my rabbit thinks i always have food help!?
My rabbit always thinks I have food! He gets so excited about food that I can no longer hand-feed him because he bites me out of excitement. I can’t clean his cage because he runs over and starts biting, and whenever I sit near him, he runs around and won’t leave me alone. Whenever the cage door is open, he runs out and bites any part of me he can reach. How can I address this behavior?
1 Answers
He needs to be neutered.
It also sounds like (from your prior questions) that he is cage aggressive. This can happen to any rabbit but particularly with hormonal ones.
There are ways to work around it in the meantime, but it involves (potentially) a number of changes. Without knowing your normal daily routine with him, I can only offer general suggestions.
Only clean the cage when he is outside of it. Keep food dish near entrance of cage to minimize your intrusion into his cage. Consider the cage to be his domain and no longer put your hand in his cage (not even to pet him) unless it is just to put the food in right by the door of the cage. And even putting food in, try to do so when he is distracted.
Establish regular routines with him — for out-of-cage time, for pellet feeding, cage cleaning, etc. They *like* routine and will adjust to it.
Examine and adjust his feeding — schedule and diet. If he’s close to 6 months of age, it is time to change to an adult diet. Pellets should be limited (just 1/4 cup per day for a 5-7 lb rabbit). Those pellets should be plain (no add-ins). Hay should be unlimited – any kind except alfalfa. Greens should be introduced (if not done already). Check this page for pellet brand recommendations and info about greens, etc:
http://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/feeding.html
If he circles you, that means he’s chosen you for his mate! That is another sign of hormonal behavior — another reason to get him neutered asap. He may also decide to start spraying you with urine (marking you as his).
For further tips, check out my website below
Related Questions
Can cats eat grits?
Many people feed cardinals sunflower seeds during the winter months in Maryland. Some carbohydrates in a cardinal's diet...
Is it possible for cats to physically bark? If they really tried, couldn't they produce a barking sound?
I have a 4-year-old spayed dilute calico long-haired cat who doesn't pose well for photos, so this is the best picture I...
What specific actions did John Muir encourage President Theodore Roosevelt to take regarding environmental conservation...
I have three convict cichlids. The smallest one has bright spots on its belly, and from what I’ve read, I assumed that o...
The introduction of exotic species can significantly disrupt an ecosystem. One reason for this disruption is that exotic...
Do turtles mate for life, and what does the mating behavior of different turtle species look like? Are there specific co...
What is a bovine heart, and how does it differ from the hearts of other mammals? Additionally, what are its anatomical f...
Which organisms are part of multiple food chains? The organisms listed here are known to belong to more than one food ch...