Best flooring for condo

[Milo the Bunny]

Hello,

I recently adopted a lil dude called Milo. At the moment he’s on his one as a house bunny and I work from home/am at home 5 out of 7 days, with my partner being in the other two days. He’s in a too small cage that’s always open in a bunny proofed room. He’s litter trained.

This weekend we’re building him a bunny condo out of grid squares like we did for the two guinea pigs we have. It’ll be two grids high with the guineas on top so he can’t jump into their cage when free roaming. It’ll be five grids long maybe even longer, with platforms for him to jump onto. 

My question is – I’ve seen a lot of different opinions on flooring. I’m worried about his little feets! The guineas have fleece with puppy pads underneath on top of plastic sheeting. I feel this won’t be right for Milo as I can’t risk him eating the puppy pad. I originally thought plastic sheeting (two layers) with lino on top, but I’ve seen that fleece is good. He likes to chill out on hard surfaces (I think he gets warm) so I’m not sure?

Help!

[Cocoa]

I would use fleece for his cage with something under the fleece. You could put a few tiles in one corner so he has a cool spot

[Rain]

Yes, fleece is good, and so is memory foam mats (you could have a big one in one side, as buns love to sink their feetsies into those!) because they are easy to clean, especially if your bun ever does happen to have an accident. I don’t think plastic sheeting is good for buns because they tend to chew, so that wouldn’t be very safe for them. I think fleece (just make sure it doesn’t slide and slip around) is one of the best options.

[Milo the Bunny]

How do I make the fleece not slip around? I do think he’s a fan of fleece as we have some down in his room and he loves it! But he also love pulling up. Good call on memory foam mats! I’ll deffo get some of those.

Re the plastic sheeting, that’s just the protect the floor, they’ll be lino on top so he won’t have access to it.

[Rain]

You could use those rubber mats that have holes in them. They are called cactus mats or something like that. But they are pretty pricey so maybe not those. If you bought a bunch of giant, cheap memory foam mats, you could just use those, since they don’t slip.

[Rain]

This is the cactus mat thing I was talking about:

[Vienna Blue in France]

I have biig buns and fleece was not an option as it scoots around too much (although FL Az clips her fleeces into place) and they are nibblers !!!

So in my nic condo they have a bedside floor carpet rug with wooden slats screwed on at the side (on the top) so they cant nibble the carpet (they just nibble the slats). Seems to work, and as i bought the 3 rug s second hand, i dont mind that they try to nibble through….

I reckon if mine had the cactus mat thing, it wouldnt last a week before being in shreds…..

[Milo the Bunny]

Thanks for all your help everyone!

I’m worried about sore hocks – they look painful! He seems to really like floor with nothing on it though to lie down on (he’s quite the fluff ball i think he gets hot), would a small area be okay without anything? Just a couple of tiles or something! Otherwise, is fleece going to help with his feets? I’ve checked today and he looks all good.

He’s my fourth bunny in my life time but I was a silly bunny owner with the other four (two when I was a child, 2 that escaped/were taken from outside my home a couple of years ago) and I want Milo to have the best possible life.

[Cocoa]

That’s fine to leave a small area with nothing. As long as he has space to be on something soft then I think he is fine. Both of my bunnies always push the towels off of their favorite spots because they like it being cooler

[mschoonover11]

If u make him that cage, just make sure u still let him out. Especially since you said he’ll only be on the bottom floor.

Everything everyone recommended sounds great, but I’m just going to tell you what used for my 2 story bunny condo. I use linoleum flooring that I bought at Home Depot. It works great, and it’s smooth so that it won’t give the buns sore hocks. In the winter when it gets cold, I just put blanks and warm fleece over the linoleum so that he won’t be cold. You should try it! Even for the piggies!

[Garbies]

Posted By mschoonover11 on 3/27/2018 3:17 PM

If u make him that cage, just make sure u still let him out. Especially since you said he’ll only be on the bottom floor.

Everything everyone recommended sounds great, but I’m just going to tell you what used for my 2 story bunny condo. I use linoleum flooring that I bought at Home Depot. It works great, and it’s smooth so that it won’t give the buns sore hocks. In the winter when it gets cold, I just put blanks and warm fleece over the linoleum so that he won’t be cold. You should try it! Even for the piggies!

Is linoleum soft enough for bunnies? I’ve gone through many different floorings with my buns. I’ve used:

• Different rugs
• Blankets
• Picnic blankets
• Foam interlocking tiles

Right now, I’ve pieced together waterproof dinner mats with an anti-slip grip underneath that provides some cushion and bounce for the bunnies. So for it’s working well, but it’s not as soft as a rug or blankets. It also comes apart a bit when they they start doing binkies. How long have you used linoleum and how old are your bunnies?

[mschoonover11]

I have soft linoleum and it’s very safe for rabbits. It doesn’t have a wired bottom so it won’t give him sore hocks. My bun binkies all the time and plus, I let him out in the soft carpet every day. I was giving a helpful suggestion which many people from my House Rabbit Society have taught me. This is actually about Milo the Bunny’s question, not mine

[DanaNM]

Is he prone to sore hocks?

Typically rex breeds and larger breeds are the ones to worry about. Also, if he gets lots of run around time, it will be less of an issue. Rabbits who are cage-bound tend to get them from sitting in one spot all day, especially on hard flooring or wire flooring.

And not everything has to be super soft, as long has he has soft things to go to sometimes, and different textures.

My cube condo has a plywood base, covered in vinyl tiles. I keep that bare, since the litter box and water bowl are there, and they like to lay on the cool surface sometimes. The levels are thin plywood, so it’s got some flex, covered in fleece.

It can also help to provide some loose fleece that’s bunched up, as it provides an uneven surface that’s good for their feet.

Many people like to use foam interlocking play mats (EVA foam) for their flooring. Mine like to chew things like that, though.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[mschoonover11]

I agree with Dana. Not everything for them has to be super soft, as long as they get access to soft things as well. My bunnies condo is also ply wood based with linoleum tiles on top which is pretty much the same thing as vinyl tiles. He just sleeps there at night though. He gets to hop and run in my carpet almost all day. He also has a huge plush doggy mat that he sleeps on. So again, as long as bunnies have soft things to access to, they can sleep on linoleum or other things that are not s soft.

[MountainBuns]

My bunny refuses to step on hard floor but then she does not like soft blankets so it really depends. You can try and give her different “samples” of flooring and see which she likes.

[kurottabun]

My bunny room is fully tiled so I had to use something to provide friction. It’s hard to get linoleum where I’m from so I use the interlocking foam mats that @DanaNM mentioned, leaving a small space with the original tiled floor so that Kurotta can lounge there when it’s hot. I’ve seen him chew on the foam, but noticed that this only happens when the edges of the mats are exposed, so I made sure that all the edges are covered with something else and it hasn’t been a problem since then.

[Milo the Bunny]

Soz I got locked out of my account.

Thanks for all the advice! We went with foam mats, he hasn’t tried to chew which is great. Tried fleece over the top but he just pulled it up! He’s barely in it, only when the bunnies have floor time but so far so good!

[Milo the Bunny]

I meant to say guineas not bunnies ? *bunnies on the mind*

[Author]

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