Pulling Out Carpet

[lovemypanda]

My Panda is about 7 months old and neutered. Ever since I got him, he likes to pull up the carpet. My whole entire apartment is carpet and I don’t know how to stop this. I know he does it when I block off one of his hiding spots(which are blocked because he likes to pull up the carpet or chew on things), but then he does it randomly in other spots.

 

Suggestions on what to do? He has toys, but doesn’t seem to like to play with them, but he does like to eat paper/toilet paper tubes..that’s about the only thing I’ve found that he likes..

[Mocha]

Theren’s nothing really you can do. They sell bitter apple spray (to spray on where your bunny shouldn’t chew), but some rabbits love the taste of it. Provide him with lots of chew toys, my bunnies absolutely love Snak Shak logs (the kind without seeds), willow, apple branchs, and natural toys. Make sure he is eating lots of hay to wear down his teeth.
You can cover the floor with bedsheets, but i’m not sure you’d like that. Does he have the run of your entire apartment? Maybe you can give him his own room (or an x-pen), where you can put sheets and towels down for him.

[litheandgraphic]

Yes, carpet can be especially pleasing for bunnies because it mimics what they’d do if they were still wild, pulling up grass and such.

 There are a few things you can try to do, such as clapping your hands loudly and firmly saying “NO!”, but, to be honest, that will work for about five seconds. Or you could try drenching your carpet in vinegar, which I uh, don’t actually recommend.

I think your best option is to get some sort of alternative flooring such as sheet vinyl or sheet linoleum flooring, or even large cotton blankets, that you can lay down on the floor whenever he’s out. Is he a 100% free-range bunny? If so, you might want to consider making him a pen with different flooring and then letting him out into a playpen with different flooring such as those I just mentioned. 

As Mocha mentioned, bitter apple spray sometimes works, but sometimes it makes the issue worse.

By the way, as far as chew toys go, you may want to look into stuff like this.

[lovemypanda]

He’s not free range, he has a pen, but I guess he will have to have a limited space with a sheet or your other flooring recommendations!

[Stickerbunny]

Cheap piece of linoleum or rugs over the regular carpet you can roll out for bunny playtime.

But to help curb the carpet eating what works for mine is to split their feedings up throughout the day. For example: I take the 1/2 cup of pellets (for two bunnies) and feed 1/3 of it in the morning, 1/3 of it in the afternoon and 1/3 of it in the evening. Salad will be split into two servings, instead of one larger one. Instead of a large bundle of hay in their litter boxes, I put a smaller handful and refresh it several times a day. If I keep up with it, they stop eating carpet. If I don’t, they “graze” on my carpets like they are grass and I get bald spots. Why they think carpet is tastier than hay that has been sitting for a few hours, I have no idea…

[Sindri]

They sell some cheap 5×7 rugs at WalMart for a little less than $20 you could get some of those to cover the carpet or get some blankets and lay them down. I just put new low pile low tread cheap carpet from Home Depot. I was going to get the rugs from Walmart but we decided to recarpet the room ourselves. I was having a horrible issue like you where Usagi was ripping the carpet up. So like Stickerbunny said above I would go with something you can put over the carpet and put away. I wish you the best of luck!

[lovemypanda]

thanks for your suggestions!

I think covering the carpet is probably the best idea, also never thought it may be food related. He has food all day, but I’ll try splitting things up too. I’ll try anything at this point!

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