these surfaces to gain access to the soil they instinctively feel is below.

Amandas facts about digging

Rabbit owner Amanda Waters gives us the low down on problem digging
"Digging is a basic instinct to bunnies and n the wild they create large networks of underground burrows which is essential for their safely and the survival of there kittens. There claws grow constantly and this constant digging activity helps ware them down."

The positive sides to a lively personality

How much a bunny likes to dig and chew is part personality and partly dictated by their breeds. Although bunnies that like to chew and dig do require more care if you wish to avoid these unwanted destructive tendencies, they are often more sociable and sensitive individuals, excellent learners and generally more prepared to put up with your behaviour. Ultimately given the extra work required to keep them entertained and out of trouble they do make more interesting companions which is well worth the effort. If their only companionship is human, don't be surprised if they pick up bad habits like wanting to be in charge and being destructive for attention especially if they are left alone in the day while you are at work. If you are going to get a lively breed of bunny, it's always worth thinking about getting a bonded pair. They will suffer a lot less problems associated with boredom although in many ways is twice the work.

Amandas facts about physiological effect

Rabbit owner Amanda Waters gives us the low down on physiological effects
"Hormones and age are also a significant factors in both males and females bunnies. Ensuring that your bunny is spayed or neutered as soon it reaches sexually maturity will dramatically reduce there natural destructive urges. Age is also a factor as their destructive behaviour will reduce over the span of there lives although you should not expect it to totally stop."

The piece process

Through constant gnawing and nibbling and digging a bunny can eventually do extensive damage to your home especially if they start to favour something. To get along harmoniously in your home it is important to never let this turn into a running battle. The conflict to get them stop can easily escalate into a stressful situation for you and them as you will find they are never going to back down. Disciplining and training techniques like that of a dog or cat are totally inappropriate and any sort of shouting or physical discipline will not only be distressing to you bunny but can cause it to become antisocial towards you. The failure of this confrontational technique to rule over them will ultimately create a stressful environment for you, friends and family as your dwindling patience, increased shouting and acts of needles aggression prove a constant interruption to the harmony in your home. This stress gets soaked up by you bunny resulting in more displays of anti social behaviour. You can see how its not long before you are heading for disaster.

Creating a positive and harmoniously environment

The most successful way for you and you bunnies to get along is firstly to realise how much of being a bunny isn't about looking sweet and jumping onto your lap. It is in fact more about gnawing and digging. If you want your bunny to be friendly and approachable and come to you for attention, the best possible way to achieve this is to encourage them by providing a save environment for this behaviour and a constant supply of new, interesting and safe alternatives such cardboard boxes, chew toys and baskets of paper.

Always decide what areas of your home you want to make safe and what areas are out of bounds, shut or block off access to these areas. This is a responsible thing to do and is as much about protecting your bunnies from the dangers in your home as protecting your home from them. They will have an impact on the areas of your home you share, so for your own peace of mind and their safety, separate these areas out from the start.

In the areas the bunnies are allowed supervised time in, make sure anything you don't want damaged is moved out the way, get in the habit of always being tidy and never leaving thing out unless you want to become a target of unwanted destructive behaviour. Consider the maxim everything in its place and a place for everything and make sure these places are out of reach.

The next step is then to tackle the unwanted damage to the things in the areas that you share. The way to do this is when ever you notice damage to an area place an something next to it that provides an alternative that offers them much the same type of behaviour, if a door frame starts to get rounded off then place some chew toys around it. If bunny is trying to dig up the carpet put an old phone book in a box over this area. Remember to constantly replace these with new alternatives as they can become boring quickly. In the end experience will teach you to keep one ear to the ground for the tell tale noises of something being worked on, best of all keep a jar of treats such as sunflower seeds and the moment your hear the tell tale sound don't jump up shouting instead give the jar a shake and you will soon get them to forget about what they are doing in a way that you both get something out of.