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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

FORUM BEHAVIOR tips on saving furniture from damage?

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    • cainan
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        So my little girl has decided that my cushy white chair is her favorite spot to hang out, now that she’s got free range in that room.  I have no problem with that – but grrrrr she actually chewed a hole in the fabric!  It must have happened when my back was turned – she had been digging/biting at the back of the chair and I did the whole clapping and saying “No” thing and she would stop.  So I tried a towel (big mistake!  the pile was too high and there was towel fuzz everywhere!), then her dig/dig/smooth fleece blanket from her x-pen.  That seemed to do it – she was still digging, but not that much, and the blanket was holding up without a problem. This morning, though, I noticed itsy bitsy biting holes in the fabric .  Just so that I could go about my morning routine without having to worry I put some plain brown paper on top of the blanket today and she was ripping and eating that instead. *sigh*

        I don’t want to deny her the comfy chair, but I also don’t want it destroyed, or worse, for her to ingest something that’ll get stuck inside her belly.  Thoughts?  I don’t know what to try next!


      • cainan
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          p.s. I’ve also tried giving her chew toys on the chair and of course she just takes them and throws them onto the floor


        • mocha200
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            I would say to block off the chair. Even though it is here favorite spot. It will be safer for her ( and for the chair) in the long run. If she is eating and swallowing any sort of blanket towel or anything I would take it away cuz it could can cause blockage.


          • LoveChaCha
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              How about grids?

              I can’t block off this part where my bunny likes to go into.. so I dab the furniture with stinky perfume. She runs away, foot flicking in the process. The perfume does not stain the furniture.. I can’t say so for other perfumes.


            • Kokaneeandkahlua
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                Yes-the answer is right here:

                So my little girl has decided that my cushy white chair is her favorite spot to hang out, now that she’s got free range in that room.

                Just block it off rather then try to stop her. There is obviously something awesome about the chair she already likes and has started to form the habit (remember bunnies form a habit in one lesson! Kokanee got into Dave’s office once-and even though the door was never open-and not open again for months-she would ALWAYS check just to see if it was. Fun things =quick learning) so it would be ideal to block off the chair or choose another room altogether for playing. If that’s not an option try covering the chair with a plastic shower curtain or other bunny repellant so she just doesn’t want to go up there


              • RabbitPam
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                  Ditto K&K’s suggestions, especially the shower curtain tucked around the cushions.

                  If you put something like an upside down box in the room with her fleece over the paper for her to climb up onto and chew and dig, it will be a different “chair” for her to use so she has an alternative. Just don’t make it close enough to jump from one to the other.

                  I like vinegar and water spray for avoiding staining fabric if perfume is too risky. You don’t smell it but the bunny always does.


                • cainan
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                    Apparently I am the proud owner of SUPER BUNNY! :-/
                    I used the grid trick – I put the 2 grid high “door” I use to block off the kitchen in front of the chair, and when Merry saw it was all ‘sniff, sniff, hey how dare you? pout’ until I turned my back and it was WOOOOOOOSH over the gate and back onto the chair!

                    Blech, I didn’t want to have to shower curtain it but I guess I’ll have to


                  • Dee
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                      It’s definitely habit forming, the chewing furniture thing- but it seems to be only certain items. BunBun ripped my old couch apart- there was a hole in the back that he liked to sneak through and hide in the couch. But then Nelli started living in there- peeing too >.< which was unacceptable, so we had to block it off. My determined little guy chewed his way down THROUGH the couch and squeezed through the metal springs back into his hideout. It was really unsafe, so we had to put plywood under the cushions, but he continued to rip apart the cushions for months, trying to get back in. We tried saying "NO" and removing him, but he would nip us and then must have gotten really upset because he would start to exude this gross skunky smell- we decided he was better left alone then. I always worried about the blockage thing too though- cfurniture can be replaced, but bunnies can't. Finally I got a new couch (well OK, secondhand in case it met the same fate as the old one) and he hasn't done anything to it!

                      Apparently that chair is just irresitable to your bunny. The shower curtain idea is great though- bunnies hate slippery surfaces. I’m curious to know how it works- keep us posted!


                    • Monkeybun
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                        All of my bunnies can jump a 2 high grid wall. I need a 3 high to stop them

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                    FORUM BEHAVIOR tips on saving furniture from damage?