Lining laminate/hardwood flooring

[bunnyman14]

Looking to upgrade Snowy from her base cage to an even bigger area to live, when we are not at home, and also we’re having some construction work going on in the house and extending our living room and kitchen, and after seeing how much space we have to use, we’re looking to give Snowy either a large Pen or combining a small and large X-Pen/Playpen/Run or even a large C&C Cage (thoughts on this?). 

We’re just concerned about how she’ll react to going from a base cage lined with woodshavings, to a laminate/hardwood floor. Would we need to use a rug or should we line the floor with newspaper and stick with woodshavings?

Any advice to help her with the shift in environments as she’ll be going into a completely different area of the house that none of us will be familiar with, would be amazing! 

thanks!!

[mimimomo]

I recently moved from an apartment with carpet to one with laminate floors, and my bunnies are much more cautious on the laminate (even after several months). I think because their paws are fluffy (such a surprise after having cats and dogs with paw pads!), they just slip too much on the hard floor. It’s too slippery for them to run around and binky like they used to.

My solution was to get a pretty big area rug to give them some traction, and they seem to be much more comfortable on it. They still like to lie down on the laminate areas, probably because it feels nice and cool, but I think the rug makes them feel safe knowing that they can run full speed if something scares them!

If you do decide to go the rug route, definitely get a cheap one! My bunnies absolutely destroyed the carpeting at my old place – they loved to pull at it with their teeth. Also, the lower the pile the easier it will be to clean.

[bunnyman14]

what about lining the floor with puppy training pads?

[jerseygirl]

You could use training pads but I don’t think they’d stay in place. I know my guys would just tear them up and eat them.

Anything absorbant will likely become a toilet also. Did she use a litter box when in her cage with the shavings lining the base? When there are 2 different litter-like materials, a rabbit will often just use the whole cage as a toilet.
Im a fan of using vinyl remnants that have a bit of texture for traction. I like the fact I can easily sweep up mess, and clean any urine that ends up out of the box.
Other have used those foam puzzle mats, which I’d like to do but again, I know my rabbits would just destroy them.

[kurottabun]

I use the puzzle foam mats on my tiled floors and they’ve worked pretty well since Kurotta doesn’t chew them

[Nutmeg]

I built what I like to call “Bunny land” out of Nic Cubes and Zip Ties – I started off with the foam mats, but my bunny would chew that SO I bought a cheap carpet and put that on top of the foam mats (so it add some cushioning when they landed from a binky or a jump) for traction and put things in the corners where they were most likely to chew the carpet up.

** now mine is now one square higher than this as these little buggers can jump out lol, so I just made a swing door on the one end so that I wasn’t climbing over 3 feet high squares to get in and out lol. 

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