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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Having issues with my two in the new place

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    • Stickerbunny
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        So… in Feb I moved back into my mom’s place and separated from my spouse. The rabbits had never lived anywhere but the one house. The trip was a little stressful, but they dealt. 

        Now… I am having trouble with them in the new place. I have them in an x-pen setup that takes up a big chunk of the floor space of the room. But, I would like them to come out and explore as well. Problem is, they can’t leave my room, she has cats/dogs that would eat them. So, I bunny proofed the wires and everything in my room and let them out…

        And immediately, Stickers starts EATING THE WALL. Not gnawing baseboards or anything like that, but eating the sheet rock wall. I told her stop, clapped my hands, pushed her away, etc but every time my back is turned she goes back to it. Within one day, there was a hole 1/2 way through to the outside. 

        If she finishes her hole, she will have a hole to the outside paneling. Which, isn’t attached very well, potentially to the outside itself. Not to mention, this is my mom’s house and she probably doesn’t want giant holes to the outdoors in her house.  

        On top of this, Powder won’t come out at all. He just lays at the opening loafing and refuses to explore.

        Suggestions? I can’t really afford enough NIC panels or baby gates to block off the whole wall atm. I just moved on no money, got a sucky job just to pay the bills and am pouring money into my car that wasn’t really ready yet. But, I want them to be able to get out of the x-pen setup and explore. It’s 2 plastic baby gate panels wide and one long, but that’s not a lot of room.  


      • Q8bunny
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          Try rubbing an Ivory soap bar on the wall and see if it deters her.


        • LBJ10
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            What about lining the walls with cardboard until you can get NIC grids. That was the only thing that stopped Leopold — NIC fence up against the wall with cardboard between the fence and the wall.


          • Stickerbunny
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              Hrm. I could get some boxes from work and try cardboard. Knowing her, she’ll just eat the cardboard though and go back to the wall. o.O I keep telling her she WON’T like what she finds if she chews through to the other side (10 cats and a great dane, all of which would think a small rex would make a tasty snack) but that doesn’t help.

              I had to put what NIC panels I do have across the wall of their x-pen enclosure (it’s baby gates on 3 sides and the fourth I was using the wall… which she decided to try to eat!) and it’s blocked her doing too much damage.

              … of course she’s also eating the WOODEN FLOOR. I found tooth marks in the plywood (I pulled up the tile cause I knew she’d eat that, but geez). I don’t even know how she gets her teeth into the floor. So, I need something to go over the floor too I guess, but it can’t be anything absorbent cause she pees all over carpets and rugs and stuff. *sigh*So, tile she’d eat and carpet she’d mark. And plain wood she somehow manages to chew. This leaves me with… (insert your suggestions here)?

              … anyone want one very adorable but evil rex bunny? Luckily my mom doesn’t care too much about animals damaging things. Her dogs do a fair amount of damage themselves.

              Notice how my only issue with Powder is he won’t leave the enclosure… otherwise he’s like “I”m just going to lay here and be good..”


            • jerseygirl
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                You’ve been going through it! Hope things will be looking up for you soon.

                Why am I not surprised it is Stickers being the most troublesome?!! Interesting Powder is hanging out in the pen given he never liked them. He must think of it as his safe place.

                Are you able to source some chloroplast (corflute?) sheets? I managed to get some largish ones that were used as layers between cans on a pallet. It was from a place that sold salvage. Old sign boards perhaps? Cardboard’s good and gives her something to play with but you’d have to keep replacing it. If she eats a lot of it, that could cause problems. If she doesn’t, no worries, it’s just a mess.

                What about checking out things like freecycle for pens?
                If you’re concerned about the space they have, you could try doing a second level in the pen if you can find the materials. They seem to like going up to higher levels and it allows exercise within a smaller footprint.

                With the flooring, is it vinyl tile on plywood? Is it just when pen is open when she can get to the edges? I was going to suggest a vinyl remnant for flooring which is okay if they can’t get to the edges when pen is closed. I’ve used large ceramic tiles and pavers to pop on edges or trouble spots. 


              • jerseygirl
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                  Another thought; is there room for a small piece of furniture to go in front of the hole in the wall? Even like a hutch that you could secure the 3 pen sides too, the hutch/box/furniture being the 4th side. Something that could be sacrificed to bunny teeth. Even an old cupboard (safe wood) without doors that you could put some levels in.


                • Stickerbunny
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                    The floor is not anything over plywood. It’s just 3/4″ plywood itself. And she’s… managing to get her teeth in it? Do not ask me how. It’s not edges, she’s literally eating the floor itself… I saw her scraping her teeth over the flat floor the other day. I took the tile up cause she’d chew it, as it was adhesive tile. I wasn’t expecting her to eat the actual flooring itself. *sigh* We’ve given them some wooden block and stuff to chew. But, she ignores everything I give her to chew and goes straight for whatever I don’t want her to chew.

                    Cloroplast is available, it’s just expensive. :s And … right now I am worrying over my $2 lunches at work being too expensive. In Florida, no A/C in my car, no spare tire for my car atm cause my tires are dry rotted and I am slowly replacing them all. Cloroplast is about $7 a small sheet, from the places I can find it. I’d need … probably 10? to cover the walls to block her teeth. She will literally bite any piece of wall left uncovered. I’m pinching food off my own food budget to buy them veggies as is.

                    … Stickers is ALWAYS the one that gives me trouble haha I swear the rabbit sits and thinks of ways to get into trouble, just to annoy me. I used to keep a water bottle and a bowl available for them, but she somehow managed to chew the bottle to pieces through the NIC wiring (bottle was outside, with just the spout inside, she got her nose through enough to eat the bottle).

                    And yeah, Powder seems to be viewing the pen as his safe spot. When we were driving down (18 hours straight, but we stopped over night in Memphis and again in Atlanta) I tried letting him out to play in the places we stayed and he jumped back in his tiny travel cage like “NOPE! You aren’t leaving me exposed!”

                    On the bright side, the great dane peeked in the room at them and they didn’t freak out. They came up to sniff her nose and scared her (a great dane scared of a 6 and 8lb bunny, oh boy). The cats freak them out though, they aren’t fans.

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                Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Having issues with my two in the new place