Putting cardboard sheets down on places she’s tempted to dig and chew may be helpful!

Omg ? I’m going through the same thing and I’m moving so a new place where the floors are wood so so hope my girl doesn’t mess that up

You can put tiles in corners of the room? I’m sure you could find tiles that mostly blend into the colour of the carpet. Or you could try rearranging bit of furniture to block corners?

Tiles in the corners would work. Or put chew toys on top of the carpet spots. Make a dig box? She might not be digging due to hormones because bunnies like to dig anyway, so a digging box might work well long term.

Fernando has been chewing on the corner of the sisal rug in their X-pen/play area in recent weeks, and has by now pretty thoroughly disposed of it. As I got the rug on purpose to provide a rabbit-safe/chewable surface, I’m not much perturbed though I expect I may have to make a return trip to IKEA sometime this summer to get a replacement. In his case, I think he’s doing it as much to try to make a breakout route (that rug corner abuts the place where the X-pen is latched to the condo, and that white-furred scamp has been able to make good his escape a couple of times when I’ve not latched the bottom part properly) as to do his natural chewing. Speaking of digging, I’ve noticed both Fernando and Panda digging in the litterbox on several occasions recently when I’ve put in fresh litter and hay.

That’s a tough one. Once Icey started, there was no stopping her. It was corners and behind things along the edges. Behind dressers, TV stands, anything where she had enough space to get behind into a tight little space and then she would go to town. I think it was an OCD/creature of habit/natural instinct thing that immediately took. Fortunately we were moving to a new place and we had wood floors installed for that reason.

We did notice that in the new place she would try to do it on the rugs we had put down that were made of a pile (terminology?). Our wool rugs she would try and give up because there was nothing to grab hold of. But even on the pile rugs she wouldn’t go to town, she would just grab and pull a little. Occasionally we would find that she pulled just one or two out. I think because it wasn’t sturdy to the floor like a regular carpeted room that she lost interest. I believe she liked the challenge, the tug-of-war, the workout of it all. That combined with the instinctual aspects of the act of digging. Because in beween the bouts as she worked and pulled with her teeth and all four legs she would break into the frantic front claw digging.

So maybe since it was in the corners and along the edges where carpet is most sturdy being attached to the tack strip and tucked under the baseboards, if you put down a rug in the corner or where she likes to work, maybe its lack of sturdy attachment will make it not as rewarding an endeavor and she will lose interest? Hopefully?

But I feel it needs to be something hard to move. Or it has to be weighted down. Because our little booger would move and nudge whatever was in her way to get to what she wanted. We tried the cardboard, she slid, dragged, or nudged it out of the way. We weighted it down. She chewed right through it in no time to get to where she wanted to be to continue her work.

I think a decent sized rug would have enough weight and, with the course nature of it’s underside, not slide easily but yet not be sturdy and attached at the edges which seems to be the key for enjoyable excavating. But every rabbit is different!

Heavy ceramic tiles are the best thing I’ve found. Then put a cat scratcher on top to divert that energy.

I think you’re onto something when you said she might not like chew toys because they roll around. I read somewhere that many bunnies chew on doors, base boards etc because they are sturdy and they can get a good grip so definitely try attaching some wooden sticks or cardboard toys to her cage so she has something to chew on that won’t move

For the dig box, you can use sand, paper (shredded or balled up), even plastic balls could work. There is the chance that Rain will use it as a toilet though so maybe the plastic balls would be better as it’s less comfy to nestle in unlike sand?

She sounds so much like Icey. No interest in any toys or chew toys whatsoever. Colossal waste of money. Not even the toilet paper or paper towel cardboard centers. Only cardboard boxes, the carpet in the old house, baseboards, and outside corners of the sheetrock walls. All sturdy things. She would be on or in the cardboard when working on them to keep them sturdy. We moved to a different house and put in all woods floors (with rugs of course). Fortunately we figured out how to stop the baseboards and the sheetrock walls for the most part. And we got her a cardboard cat scratch box and she began using it as her litter box like you said it sounds like Rain would.

You know we didn’t know anything about rabbits when we got her and just relied on what the vet told us in a couple of visits so we weren’t very knowledgeable about diet and all kinds of issues with rabbits. So as far as rugs that are chewable for rabbits? Don’t know. Well obviously they are all chewable, but safe? Don’t know. She really tore up the carpet at the old house but I don’t think she ever ingested much. She certainly didn’t get sick. I think again it was the exercise or the satisfaction of the workout and the “winning” or it was just something to do that kept her boredom at bay. There would be little mountains of the carpet piles that she pulled out and she would spread and push them around and smooth them out with her front feet like rabbits do. She was spayed but maybe there was still instinctual nesting that doesn’t totally disappear.

All that said, I would guess most carpets and rugs are synthetic, then there is wool, and of course sisal rugs as well. I don’t know if any and how and what treatments are applied to these. Hopefully someone here is very knowledgeable about such. But again with the amount of carpet destruction that she did at the old house if she ingested any it was more incidental and she never got sick. I know this doesn’t help much with your question but the main thing that seemed to be the deterrent when watching her was the fact that the rug would come up, especially around the corners, when she would begin trying to pull the piles out.

And after a few head jerks and body pulling with the rug in her teeth and nothing satisfactory happening she would give up.

And then again Rain could be super intelligent and move to another spot in the game room and know where there is exposed carpet there is work to be done! Looks like wood or laminate flooring in the game room! Yay!

You’ll find out!

Okay, I didn’t read all of the thread. Didn’t realize you lived with parents and it’s not your house. Didn’t realize that Rain hasn’t been spayed yet.

You’ll probably have to keep her out of the room with the carpet until after spayed. Unless you are going to be in there with her ALL THE TIME to stop her destructive behavior. The hormones win. You can’t control that very effectively.

I think your best bet is to get an indoor Pen, get some Vinyl cut offs and section off an area of a room until she can be spayed. An unspayed Doe will continue to be destructive until her hormones have settled. Myrtle is still destructive and she has been spayed! I am still hoping she settles otherwise she will need to be contained while finn gets free range time. 

Posted By Rain on 3/31/2018 5:31 PM

AH You’re the one with the adorable fluffball Myrtle!!! Hi Emma. I think that I will just do that whenever she’s having her bad days. I feel somedays she’s more destructive than others. (Kind of like us girls!) Most of you have suggested that as the best idea until after the spay, so I will just go along with it. I just had another idea too! Baskets! She’s completely chewed up one of my mom’s baskets, which I’m not entirely sure if it’s untreated wood, but if she’s gone this far without any problems it’s probably safe. I could put some heavy stuff in the basket so it doesnt move around and has that same resistance that she likes. I will also try the idea of attaching a stick to the bars now that I’ve gotten the okay for it.
Gordo and Janice, she’s very smart. That’s exactly what she’s started doing. Although my parents are very supportive of me owning a rabbit, they have some limits to that support! Ha ha!

I think you are on to something with the baskets. A big part of preventing destruction is finding alternatives that your bunny loves to chew that are safe. For my girl, cat scratchers are the ticket. For Bunston, phone books were the solution (albeit an ugly one). You can often find untreated baskets of various materials at thrift stores.