How can i stop my 7 week old rabbit chewing ?

Question

It has a good diet with plenty of dry food and chews, plenty of room to exercise and lots of company. She has only started doing it this week.

Answer 1

You should not try to stop your rabbit from chewing because it could cause it harm. Rabbits need to chew on stuff because their teeth are constantly growing. You should offer your rabbit UNTREATED wood blocks. In the wild they chew on branches, twigs, and leaves to help grind their teeth down a bit more. They will chew on anything so try to be a responsible pet owner and watch it carefully while out of its cage.

I have actually seen a hamster that was not provided wood to chew on and its teeth grew into the gums and had to be cut off so it could be fed.

Answer 2

Rabbits need to chew constantly because of the rate their teeth grow. If she is chewing on things she shouldn't try bitter apple, you can usually find it in health food stores. You should go and bring some tree branches in for her to gnaw on. My dad lives in the country and he used to show us in the spring how high the snow was by the chew marks on the trees where the bunnies had gnawed on the bark. I am sure there are products available at pet stores but you could try a farm supply store too. Call your local 4H and see if they have any suggestions as they have rabbit clubs and they usually have fund raisers going on, you may get an answer that is more suitable and help a great organization in the process. Good Luck.

Answer 3

I had this exact same problem. My bunny is a house rabbit and he doesn't ever get locked up, so "time out of the cage" wasn't going to work. I gave him plenty of alternate things to chew on -- including untreated wood blocks, rabbit chew toys, hay, food, everything. Obviuosly most people aren't actually reading your details -- you give your rabbit these things too!

Unfortunately, what everyone else says is also true -- rabbits like to chew. It's their habit, and a good one, since it grinds down their teeth. You can try giving lots of different things for your rabbit to chew, and see if any of them work. My rabbit seems to prefer cardboard boxes, which is a cheap option. He also likes chewing my shoes -- don't ask me why, but he does. He much prefers chewing on the walls, but the best way I found to keep him from doing that was blocking off his access to the walls using clear duct tape on the corners. He doesn't chew the walls where I have duct tape anymore -- he seems to hate the taste of plastic.

Lastly, you can try spraying some pet spray where you don't want them to chew --I used an organic, non-chemical based one called No Stay, which has mostly garlic and pepper in it. It didn't work for me, but it may work for you.

So, in sum, you need to block his access to the things you don't want him to chew, and give him other options. Also, please reference the House Rabbit Society FAQ in the sources section. They reinforce this with some other ideas, too.

Answer 4

Sorry to disappoint - rabbits chew, it's natural and there ain't no stopping them. Good diet, dry food and chews are great. Loads of hay is also great - but they'll still chew anything else in sight that's appealing (including, from personal experience, curtains, the sofa and a phone cable!).

Answer 5

Rabbit need to chew to keep their teeth ground down. They constantly grow their teeth, thus they chew. Go to the store and get wood blocks like this (my bunny likes both of these very much):http://www.petco.com/Shop/petco_Product_R_1767_Nav_1_Ntt_chew_N_30%2026_cp_1_Nao_0_sku_144681_familyID_4781.aspx

http://www.petco.com/Shop/petco_Product_R_6223_Nav_1_Ntt_chew_N_30%2026_cp_1_Nao_0_sku_740144_familyID_11495.aspx ).

You have to keep a close eye on a 7 week old rabbit. After all, it's just a baby. When you see the bunny chewing, tell it "no, chew on this" and hold the chew stick in front of it. It'll eventually get the idea. Just keep at it and never let the bunny run around unsupervised yet. As it loves to chew, it might be tempted to chew on an electrical wire, which is bad news for bunny.

Answer 6

Rabbits need to constantly chew to grind down their teeth which grow continuously. I had to have my 2yr old rabbit put to sleep as she had spurs on her back teeth. This is not due to lack of chewing its more in the genetics of the breed (french lop) Provide things for your rabbit to chew such as branches off certain trees and chews from the petshops. My rabbit was a house rabbit and started chewing wires when she was a baby I managed to stop this by providing lots of other treats for her to chew such as a large cardboard box with shredded newspaper or an old telephone directory inside. This amused her for hours!

Answer 7

Give your Bunny a run in your lounge but Bunny proof your room first. They have a habit of chewing through wires - and a fried Bunny ain't pretty!!!!

They have to chew to keep their teeth short.

Make sure you have plenty of things that she can munch on. Rabbits do get bored so she'll need to be kept occupied.
Get her some.
Very large hard carrots,
Seed sticks
and tunnels to run through or hide in and some toys to play with.

Keep her active then she won't chew so much - she'll be too knackered.......

Good Luck

Answer 8

Rabbits major in gnawing and chewing.
go to the nearest pet store and get it something appropriate to chew because that is the nature of this animal and you can either have a live animal or take it to a taxidermist and have it stuffed. Your choice.

Answer 9

chewing can be a sign of boredom. How often do you pay attention to her? How much time out of the cage does she get? You might want to get her a fixed friend to keep her company. If this doesn't help then you can try a product called bitter apple to spray on the bars to get her to stop.

Answer 10

rabbits teeth grow continuously and your rabbit needs to chew on something, i found with my rabbit just putting some sticks off of trees in the cage and she chews the bark off the sticks instead of the walls of her hutch. put a few sticks in there with it, it'll chew the bark off and then throw them outsida and get new sticks.