[caitlin14]

I am currently living in a share house, so benji sleeps in my room at night, but can run the house and my room when I am home.

But for the last week or so at night i will put her in the pen area with her hutch tunnels toys etc. She will pull and push at the wire making a really loud clanging noise and will keep doing that until i come over. She also starts digging like crazy all around her pen and just will not sleep at night. I don't know what to do to stop her. It has been keeping me up all night. She will stop if i lay on the floor beside her pen and she gives tons of kisses and then lays down.

I just don't know if there is something wrong or why all of a sudden she has been going crazy at night.

Her pen area is big enough for her to run around in and have plenty of space, should her "nightime" area be smaller?

any ideas or suggestions would be great! thank you!

 

[Dragonrain]

She has the crazies!

Is the weather changing there, by any chance?

My bunnies are all adults, all fixed, and it seems like once in awhile for a couple of weeks or so, they all go crazy. For my bunnies, it seems to be triggered by temperature changes. So around the time when the seasons start to change, they'll all seem to have a lot more energy than normal and will do crazy things to keep me up all night.

It drives me insane when they get like this. Usually there's not much I can do to stop them. If I find a way to stop them from making noise one way they just find something else to do to annoy me.

Haha yeah I call it the "crazies" when they get like this. Usually I just have to wait it out for a couple of weeks and eventually they calm down and go back to normal again.

I don't know if this is a normal thing for all bunnies but I've had 5 rabbits in my lifetime and every single one of them became seasonal victims of the crazies.

 

[Purple-Hops]

Poor Benji!! lol wait, poor you!! Every now and then Acacia gets the bedtime blues too. I have since learned to remove all rattles and noisy toys at night. She shreds her newspaper lining, slams her hay rack, and sometimes chews the NIC panels. I could ring her neck when she wakes me up doing this!!

Maybe try blocking off the area she's slamming the cage with cardboard or something else to occupy her? She maybe is just frustrated with going to bed. Acacia gets that way bc she's used to having all the space she wants (limit the room and hall) when she wants (when we're home).

Remember though, by reinforcing her behavioiur (getting up and going to her and getting bedtime kisses) as cute as that is!! Try to not encourage it. Positive reinforcement is all it takes for this to become a prolonged habit!!

 

[Sasami]

My rabbits just go through phases like that sometimes. Elvis has been really bad for the past year, though...when he gets in a mood he'll dig 24-7 to the point of dehydration (he's pretty old so sometimes he gets in these weird, obsessive moods). Now when he starts I wait a bit to see if he'll stop on his own. If not, I put him in a small carrier with a towel, water bottle, and some hay. Oddly, he settles right down and sleeps! Kind of like crating a dog. I was surprised at how well it worked. I wouldn't recommend it except in extreme cases, though.

 

[caitlin14]

thanks so much for all the help! The weather is going from cold to warmer here, and lately has been gettin quite hot, so that actually makes sense!

Purple-hops i completely agree, i don't want to be enforcing the bad behaviour but it's so darn frustrating when it's 3 am and she wont stop! and the kisses normally win me over I need better self control!

Sasami i dont think i could handle the digging 24-7! That sounds crazy! I thought about "crating" Benji but wasn't sure if a smaller area would be good or bad, but like you said i might only try that if her loudness and annoyingness gets extreme.

thanks for all the tips, hopefully her crazies will pass soon!

 

[Jess]

LOL, definately sounds like Benji has the "crazies". When Smudge does this, distracting him with something yummy works the best: I'll fill up his digging box with all sorts of "special" hay (Orchard grass, oat hay, bremuda grass, ect)and hide some treats in it, and put some pellet food in his Slim Cat ball, and that usually entertains him for a while so I can get back to sleep!

 

[caitlin14]

I was up til 3 am and then she woke me up at 5 I was not a happy camper! But i will try the pellets in the slim ball and the treat digging box is a good idea! I really hope these crazies pass soon because she is making it rather hard for me to get up and go to Uni when i am dead tired!

How long do all of your bunnies normally get the "crazies" for?

 

[Purple-Hops]

I have been sleeping in the same room with my bunny(s) for almost the whole 4.5 yrs I had them (excluding the last house I lived in which had a connected detached room where they stayed off my bedroom) and it comes and goes with spurts for me. Like I said, I got to the habit of removing certain toys from her. I cannot stop her from shredding paper and chewing bars but when she does it it only lasts a little while. I might lose only 1 night of sleep over it.

 

[urofan]

My guinea pig won't let me sleep a lot of nights. I have to get up and sit with him until he gets tired or has had enough time with me.

 

[caitlin14]

Benji has finally calmed down at night! And now will sleep until the morning! I let her run around for an hour making sure we play plenty of chase to wear her out and she runs through the tunnel and box maze she loves playing in, so when it's time for bed she is pooped! And flops right to sleep! Thanks for all the information and tips on how to help with the "crazies"

 

[Purple-Hops]

Yw!!

 

[Dragonrain]

Glad she's calmed down again and is letting you get some sleep! I'm always sooo happy when my bunnies get over their crazies. It's so nice to get a full nights sleep after a few weeks of getting woken up by bunnies every night.

 

[Sasami]

Glad she's calmed down again and is letting you get some sleep! I'm always sooo happy when my bunnies get over their crazies. It's so nice to get a full nights sleep after a few weeks of getting woken up by bunnies every night.

It makes you appreciate sleep more :lol:.

 

[caitlin14]

Sasami yes it surely does