Determined To DESTROY The Bed

[iluffsbunnies]

**UPDATE**

Okay, in the past week I was able to trial and error move things around in my room and my closet and FINALLY I was able to move my stored items into the closet and lay my bed flat on the ground.

Sheldon was totally confused and angered by this change. At first he ran to each of the corners, trying to figure out how to get under the bed. When he couldn’t, he started digging the carpet *beside* the mattress. Luckily, he is now totally visible at all times and thus can be squirted when misbehaving.

I’ve also acquired more variety of chew sticks and an Emery Cat. I put the Emery Cat beside my bed on one side and he has taken to chewing the emery now instead of the floor. With the sticks, I give him a stick whenever he starts chewing and digging the carpet on the remaining side. He LOVES his sticks! I gave him one and he ran dancing around the room with it in his mouth before finally leaping into his poop-box and chewing to his heart’s content.

I want to thank you guys for your ideas. I’ve also noticed that everyone with a picture of their rabbits… looks exactly like Sheldon. A black and white mottled lop. Gotta love it!

Michelle

 

Hi there  My name is Michelle and my bunny’s name is Sheldon. He is absolutely sweet and a total goofball but he has been getting reaaally destructive lately. It’s impossible to stay mad at him but I worry about his health.

He has been fixated with hiding under the bed to chew up and eat the carpet and he has also dug up into my box spring. An easy solution for this would be to just put the boxspring flat  on the carpet and  I would LOVE to do that. However, under the bed is  where  I store  my shoes,  my laptop, Sheldon’s litter and his hay in those long flat containers.  You’d think this would deter  him, but he actually just scuttles in  between them and moves  them around  because they’re pretty light.

The woman I adopted him  from suggested getting linoleum  for over  the carpet under  the bed, and I plan on getting that soon, but  that still doesn’t  prevent him from getting up into  my box  spring. Which he does. I couldn’t find him one day until I  heard him  chewing up  the wood.  Then  saw the big lump drooping down.  SIGH.

I also know he is going to chew  up the linoleum under  the bed  as well. I would like to relocate the  storage  bins but honestly there  is  no where else to put them.

I don’t know what to do and I’m afraid of letting him run around the bedroom because he’s just going to eat the carpet and hide in the box spring!!

Any advice would be really appreciated.

Michelle

[Deleted User]

Depending on the height of your bed you can run a row of NIC grids along the bottom to keep him out. It isn’t a safe place for him there with the storage items there. The grids are 14″ high so if this is too high or too low for your bed, you can also just get a pine board cut to fit. In a pinch, in the interim I would use a cardboard barrier.

[runawaybunny]

When I got Desmond I knew he was going in my bedroom and I was worried about exactly that. The bottom of the boxspring looked just too tempting to rip at and climb into. So I layed a huge sheet of carboard that I got free from a local furniture store across the bed rails and dropped the boxspring on top of that. I was a little worried he would try to rip through the cardboard but it worked great. He runs under the bed but he doesn’t dig at the cardboard.

[Beka27]

^^^That’s a good idea! The same would work if you took a staple gun and attached the cardboard directly to the wooden frame. Us rabbit people sometimes have to think “outside the box” (no pun intended) to keep our buns and our stuff safe.

[megrat7]

Get LOTS of other distractions. Indy gets determined to get into places he shouldn’t… like rooms that have the doors closed (he chews up the carpet in minutes trying to dig a way in). We’ve built him a little condo out of nic cubes and zip ties, he likes it there and he has cardboard on the second level to chew, and his own plush bed from the binkybunny store. The seagrass mats are great for chewers/diggers. We also stash his toys under the bed so he can chew on those and not the carpet. They like under beds so theres not much that can be done but provide distractions/get a bed without a boxspring (hellloooo Ikea beds! lol).

[RabbitPam]

The cardboard under the box spring sounds excellent. My solution has been to take a mattress cover, the ones with the elastic, rounded edges, and put it under the box spring rather than on top of it, then set it down. I have used the plastic, which isn’t good for bunnies if nibbled, but since it’s cold and smooth they usually don’t ever try to eat it, unlike cloth.

[iluffsbunnies]

OKAY I put the bed on the floor. Now he’s determined to TEAR UP the bed!! He jumps up and furiously with purpose digs the comforter and rips it with his teeth! Is he possessed? Is my bed and he’s trying to warn me? It is a down blanket, could that have something to do with it?

He can occassionally be distracted with deep ear massage, but he’ll suddenly jump up out of his stupor and begin furiously digging and biting the bed.

I don’t know what to do

[jerseygirl]

Try giving him his own digging towel or blanket beside the bed. It’s another play style for him. He’s sounds like a busy boy! So when he starts on the bed say “No” and direct him to the diggy towel instead. Hopefully he’ll learn you don’t sya No when he goes digs on the towel by himself – so he might (fingers crossed) where is ok and where is not.
Careful when he starts digging at bedding because sometimes they pee right after that digging and beds are a favourite pee spot!

[iluffsbunnies]

Hmmm I’ll try the towel. I did put some empty egg cartons next to the bed and even littered them with hay and a raisin or 2 along with some applewood sticks… he got the treats out but only sometimes digs up the box. It’s always the bed.

Oh, and when presented with his sticks, he takes them and throws them off the bed. Expressive, much?

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