Carpet monster!

[peppypoo]

How do you get a bunny to stop destroying/eating carpet? Or is this even possible?  Peppy is my little carpet monster, and unfortunately also eats some of the fibers that she rips up.  This is a major problem for her freedom time right now, and might be an even bigger problem for potential future bunny room plans (what to floor with?). I know that seagrass/hay mats can be put down in problem areas, but can this behavior be curbed in general or am I just hopelessly dreaming? HALP!

Peppy is about 9 mos. old and spayed in early October, if that helps

[Michelle&Lolli]

Try to put the mats down. Or spray the area with something stinky strong like perfume. Also, you can spray her with water. This is what I did with Eddie. Really the only thing that kind of worked on him was limiting his free time and then limiting his space when he did have free time. And also spraying his onery ass with water. lol

[peppypoo]

Haha I definitely try the spraying, but more often then not I just end up with a soggy bun who still won’t behave. And recently, with it being cold and all, I feel especially bad getting her all wet. Tried vinegar but it doesn’t seem to deter her at all, lol. I don’t have any perfume, but I’ll see what similar things I could dig up. Thanks for the suggestions!

[LoveChaCha]

Really. Stinky. Perfume.

[peppypoo]

Oh dear, I’m going to have to end up stinky perfuming the entire carpet, lol. I’m particularly keen on the possibility of stopping this behavior in general, not just in specific problem areas, because I would love for her to be able to free-range in a whole apartment after my boyfriend moves to his own place post-graduation. However, this will never happen if she can’t be trusted to hop around without somebody watching her every move constantly.

[Michelle&Lolli]

I don’t know that you can completely stop her. I think other people have had success with redirecting them – shooing them towards something they can chew on or placing that thing over the spot they chew. I’m not familiar with dutch bunnies, so if she has thick fur, she may not be feeling the water. It doesn’t penetrate to Lolli’s skin, so spraying her is completely useless.

What was weird for Eddie is that I got a cheap area rug for their pen area. It was like $20 at walmart and it’s very tightly woven. He never chewed on it. Of course. lol So depending on your apartment’s layout, maybe a few cheap area rugs placed around would deter her.

With Eddie it literally got to the point where 10 minutes after I let them out for free time, I’d have to put them back in cause he was chewing on something – carpet, end tables, door frames, etc.

Hopefully more people will post with advice. I’m not wanting to scare you, but just a friendly warning, I guess. Please try your hardest to prevent her from eating the carpet. Eddie died of a blockage that was probably mostly carpet. I just don’t want what I went through with him to happen to anyone else.

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