Need ideas for a digging & rearranging bunny

[dmh426]

Sophie has an x-pen and her two floor condo is in there. On the floor is an old sheet, protecting my hardwood floors and rug.  Sophie has pulled at the sheet until she gets it all in her x-pen, and has bitten holes in it by bunching, biting, rearranging and digging.  She has a digging box in her x-pen and some of her favorite toys which are switched out every few days. It’s not boredom that causes her to do this, it’s just something she does. Is there any way I can stop her from doing this or is there something else I can put down to protect the rug and hardwood floors?!? Any ideas? I am completely open….

[poopy]

This may be more of a chewing urge than digging. Mine do the same thing if they see a rug outside of the pen..they will nudge the pen until they can pull the rug in and chew it. You could try chew toys. If you are certain she really loves digging you can get a covered cat litter box and put a bunch of junk in there for her to rummage through. Or even a huge cardboard box if you don’t think she will urinate in it.

[Lucy]

Danielle- you might want to get some linoleum tiles to put down.. That way it’s all protected in her pen and you can add more blankets on top of it. I have a few rugs that I’ve gotten from target that Fujoe doesn’t mess with.. neither does Patina (you’ll get your bunny someday too.. mine is still a “foster” with the possibility that if it doesn’t work out, back she goes). They are the really cheap woven ones.

They go crazy for the fleece blankets- They are cheap right now at walgreens and jewel (I don’t know if you have either of those where you are) because all of the cold gear is on sale. You might want to make a pile of one or two of those to encourage the rearanging and chewing.

The other thing you might do is attach the sheet/new fleece blankets directly to the x-pen in a few places. so make a little hole in the sheet and then zip tie it to a few of the panels.. that way you can still open it to get in. but she can get the the floor underneath.

[dmh426]

I think linoleum may be the answer to my prayers.

I have the cheap woven rugs, and she tears those apart but I don’t care, because hey, they’re two for $5. I got her a pupy fleece bed and that didn’t work out. she wanted to chew it. She loves seagrass, so she has a mat and a basket that’s all hers. she’s got tons of toys, sticks and other things like that to chew on but loves the blanket and my expensive Pottery Barn rug!!!

[osprey]

Our guys live in an xpen too, and I made a base for it out of a 4×4 piece of plywood.  I covered the plywood with linoleum, and put a small 1" molding around the edges to keep the hay in and stop DJ from pushing out the XPen sides.  We put various rugs, mats and boxes on top of the linoleum, which the buns either lounge on or rearrange as they see fit.  The linoleum is glued to the plywood so there is no way the buns can get it off.  The flooring is cheap if you can buy it as a remnant.  I got mine at a carpeting store, but places like the Home Depot sell them too.  I made the mistake of getting a piece of linoleum that was not quite as wide as the pen and then put a small piece in to cover the missing area.  This makes a seam, which Curly Sue digs at, and she actually ripped a piece of it off.  I currently cover the seam with a litter box and several cardboard hidey boxes; when I have to do it again I will be sure to get a flooring piece that is wide enough.

[BinkyBunny]

That’s what we use – remnants from flooring stores.  SOOO cheap in comparison.  Linoleum is usually more expensive than sheet vinyl.   We use sheet vinyl, but if you do, you just have to make sure no edges are exposed to urine because the paper side will get soaked, and most likely soak up the urine smell along with it even after you clean it.  

We have also put rubber mats (the kind you connect together for kids playtime flooring or for the garage) underneath the sheet vinyl to make the flooring more cushy.   Rucy likes to jump from the top of their houses to the floor and it makes for a softer landing.   It also reduced the noise for the neighbors below when we were in an apartment.

Osprey, do you have any pictures of your pen?  I know – I’m a picture hog!   I would love to put it in the habitat gallery in the pens section to show people all the alternatives.

[Anita Stark]

Sable likes to rearrange blankets too.  We used to have the bottom of his pen covered in a fleece blanket but replaced that with some carpet laid upside down.  It is a jute backing and quite firm but the pile of the carpet being underneath gives it a bit of a cushion. 

He has a fleece blankie in the pen now.  It’s usually in his igloo, but if a bit of it is left to stick out from the bottom he pulls at it from the outside until he gets most of it through.  Then we throw it back in the igloo so he can start again.

Outside of the pen he likes to spend time in a shoe box where I keep the tea towel that I use to burrito him.  He likes to rearrange the towel in there and chew on the edges of the box.

[osprey]

You can see a bit of it in my profile pic, but I’ll try to remember to take a pic this weekend after I clean it.

[osprey]

Here you go, BinkyBunny, this is DJ in the buns’ pen.  In case anyone is curious, the black litter box that looks big enough to float a battleship in is actually not a litter pan.  It is called a mortar tub, and can be found at home supply stores like Lowe’s  or Home Depot.  It is for mixing cement.

122501444771.JPG

[BinkyBunny]

Great Thanks – it’s now in the habitat gallery in the pen section.

[dmh426]

Osprey- what’s on the bottom of your pen for the flooring?

[osprey]

The bottom is a 4×4 piece of 1/2 inch plywood, covered with a vinyl flooring remnant.  There is a small 1 inch molding around it to keep the pen from sliding out and to contain hay spills.  On top of the vinyl, there are several throw rugs (you can see a brown one in the upper left corner).

[dmh426]

Osprey I am LOVING that pen and the flooring. Looks like my dad will have a new project when he comes into town to visit…. I moving in the fall, and he’s looking forward to me being a first time home buyer at the age of 26. Lots of projects to keep dad busy since he just retired. Maybe this would tie him over till I find the house in Nashville! Thanks.

[osprey]

I forgot to mention that I have a painter’s dropcloth under the pen floor so that the pen does not scratch the hardwood house floor.  I have a waterproof one that is cloth on one side and plastic film on the other.  You can find these at home supply stores.

Every couple of weeks, I dismantle the whole thing, sweep and vinegar the house floor and the pen floor, wash the mats and the litterbox.  I think that the NIC cubes are also really cool looking, I would love to add a second story to the pen using them.  Right now we have to cardboard boxes in there so there is no room for the NIC cubes.  Maybe once the buns destroy these boxes I’ll rearrange things a bit.

What do folks use for hidey boxes for their buns?  I always use carboard boxes, but lately the buns have been peeing in them, which makes them nasty.  I have seen pictures of boxes people have made by cutting holes in plastic storage boxes.  Does anyone do this?  Are the holes sharp enough to cut a bun?

[BinkyBunny]

Yes we use the storage bins and cut holes in the them.  They come in a variety of colors and sizes and work perfectly.   We just make sure the holes are cut wide enough and we sand down any sharp spots, but we cut with real sharp carpet cutter and that really made things smooth and clean.

You can check out their little homes in on the webcam (well you have to have IE and windows mediea to see it right now)  and in the cool habitats in the pen section.

[osprey]

Very cool BinkyBunny, I just checked out your pics of the hidey boxes.  It appears that you turn them upside down, and then just use the covers for a shelf on top?  Do you then put blankets or mats or anything inside on the floor (one pic clearly has a blanket, cannot tell what is in the bigger one on the floor.)

How tall is the home made pen that you have in the kitchen pictures?  Do you have to cover it to keep the buns in, or do they get to free roam in that area?  DJ can easily jump over a 30 inch XPen, so I have to clip a sheet over their pen with clothespins when we are out of the house.

[BinkyBunny]

It’s only 24 inches in total and they have never jumped over it.   When we moved I was afraid they would learn to jump over it to try and explore, but they really love it and many times choose to hang out in there even when they have free access.  Rucy could jump over it if she wanted as she has jumped over higher barriers before, but shhhh….she doesn’t know it.   We’ve been able to keep that secret from her for two  years.

For the their hidey boxes, yes, we took the tops and glued them to them the bottom with construction adhesive -didn’t last long.  Silicone might work better or poke holes and use zipties to secure it.  Right now, their hidey boxes are without the lid on the bottom. (hopefully that made sense.)

For the inside we used carpet samples.  I only get the kind that are sealed on the edges (most are sealed)  I’ve gotten them from carpet stores for $1 or $2, one store just gave me a bunch.   You can also see the carpet samples out over the vinyl sheeting.   i did use blankets but for some reason they liked to chew on those and they left the carpet samples alone (even though at our old place, Jack liked to chew on "our" carpet.)

[MooBunnay]

For hiding for my buns, I made basically a plywood version of a cottontail cottage (well, OK, my Dad helped but I used the staplegun!).  I put the litterbox  on the first floor so it is hidden and then the second floor has a ramp up to the top floor.  Kramer likes to use the top floor as a lookout post, its juuust high enough that he can get his little chin over the top, and peek down at what is going on outside, very cute. i will take a pic and put it up!

[dmh426]

we loooooove our cottontail cottage. I mean, oops, Sophie loves her cottontail cottage.

[lilmizzsnickerz]

domino has a room in which he can lie down 3 times in a row in each direction the floor is covered with a mat he has a small box to chew a cat box with a blanket which he sleeps in and i havent had any problems with him eating the blanket hes has a cat litter tray and dog food bowl for water and smaller rabbiti bowl for pellets and a wire ball that i put the hay in is this okay

[Author]

Messages