How do I get my rabbit to stop chewing the bars of his cage ?

He is about 3 months old, and is constantly chewing on the bars of his cage. We let him out to exercise for about 1-2 hours a day, he is fed enough, we give him lots of hay, and there is cardboard and wood chew blocks from the petstore in his cage.How do I get my rabbit to stop chewing the bars of his cage ?
Some rabbits seem to be chronic cage bar chewers. A couple of thoughts:


Set him up in a dog exercise pen - still has the bars, but it would be larger and he'd more to keep him occupied.


for our cage bar chewer, we cut long strips of cardboard and wove them through the bars - he would chew and pull at the cardboard, which is ok. We'd replace the cardboard every once in a while. In really bad spots, we cut a piece of cardboard to the size of the bottom half of the pen and zip tied it to the back. He couldn't grab hold of the bars and he couldn't see the sofa where he wanted to be. It helped.How do I get my rabbit to stop chewing the bars of his cage ?
Does he have a mineral block? He might be missing something in his diet.Maybe salt or something Try changing his feed or ration. He also just might be bored or lonely.Rabbits like company and are very intelligent creatures.They don't like to be by themselves .
My guinea pig does the same thing. No matter what we give him to chew on he would rather chew on the cage. I've been told this is normal.
He's bored. For one thing, how big is your cage? Most pet store rabbit cages are actually too small, even for a dwarf rabbit. Mine were much happier in larger dog crates or better yet, huge NIC condos.





I've also found that most of the pet store chew toys are ignored by them. Good basic chew toys are apple twigs, dry willow twigs, pine cones, and small untreated grapevine or willow wreaths. For something different, try tying several chew toys together with a bell and hanging them on the cage for your rabbit to play with. Other fun toys are plastic baby keys and plastic cat toys with bells in them. There's lots of great ideas for rabbit toys. Try some of the ones on this list:


http://www.adoptarabbit.org/articles/200鈥?/a>
You didn't say what the bars of the cage are made of. You can try to spray them with a product meant to discourge chewing (Bitter Apple or one of those sprays).


You can also try washing the cage down with bleach or vinegar and water. (Rinse and dry thoroughly before he goes back in!) There may be something that is leaching out of the bars that is attracting him. (If he is chewing on metal, he can badly injure/damage his teeth. )


Rabbits can get fixated on a behavior that is not good for them. Change his cage around, change the toys. Sometimes turning the cage around or re-positioning it will distract him. You can try to put up wire cloth to prevent him from reaching that area. Or you may have to change his cage. That cage may not be suited for him.
Try a different type of chew toy, a harder one. It sounds like he's not getting the feel he wants out the wood.


Good Luck.
Let him chew the bars, It keeps his teeth from getting to large.
buy him chew toy