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- This topic has 3sd replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 8 months ago by
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Hi
I’m an accidental house rabbit mum, I agreed to look after a bun for a friend while she went away (9 months ago!), then when she came back, she decided she didn’t want him back
Poor bun, he was so happy and part of the family anyway, I had been kind of hoping she’d say that!Anyway, he lives free range in my bathroom. He is let out of there into the adjoining room daily, and has a cage for night time. I can’t let him downstairs, as I have a dog who LOVES chasing, but who is scared of stairs so chooses to live downstairs. There is no where else in the house he could live, and to be fair, it seems to work for all of us (except guests, who can be a bit surprised having a rabbit come up and greet them when they go to the toilet..
)I need to replace the flooring, and I’m wondering what you guys would suggest. He has shredded the carpet (I don’t mind, I was going to replace it anyway so he kind of saved me a job). The problem is he is now digging at the wooden floor underneath – in particular he is determined to get behind his cage even though there isn’t actually anything there
. It’s an upstairs bathroom, and it’s not very big (2m x 1.5m). I had been thinking of putting lino down, but I’, pretty sure he’ll dig through that. Laminate is out, as its not waterproof.
Any advice would be very welcome.
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Hi there
You can get waterproof laminate for wet areas, but it does get pretty pricey. There is also the concern that bunn may be able to get his teeth between the planks and pull them up if determined. Whoever heard of carpet in a bathroom anyway
You could use lino, a lot of people use it in their rabbit’s condo cages, including myself. I’m not sure whether they’d be able to dig through it because the claws slip more on it rather than the way they pull at carpet and there’s no edges or joins to grip. You just have to be sure that all the edges are secure. Otherwise, tiles, which is a lot of work. I’m not sure what to suggest otherwise.
Some other options for dealing with his digging at that spot, include pulling the cage forward slightly to let him explore behind there. If he’s let behind there and gets to find out that there’s nothing there, in most cases it becomes much less interesting and they lose the desire to go back there (not always). Another method to put him off is one that I think Q8 tried (correct me if I’m wrong, my memory is hazy on this) where they put their mobile phone on a loud setting, put it behind the furniture that bunny was determined to get behind, and when bunny tried to get back there, dialed the phone so that it rang loudly and scared their bunny away.
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I never thought his nails might slip on lino, that makes it more appealing
I tried letting him go behind his cage, but he still tries to dig, and eventually he will suss out that leads to the pipes behind the sink, and I dont want him to find them! He’s a very curious bun.
I need to fence in those too really…. Thanks
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