Eating plastic & rubber

[Billie]

My rabbit eats plastic and rubber. So far, she’s eaten most of the buttons off the remotes and part of my flip flops. The remote controls were on a coffee table and we didn’t know she had been hopping up there to bite the buttons off until we sat down to watch a movie one night. After that, we made sure they were put out of reach. However, it didn’t occur to me that she’d also want to eat my foam rubber flip flops . I know she ate them because there were no pieces laying around. Luckily, she was still pooping regularly.

I voiced my concern to the vet and she seemed just as baffled. She suggested different cardboard toys and such to give her something to chew on. The problem is that I’ve made and bought lots of toys for her (paper tubes, phone books, bags, willow balls, wood toys, etc.), but she is only rarely interested in them. If I leave the plastic lid to her feed box on the floor while I’m scooping though, she makes a beeline for it and tries to eat it. Does anyone else have rabbits that are not just interested in chewing plastic, but actually eating it? And do you have any suggestions for getting her interested in chewing safer materials?

[bunny_psychotic]

i feel your pain… yes, all bunnies LOVE remote control buttons. My advice is… buns who are ‘on the loose’ really do need to be watched at all times. They are quick, thus they can get into trouble which could hurt them down the road. Secondly, I would ditch anything “plastic” you have around. Currently, my new bun decided he didn’t even like the plastic litter box and refused to go potty in it. I then supplied him with one of my fav glass baking dishes. I filled it as usual withYesterdays News and some hay, and he uses it perfectly fine. Point being, there are alternatives. Finally, do not leave anything rubber or plastic around for him to get into.

Remember the old expression “If you can’t beat ’em, join em?” Well, this totally applies to bunnies. THEY will teach u what to do, and in this case, what not to do. You have a bun that, for some reason, has a fascination with plastic and rubber. You are lucky so far (health wise), but I wouldn’t push it, if I were you. I have a tough little guy right now who shows little interest in all his toys; however, the one thing he does do is chew the cardboard boxes. Have you offered him any of those.? Well, that’s my two cents. Good luck with him!

[Sarita]

I have to agree with bunny psychotic. Good advice.

[Billie]

For the most part, we have picked up the plastic and put it out of the way. Thankfully she hasn’t started chewing on the tubes covering the electrical cords. Some things just aren’t really feasible to replace. Example being the litterbox. As a Flemish Giant, she’s already too big for a glass baking dish. She hasn’t chewed on her litterbox yet. If she does, I suppose I might need to find some sort of big metal tray, like the kind they slide under cars when they’re being worked on.

She also has little interest in cardboard. I’ve built her a whole village of boxes, laid out cardboard squares, paper towel tubes, and even some funky-shaped pieces that came in a BBQ set. She doesn’t chew on them the way I’ve heard other rabbits do.

[Kaye]

My bunny Jailbreak chewed his way through my flip flop without my knowledge and so far he’s okay. He’s eager to get to my other ones. The only problem I’ve noticed is since he started chewing my flip flops he thinks all shoes are meant to be chewed so maybe it’s teaching them bad habits (or he’s always been like that)

[LBJ10]

Sounds normal to me. The only thing you can do it try to keep things out of reach and to look for substitutes if necessary. Mine will chew on the strangest things. Even things that I think couldn’t possibly be interesting. Wooly likes reusable shopping bags for some reason. I used to have them by the door, but I’ve learned to keep them elsewhere.

[Elrohwen]

Otto will eat any rubber or plastic he can find. He demolished most of the buttons on a remote control in about 20sec while unsupervised. He’s also eaten the rubber coating off of the handle of his pellet scoop (silly DH left it in the cage with them) and a piece of plastic wrap that he found on the floor.

It’s totally normal. I think the only thing to do is pick up everything they can reach and supervise them.

[mia]

I never knew why there needed to be replacement parts until I got my buns; most of my things look brand new even after years of use. I’ve had to replace backpacks, luggage, two vacuums (a third needs to be replaced too), music stands, heaters, lamps (sadly I have special solar ones that can’t be replaced), etc. There was just a recent news article about rabbits destroying cars at an airport.

Have you tried looking for large metal pans as a litter box?

[LittlePuffyTail]

Gonna lock this thread since it’s from 2010. Please do not reply to old posts.

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