Bunny Room Help

[HaileyH]

Hello,

We have a bunny bedroom for our two rabbits Dan and Emma. Emma has a head-tilt. Dan did have a head tilt but he responded to treatment. Both Dan and Emma are new additions to our animal family. They were both dropped off at vet hospitals. We’ve had Dan since the summer and Emma for about two months.

We put down a rubber tile floor to protect our wood floor underneath. However, the rubber floor did not provide Emma with sufficient traction. She has balance issues, but with enough traction runs around and plays with her tunnels and cardboard boxes. For her to be able to have enough traction we put down an area carpet. Which solved her traction issues for the most part. She still has balance issues and tumbles from time-to-time. The problem is that when she tumbles she urinates. And Dan also likes to urinate on the carpet. We use a lot of Natures Miracle. But with the cold weather it’s hard to really clean the carpet. Emma needs something that doesn’t move out from under her when running around. But we need to be able to clean it. We clean the room one or two times a day and then scrub it clean once a week while they are downstairs. We were thinking of getting baby bed pad covers to put under the carpet to catch the urine and then the Natures Miracle when we pour it on top because more urine filters through. I’m looking for ideas to keep the carpet clean. Or new ideas that other people may have tried with a rabbit who has a head-tilt to keep them happy and running around.

Below is a picture of Emma and Dan along with a picture of their current room set-up.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[JackRabbit]

Indoor/outdoor carpet (the gray kind from Lowes or Home Depot) seems to have a rubberized backing. As long as your bunnies aren’t carpet chewers, you could try large machine washable throw rugs (normally have a rubber backing to hold in place). The only other thing I can think of would be weighted down fleece on top of your rubber flooring.

We have 3 xpens attached together in our bunny room (keeps them from eating our baseboards) and use large pieces of fleece over the vinyl plank floor. We attach the fleece to the xpens with binder clips to hold it in place, and vacuum the fleece with a shop vac. About once a month we change out the fleece (we have a few sets) and launder. We use a pet hair magnet (BB store) to remove fur before washing.

[HaileyH]

Thanks! I’ll check out the indoor / outdoor carpet. That may work if I get multiple sets to swap out while washing. They aren’t carpet chewers. I believe we have something similar that is much smaller and we keep by the litter boxes.

I’ve read about lining your rabbit room with xpens. So far our rabbits haven’t chewed anything except their toys. It’s something I’ll keep in mind. I’d like to put more soft things in their room but they urinate on anything soft. We have two kong beds that seem to be safe from urination on most days.

Thanks again.

[LBJ10]

Indoor/Outdoor carpet could also be taken outside and hosed down. I suppose the only issue with that would be the possibility of fleas hitching a ride on the carpet so you would have to be mindful of that.

[JackRabbit]

I bought one of the kong crate cushion/beds for Moshi since he likes to lay on soft things and was hoping it would be safe from Marlee — nope, Marlee chewed holes in it on day two. At least the beds are washable if they pee on them. Wish I could wash the holes out!

[HaileyH]

Oh no! I guess we are lucky so far that Dan and Emma haven’t chewed things we didn’t intend for them to chew. I’ve washed the kong beds several times. They hold up much better to a washing than a nibbling!

LBJ10 — The weather is getting pretty frigid, and we’ve turned the water off already. So the hose is not an option right now. I’m definitely looking forward to being able to use it in the nice weather though

[Little Lion Head]

What about these interlocking mats? I think they are made of rubber and usually used for babies and toddlers, so I imagine they are easy to clean. There are a lot of brands. I typed in “puzzle piece floor mats” and got a lot of search results.

[HaileyH]

Thanks! We thought the same thing. We have interlocking rubber tiles on top of plastic we put down. The trouble is that Emma can’t grip very well on those tiles and would lose her balance. So we need something she can grip better. The problem is she still tumbles because of her balance issues every so often. And when she tumbles, she urinates. Also Dan likes to urinate on soft things like carpet. And with the cold weather we are confined to cleaning inside.

[Little Lion Head]

Poor little Emma. Our bridge bunny Boston went through a nasty bout of head tilt, it was hard to watch. Luckily she has some caring parents to take care of her!

[JackRabbit]

Those are same type of puzzle mats we have in our hallway/play area. They’re great for traction and cushion, but easy to take bites out of where the puzzle pieces connect. We’ve kept them down, but supervise the bunnies when they’re out there. As long as your bunnies don’t chew/bite it, it would be great.

We had planned on taking up the carpet (berber, and our bunnies wanted to pull on it, ugh!) and putting down vinyl plank flooring like we did in the M&Ms room but Marlee’s feet are apparently too special and require soft cushion, hence our fleece covered bunny floor!

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