Training FAQ

How do I encourage a rabbit to chew on toys and not unacceptable items?
Have the toys and the unacceptable items next to each other and watch your rabbit. If the rabbit goes for the bad object, pound the wall or clap or make some other sort of loud noise to make it stop. If the rabbit chews the proper toys, feed it a treat.

Set the rabbit up so that it'll have a clear boundary of what is acceptable to destroy and what is not. Make the acceptable option super tempting and rewarding so that he will choose the correct and good option rather than deal with something that results in pounding and scary noises.

My rabbit keeps me up by consistently chewing his cage bars. How do I make him stop?
Make sure you don't give him any attention when he rattles the bar or else it will be a self-reinforcing behavior. It is also important to break this behavior as chewing on cage bars can cause incisor malocclusion in rabbits, which can be an expensive problem to treat.

Some reasons for cage-bar chewing:


 * Not large enough housing enclosure.
 * Not enough exercise.

In the meantime, try changing up his environment in the cage regularly to make him more curious about his surroundings and cover the sections of the pen that he's rattling with cardboard. If you feed him pellets, scatter them everywhere so he'll take longer to find and eat them all. Research has also shown that feeding supplementary pellets in the afternoon rather than the morning can help prevent the behavior. As usual, be sure to provide plenty of acceptable chew toys, and swap those out regularly as well to make it interesting.

Ideas for various toys to entertain your rabbit can be found in Toys.