I need help!! My bun loves to eat the rug in the living room... I hear him, as he is pulling it up, because it takes his whole little body lol.. and it makes noise.. so i clap to get his attention and he doesn't care.. today i've been brave enough to take it from his mouth so he doesn't eat any more than he has already. a couple times he has been fast enough that i can't grab it.. tried to hold his jaw still and grab but he had it in too far :/ and no im not worried about him biting me.

 I've read use lemon, perfume.. the no biting spray.. i think he honestly likes the lemon as it didnt stop him for one single second. i put it on my finger and he licked it off.. didnt mind it. so perfume was the next step and i feel like it works a little bit, didnt catch him doing it yesterday so much.. but today i've put him back in his cage 5 times because he will.not.stop! The rug is not cheap but honestly i am more worried because i've heard that carpet can kill them and this scares the bejeebez out of me! Hoping someone here has experienced this and has words of wisdom!! thank you in advance!!!

You are right to discourage the behavior..eating carpet can be dangerous for bunnies indeed. One thing that seems to work for me is to cover up the spot for a while and restrict access. My Peppy used to be a little carpet monster, but when I couldn't deter her I just covered the spot with a box or something, and after a couple of weeks or so she'd forget about it.

I feel your pain, chickennugget. My Frankie is obsessed with digging and chewing up things, especially carpet! I've found it helpful to redirect bunnies to something else they are "allowed" to chew (e.g. wood block, wicker toy, etc.) When Frankie begins pulling at the fibers I show him one of his favorite chew toys and he will tear away at that instead of carpet. Also, it might help to have a special area outside of his cage where he can go and dig/chew to his heart's desire. I made a maze out of cardboard boxes for Frankie and put a bunch of stuff he can chew in there: junk mail, a grass mat, phone book pages, and willow balls. One time he was in there for a good half hour just chomping away!

I think the best way is to block access (laundry basket, chair sideways-think not permanent) and then put something your bunny can rip apart-a diggy box, a phone book, a cardboard box, a wood chew toy. Your blocking the behaviour that is inappropriate and giving an outlet. Remember chewing and digging and eating-all natural behaviours. So instead of trying to stop the behaviour, you are redirecting to an appropriate safe object Works great.

hmm.The rug is too large to block off from him. plus it's in a spot that if i block it, hubby will get irritated that it will be in HIS way. should i pull it up and put in another room for a while? or will he just be more interested when i bring it back out? i really thought the perfume worked until i picked him up one day and he smelled of it. little turkey!

I have sticks I try to give him to redirect.. for the carpet and when he tried to eat the wood off the front door frame.. it works when he is eating the door... wood for wood.. and at times he can be distracted from the carpet.. but usually he plays with it until i walk away and then starts back with the rug again. I put a towel down last night and played like i was digging on the towel to show him "this is where we dig and chew'.. which worked for a little while- until he figured out that if he pawed enough the rug showed back up lol. just now i caught him again- took it from his mouth, he stretched and lied down. defeated haha. he has plenty of things to chew on. i wonder if it's just the rug has such a different texture? also this rug is long and he only cares about one section of it. doesnt bother the rest... just realized that. i am very glad you all mentioned phone books because i have given him those but them kind of worried about the dyes and such. i was so concerned with the binding glue that i ripped the pages out for him and threw the binding away haha. glue can't be good for them?? i will get rid of the rug if i have to, hubby will have to deal. i just dont want it. grr.

he is mad at me haha. i stopped him and offered something else, which he chewed.. and then he tried the rug again and i pulled his chin up and said no.. he walked away, lied down and is ignoring me.

Have you tried regular yellow Dial soap? I found that rubbing wet soap on the places where Cinnabun would attack the carpet worked. She hated the smell enough to run in the opposite direction. And if she dared to try to eat the carpet despite the smell, one attempt of putting it in her mouth made her think differently since the taste was gross too.

I would spray it with a vinegar and water mist. It's not harmful, the smell goes away but is still repellent to bunnies. It's better than perfume if he's consuming some carpet with spray on it now.

If you have the option of removing it, I would try that. If he's responding to your stopping him and substituting a new chew toy option then he may be learning and it might not be necessary. But if you don't need the carpet right now, I'd take it out.

You can also cover it with safe things like seagrass mattes. Those are healthy and edible, so laying them over the carpet patches he returns to will block the carpet pieces and be safer. (I do that with edges near baseboards.) Mostly, you want him to lose interest in it in favor of approved chewables. If he stops and goes to a chew or diggy toy instead, Praise him and give him a treat. He will learn best from positive reinforcement, and will opt for the behavior that brings treats. (A pellet or a raisin is a good small treat to use.)

My parents were always really nervous the bunnies would pee or chew the rug so what I did was take a cheap plastic table cloth and put it on top of the rug, then I put a sheet on top and tucked the edges under the rug so they couldn't pull it out. That way not chewing and no peeing!

Oh! Didn't think about soap! I will try that! If it doesn't work I'll have to take the rug out of the room.. i think this is going to be tough.. today i caught him chewing the regular carpet, tried to give him his favorite stuff and he literally picked it up, turned his head and placed it out of his way... went back for more carpet. i tried 3 times with different things and he did the same thing.. so i picked him up and gave cuddles, putting him down in a safe spot.. it cracks me up when he moves things out of his way like that.. but the big stinker!

I will try the treats also, thank you! I can't cover the rug where it is... it's by the front door so we humans would have a hard time with that. but ill try soap and treats.. *fingers crossed* thank you guys!