Bunny chews everything, his bedding/walls/towels etc.

[Neverhood]

 Ok so I’m new here and have seen some great information. I have also seen some posts and pictures where peoples bunnies are just sitting on towels, throughout the house hoping around. Our bunny chews the baseboards, if we put a towel for him to lay on he chews it. We let him run around the house under supervision and after each session we have about 30-50 poops to pick up along with multiple times having to move his head from baseboards to stop the eating/chewing. We would love to have our bunny roam freely around the house but we have a feeling this will NEVER happen. Also, I am looking to build a condo for my bunny or buy him a wooden hutch, the only problem is I see peoples condos with all kinds of towels and soft things in there that our bunny would definetly tear apart and eat. And we are worried he will die from a clog in his system from the cotton and other materials. Also with the wooden hutch we fear we will get it and he will just eat the hutch till it practically falls apart. Help and advice would be greatly appreciated! Oh and he IS neutered.

[Beka27]

For housing, I would suggest an xpen with plenty of bunny safe stuff in there. You can do linoleum flooring, you don’t have to do soft bedding or carpets. Since his exercise time needs to be supervised, I would recommend a double xpen (4×8 feet) so he would have plenty of room if you cannot supervise him for whatever reason…

Not all rabbits are candidates for free roaming, and it sounds like your guy is one of those. This doesn’t mean he’s defective or anything, he is just more “in tune” with his natural instinct to chew and dig his surroundings.

What have you done to bunny-proof the space he’s in? Have you considered attaching untreated 2x4s to the baseboards or lining the wall with NIC grids?

[mia]

How long have you had your bunny and how you tried placing acceptable chew toys near the areas he likes to chew?

I kept mine in a pen with acceptable chew toys and let her know they were hers. When I started letting her roam, every morning I would wake up to “crumbs” all over the floor. However, she has a couple places she likes to hang out so I placed some straw mats that she knew where hers in those areas as well as some sticks. This has deterred a lot of chewing.

As for lining the condo, have you given your bun lining for a long period and tried securing it? Mine loves to chew towels but if it’s secured down, she will chew, dig, scratch, etc for a few days and then stop. I also door mats which are much harder to chew up.

[Tigger]

My bunny had the same problem! He gnawed holes in several of my towels, luckily he never ate pieces he chewed off. Try lining the bunny condo with grass or timothy mats from a pet store. Bunnies will chew them but they are safe and easy (and cheap) to replace.  I found that Tigger doesn’t chew on fleece pet beds or short carpet (you’d have to watch your bun to see how he reacts). 

Pet stores carry sour apple or citris sprays (that are safe) which you can spritz objects around the house that you don’t want your bunny to chew. As for the roaming around make sure you have a  litterbox that is set up properly and seperate from the one kept where the bunny lives (or just take it out during running time). Sometimes you have to retrain a rabbit good litterbox habits and it can take some time. I adopted Tigger from a humane society, and 4 months later we are still working on this. Bunny proofing a section of your house, a room, or even just part of a room is a good idea. 

[Neverhood]

Thanks for all the advice. We went out and bought the materials to make an xpen/condo, built it, and it’s sort of a mix of the two, its really big and he loves it. We lined it with the linoleum and it seems to be good so far. Also the thing is when he chews things like the baseboards and towels he eats what ever he chews, we see it go in and away. One more thing, this has just started like a month ago, he is eating his carefresh!!!!! It’s really annoying. He hadnt eaten it forever then he began and its mostly when we clean his litter box/cage out but we also see him doing it on a daily basis. When fresh carefresh gets in its like he just eats it like its a treat….is there any other bedding as good as carefresh that I can try that maybe he wont eat….or bedding that is safe for rabbits to eat? If that exists….

[Tigger]

Try Yesterday’s News; it’s non toxic (safe if bunny eats it). Also try putting timothy hay in on side of the litterbox if you haven’t already, rabbits like to eat while they do their business, the key here is to distract, and it also provides incentive for them to actually use the litterbox. 

[Tigger]

Also provide lots of distractions like chewing toys, etc. It is surprising how much they can help keep bunny away from objects you don’t want them to chew. And again, bunnies hate the smell of citris (and most perfumes) so spraying objects will keep him far away from things like baseboards (do not use it in his cage). 

[Neverhood]

Ok I will try putting some hay in the litter box. I have tried newspaper and it just is a total mess when cleaning up and I hated it. Also we got that spray from the pet store so he would stop licking his wound after being neutered and he LOVED that stuff and licked it even more lol

[Beka27]

Does he like eating his hay? There’s a theory that rabbits who chew excessively and actually EAT what they chew are looking to replace missing fiber from their diet. I would try to increase his fiber, even if that means reducing his pellets way down and giving multiple types of hay each day. You might also want to have a litterbox with hay in his play area so he has that option outside of the pen too.

[Stickerbunny]

He may calm down as he gets older, how long ago was he neutered? My female is a digger and she was pretty bad about it for a while… but she’s calmed down a bit now that I have given her A LOT of stuff she is allowed to dig/chew and had her spayed. Took about a month after the spay to even notice the changes in behavior as far as the digging went…

What I had to do with my female was give her a dig box, a hidey hole with a dig safe mat, a paper book to dig (with safe ink), lots and lots of toys to chew…and a paper tunnel she loves to dig and shred and has to be replaced constantly and makes a huge mess. And I was an annoying pest to her when she was digging the carpet by stopping her, I got many a foot flick and thump session for being such a killjoy. lol Don’t be mean, don’t yell but you can move them when they dig the area. My girl finally learned mommy wasn’t as annoying if she used HER stuff and not mine to destroy. When she uses her stuff I tell her what a good little girl she is, when she is being naughty just saying her name now gets me a foot flick and thump but she stops.

For outside time you can bunny proof a room for him to run around in – line the baseboards with something, like I have noisy paper on all my bottom kitchen shelves because my girl wanted to chew them, now she touches them and they crinkle and make noise so she doesn’t like it. Buy some mats to place on the floor for bunny run time if he likes to dig the carpet, you can get the ones they sell for kids playtime, or the clear plastic ones they sell for under computer chairs, etc. Then you won’t have to watch him so closely and you can enjoy his antics a bit more if he’s not destroying things.

[Tigger]

Yesterday’s News is a litter sold at the store, not the newspaper from yesterday lol

[Allie2620]

As for the baseboard chewing (or anything wood), I tried a few things unsuccessfully with my bun (perfume just gave me a headache, haha), so I tried just rubbing a bar of original scent Dove Soap on the wood and it seems to have done the trick for the last few months. I have to re-apply every so often (i.e. once I see Daphne chewing a corner again, I go attack it again with the Dove soap and he stops chewing that area).

Also, phonebooks have been a God-send, just rip off the front and back cover and let the bunny destroy the rest. It’s actually hilarious to watch (I’ve taken quite a few home videos, haha). My bunny eats some of the paper, but he mostly just loves to chew the binding and then tear the paper up. If he starts eating too much (or ignoring the hay), I take the phone book away for a few days.

Hope you find some combination that works!! It takes a lot of trial and error

[LizzyBunny]

I also have the baseboard problem! When thumper was in a condo she has linoleum flooring on top of wood but sadly she got into chewing both! Grass mats are a huge help though, very distracting.

[Author]

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