How to protect wood floors from accidents

[Royal]

Okay so I’m not a bun owner yet so I’m taking action and prepping! My dad is a little ishy about this though because he doesn’t want a bun’s pee to ruin my ‘perfect’ and ‘beautiful’ wood floors. How can I protect them from being ruined or from the pee not even putting a smudge on the wood floor cause if they do my dads gonna kill me 

[OnyxMoon]

Ahaha! My dad is the same way. When you get your bunny, litter train them if they aren’t already. If they still have accidents, you can put down foam mats in the bunny area like they use in children’s rooms if the bunny you get isn’t a chewer.

Other than that, i would really just rely on them being solidly litter trained. You can also try putting down a rug in their area to catch any accidents so they’ll never reach the beautiful wooden floor! 

Also, I’ve heard of people putting down carpet/rugs in the bunny area but the bunny(s) would pull it up and tear at it. In this case, you could get some ceramic tile and put it on the corners of the rug/carpet to weigh it down. Then give them things to chew on or remind them of things they can chew on to redirect their attention if you see it happening.

[Hazel]

No matter what type of pet you get, there will be messes and things getting destroyed. Pee/poo accidents aren’t a big deal compared to other mishaps that can and will happen with a new pet. If your dad is this worried about a little pee on the floor, it might be better to wait until you have your own place? I would hate for you to get a bun and then for your father to tell you he can’t deal with the mess. 

[Sirius&Luna]

I agree, you can’t just rely on buns being perfectly litter trained. Sometimes they get sick and lose litter habits, sometimes they’ll be territorially marking etc. It’s really important that both you and your parents understand what living with rabbits is like. They can be very messy, even when litter trained I still have hay all over my house. Tables have chewed legs, wires are chewed through, books are nibbled on, sofas are chewed. My rabbits are only free range when I’m home but all of these things have still happened – you only have to pop to the toilet and suddenly they’ve peed on the sofa or are chewing a rug.

I’m not saying this to put you off, but it’s really important that your parents understand the commitment you’re making. We have some younger members whose parents have been really unsupportive and have made the bunnies move outside when they do normal bunny things like pee and poop… so it’s not enough to just assume you’ll have a perfectly trained bun, you need to put preventative measures in place, and make sure your parents understand what rabbits need!

[OnyxMoon]

Perfectly said! 

[Royal]

I asked my dad again about the messes rabbits make and such. He claimed he trusted me to prevent those messes and care for those messes if they happen but he really just doesn’t want the wood floors to get “destroyed” and that’s his main worry.

[Harley&Thumper]

Assuming you clean the accidents quickly you shouldn’t see any permanent staining. Here is a link on what to do if it does stain though.
https://www.hunker.com/12002045/how-can-i-remove-rabbit-urine-stains-from-wood-floors

[Gordo and Janice]

Okay, my two cents.

I agree with everything previously said. They are not perfect. Even well litter trained, not perfect. In our opinion ours was very litter efficient. Your dad makes it sound like he thinks the messes aren’t that big a deal and that they are easily fixable. If it’s little round poops, easy-pick ’em up. If it’s poop smears or loose cecotropes, depending on the type of wood floor and finish, could be easy-wipe ’em up. If it’s pee on the floor, depending on the type of wood floor and the finish and if it’s really fresh recent pee, easy wipe it up. If it’s not recent fresh pee but a little puddle that no one noticed until way after the fact…then you’ve got a significant problem. A potentially permanent problem. And it again depends on the type of wood floor, whether it’s some kind of laminate flooring, real wood flooring, and what type of finish was used on the floor.

Ours is a real red oak 3 inch plank width wood floor finished with some kind of water based polyurethane maybe? Can’t remember exactly. But the point is in the 6 years we lived at this house we have probably discovered 13 puddles on the wood floor. Six or seven were caught early enough to be wiped up and no problems. Of those remaining there is some type of permanent stain from barely noticeable to moderately noticeable. And truth be told if someone were to come over here they would probably never see them because the partial dark outline sort of blends with and matches the stained red oak grain of the wood. But I can see them and know exactly where they are because I spent considerable time with the white vinegar trying to get them to disappear with differing degrees of success. The factors may have been how long it sat there as well as how dilute or concentrated her urine was among other things.

Now let’s count the puddles discovered on the tile floor. I suppose urine being acidic could etch or make a permanent mark or discoloration on a tile floor depending on the type of tile. With ours it just wiped up without a problem. But there were many tile puddles in 6 years. And the ONLY reason that there wasn’t more pee stained wood floors is because we were thoughtful and creative in how to handle our situation. Otherwise there would have been a lot more pee on the bedroom wood floor and around her cage area, also wood floored. But we figured out how to keep those areas clean.

And as Sirius&Luna stated about peeing on the couch. Fortunately we learned quick about little rabbits, mostly the hard way. But we scotch guarded the new couch when we bought it and intentionally bought a huge kind of soft brown blanket that was comfortable and kind of matched the decor that totally covered the couch. And sure enough she pee’d several times and we caught it. A few times it barely soaked through but with scotch guarding and quick intervention it didn’t stain or ruin the couch and there was no residual pee smell. And she definitely chewed on the blanket and put many holes in it which Janice would sow back up. So the blanket protected the original couch and cushions from the rabbits pee and teeth.

Light scratches. Depending on where the rabbit goes and how often and how fast and especially turning corners, and if it gets spooked and tries to go from 0 to 60 mph in half a second and ends up running in place like it’s on ice, again all depending on the nature and finish of the wood floor, their could be scratches. We have very superficial scratches in certain areas. They aren’t deep into the wood but very fine superficial scratches in the polyurethane that you can only see when looking close at the surface with light reflecting directly off of it a certain way.

I don’t know your Dad’s expectations but by the sound of it and just to be safe I don’t think he would be cool with any kind of permanent alteration to his wood floors. The only way to keep the floors safe is to keep the rabbit off of them by putting something over the floor where the rabbit will be or restricting the rabbits free roaming area. Again so many factors as to whether this is good for you or your Dad or the rabbit.

All of this before we even begin to discuss the chewing. Because they do and will.

I wrote this long post to make a point. I am not trying to discourage you. But trying to let you know in advance there is so much more to having a rabbit as a pet than most people realize. It was one of the best experiences of my life. But we were on our own, cared about the rabbit, had the means, had the patience, and were able to adapt as we learned how to adjust to having a rabbit in our house. A lot of people learn the hard way. We learned the hard way. And I would hate for you to get a rabbit and then have your parent(s) decide that you can’t have it in the house any more or have it period.

It’s absolutely great that you are investigating and learning and asking questions here. That is intelligent and shows you care and you want to do things right by everyone. And this is the first step. Feel free to keep asking questions. As you can tell, I will willingly go into great detail about what we did and how we handled all kinds of situations with our little girl.

[OverthinkingBun]

That’s the exact thing my landlord said – bunny was okay as long as I made sure to protect the wood floor from accidents. So I’ve been over-cautious, and not had any problems. My bunny’s main pen has had various covers on the floor to protect it (a piece of vinyl flooring remnant has worked the best and been most attractive), and when she’s out and running around, I clean up right away. She doesn’t have direct contact with the floor when I’m not home. You might want to keep a closer eye on them until they have good litter habits. The few times my bun has peed on the floor, I used an enzyme cleaner while still wet to clean it off. Poop doesn’t leave a mark.

Good luck with your decisions

[OverthinkingBun]

That’s the exact thing my landlord said – bunny was okay as long as I made sure to protect the wood floor from accidents. So I’ve been over-cautious, and not had any problems. My bunny’s main pen has had various covers on the floor to protect it (a piece of vinyl flooring remnant has worked the best and been most attractive), and when she’s out and running around, I clean up right away. She doesn’t have direct contact with the floor when I’m not home. You might want to keep a closer eye on them until they have good litter habits. The few times my bun has peed on the floor, I used an enzyme cleaner while still wet to clean it off. Poop doesn’t leave a mark.

Good luck with your decisions

[Royal]

Thank you so much guys. This really opened my eyes to so many things and ill definitely remember all these things. I showed my dad these replies as well so hes thinking about it, thx again

[Sirius&Luna]

It’s great that you and your parents are taking this commitment so seriously

[Author]

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