Rabbit Proofing
This is a very important
issue. Rabbits require and deserve run time out of their cage or pen
area. They need to stretch their legs and get some exercise. The more
time and attention you put into rabbit proofing your house the better
off you and you bun will be for it.
Buns like to nip,
bite or chew on items that are hard and have a sharp corner to them.
They tend to seek out sharp edged items whether it be a dresser leg,
table leg, table edge, floor trim, a wooden entertainment center,
whatever..... if they can find or reach a hard, sharp-edged item they will give
it a nip or two or three or more. So be prepared.
Electric
cords, phone cords, extension cords, computer cords, television and
cable cords -----these all pose a huge risk to bunnies and to your
safety as well. The entire room(s) where your bunny will be able to
roam free must be checked carefully for exposure to these life
threatening cords. Rabbits can receive shocks, electrocution or ignite
a fire from biting or nipping on an exposed electric cord.
Don't
worry --- this is not as daunting a task as you may think. First you must
check every wall and outlet for any thing plugged into the outlet. I
recommend that you get some plastic tubing from your local hardware
store. Slit the tubing open with scissors or a box cutter and then slip
it over the electric cord. Make sure that all of the electric cord is
covered by the tubing so that no exposed cord is available for you
rabbit to nip or chew or bite. Get the cord up off the ground too if
possible. Gather up any length of cord laying on the floor within reach
of your rabbit and secure it up high some how. Now I use lamps,
statues, vases and other items on my table tops, dressers and
end tables to secure the cords up as high as much as possible. Remember the
bun can reach up from their hind legs and nip at dangling wires too. So
make sure it's as high as possible. If you can gather the wire up high
off the ground from their reach and use a 3M temporary hook that
attaches and releases from your wall without damaging the wall or paint
surface.
Make sure you get all wires off the ground and covered with the
plastic tubing. Get all wires and cords up in the air as much as
possible. Look for items that have electric cords but are not plugged
in. For example a vacuum cleaner cord - my rabbits go for it the minute
I turn my back for a second. So now it's permanent home when not in use
is in the basement far from their area. I've had the cord replaced once so
far. Also look for telephone cords, cable tv cords, and computer cords
-- you really must look for these very closely because your rabbit will
seek and find them before you do. So take care of them first bunny
parent .It's not pretty, but necessary.
Since rabbits do like hard, sharp edges
you must protect these too. If something is smooth, then a rabbit
usually won't bother it. So furniture legs (dressers, tables, chairs,
tv stands, etc) that have a sharp, hard edge -- cover the item in a few
layers of thick plastic or bubble wrap and secure with clear packing
tape making a smooth seam. My biggest challenge use to be the legs of
my four poster bed - how to protect them. Super sharp edges. I
literally wrapped them all in several thick layers of plastic. This has
deterred my rabbits from nipping them. It may look stupid to outsiders
but we don't care. See below.
On lower shelves of tables and entertainment centers, I've found that
if I just cover the shelf with a rug or towel, the rabbit does not even
realize it's there and has sharp yummy edges. However do not use rubber
backed rugs in case the rabbit begins to chew or dig at it. The rubber
could be toxic to the rabbit if ingested.
If you can easily remove an item that he or she is obsessing over to another room, then that can be an easy, quick fix.
You
must look for other hidden dangers such as sharp edges, jagged edges,
or anything they can get hurt on. Under one bed in our house are some
metal supports that have sharp edges facing outward. So I taped a
cotton ball to the very end so that the bun can't get hurt.
You can utilize touch up pens, stain or paint to repair items that your little sweetheart nipped at. This works pretty well on stained wood or painted wood.
When I first got Baby she was pretty small and could squeeze right under my dresser where I could no longer see her or find her. Well I just hated that so we bought some pcs of trim, stained them to match the dresser and nailed them under the dresses side as a sort of "wooden skirt" to keep Baby out from under their - took a little effort but looks nice and solved the issue. So you can modify furniture if needed to protect your little sweetheart.
Look at backs of dressers and nightstand and other furniture to see if your little honey and get inside or behind or under it. This nightstand poised a real problem since I didn't want Baby hiding behind it where I could see her. So I just moved it flush up against the wall where she could no longer get behind it and hide from me. That handled that problem.
Keep an eye on wood doors, door frames and floor trim made out of wood. I understand other bunny parents have had issues with this. I've not, more than likely because of all the toys and bunny distractions I have all over my house. If you rabbit does try to nip at a door frame or other item you can always try Bitter Apple spray found at a pet shop. It's spray that does not stain (or isn't suppose to). But Baby actually like the taste and would lick it off and then go back to biting. I've also tried lemon oil concentrate from a health store - again Baby enjoyed it so that didn't work for me but might for you. You can try rubbing a bar of Ivory soap on the area too. This did deter Baby and once she gave up on the conquest, I would just wipe off the Ivory soap. This can be messy and not look very nice either but it did work.
You
can also deter their attention away from a "hot spot". For example I
have a floor lamp where the cord attaches to the base unit at the floor
level making for a very inviting cord in deed for sharp little bunny teeth.
So I've covered the cord in plastic tubing AND use a telephone book,
opened up to the middle somewhere to refocus their attention. They will
dig, scratch, rip and eat some of the pages (which is all ok). I use phone books all the time to entertain them.
If you have a rabbit that is just obsessed with a certain corner of
carpet (usually in a corner because they smell another animals urine or scent
under the carpet), just lay a few large (10" x 10" or 12" x 12")
ceramic tiles over the area. They can't usually move them and can't
rip up the carpet underneath them. Rabbits are always able to find the
carpet seam (which then tend to find and dig and bite at) while you
have no idea where it is. Search around your house for leftover tiles
from a remodel project or you can get them pretty cheap at your local
hardware superstore or at a garage sale sometimes.
These tiles can also be good for the hot summer. The tiles will
always be cooler than the air temperature and I find that all 3 buns
will lay on them to cool off.
To protect wood floors
from urine while liter training, get a large piece of linoleum and
cover the area. Sometimes a tile store will have pieces cheap or visit
your local hardware superstore. To remove the smell/odor of urine, use
the Super Pet Cage Cleaner -- it won't remove stains from a poop dish
but does totally remove the odor and scent of the urine.
Plants - they need to
be removed from the area where the rabbit will be allowed. Some plants
are poisonous to rabbits and it's not worth taking a chance. Just
relocate the plants please. Here is a link with more important information on plants and which ones are dangerous/poisonous: http://www.adoptarabbit.com/articles/toxic.html.
Rabbits won't run where
they can't grip their claws into something. They don't like un-carpeted
surfaces like tile or wood floors.I found that once I gave them a
series of throw rugs they would then run and binky and chase each other
since they can get traction to run. Here is a sample of some of the
throw rugs I've put down on my wood floors to get them some good old
run time.
So I bought this cute stool from a resale shop for the buns to hop up
on. Gracie uses it to get to the sofa. Yeah now I have to protect the
sofa from sharp nails that could start to dig at any time. I use a
throw blanket to cover the sofa surface. Baby however will jump up on
the back and the arms and will then leap onto the end table too if the
mood strikes her so be fore warned. Something innocent can really back
fire if you don't say to yourself okay where can they jump to from here
and then bunny proof it. Yes Gracie chewed on the sharp edges of the
legs. Since the wood was varnished (could be toxic) I don't let her nip
without correcting her and moving her away from it if necessary.
A final reminder about phone cords....our friends The Schutt family had a little pet rabbit named Pat (not sure if it was a boy or girl and so Pat was a universal name)...so little Pat would have some exercise time and Pat loved it, but the family would get distracted and little Pat would hop over to the phone cord and one nip and his/her teeth were through it. Now the family would take days some times realize that the phone cord was cut but little Pat sure had a taste for that phone cord since he/she cut right through it multiple times. Pat also fancied the buttons on the remote control for the tv. Oh did he/she ever love biting and nippin at those plastic raised buttons with sharp edges, well, until all the buttons were chewed down to a nub where you couldn't even tell what it was any more. Oh yes that little Pat was a dickens some times but what a cutie -- and a nipper too!
Another thing to remember is to protect your clothes. Not normally the
ones you have on, but the ones laying on the floor or in closets.
Anything within reach of a bunny on their hind legs is fair game.
Clothes hanging low enough in a closet or on a shelf need to be
protected. Shoes, boots, toys or anything on the floor of a closet is
fair game if the rabbit gets in there. Baby ruined a relatively new
dress of mine because she nipped the hard edges of the hem and front
button flaps. Yep in the trash it went, no saving that one. She once
nipped a small hole in a sweater sleeve right in the seam --- note where it would be
thicker. She must not have liked it and it quickly began to unravel but
luckily I caught it quickly enough and mended it. So keep those closet
doors closed at all times or hoist the clothes up high and bunny proof
the floor.
If you need to section off a certain part of the house like we do, we use a dog gate that has see through plexi glass on both sides (so rabbits can't claw and bite at each other through it) and then we utilize a board (since the two female rabbits even hate to see each other).
Be careful with the plastic dog gate as Baby nipped right through it. But it really does a great job. It safely keeps Baby away from Gracie and Dino. We open the gate each day for Baby to have run time in the living room where all the bunnies love to hang out -even the human bunnies.
HAZARD - Don't let any plastic grocery bags around in the open or stashed in a closet your bun has access to. They can get caught in the handle and can't get out. They then freak out and start to flop around making it worse. Please keep all plastic garage bags and the like as far away from the rabbits area as possible.
HAZARD - Don't hang an unhooked women's bra from a door knob or dresser handle. The rabbit might get it's head caught around the neck in the shoulder strap and not be able to get thier head out and CHOKE! Tell the women in the house not to do that (I know that many women do this and I'm not quite sure why but I know they do).
I have bought each Baby and Gracie & Dino cardboard houses from binkybunny.com. They love these houses and sleep in them all the time. The are totally bunny safe cardboard (which they can safely eat and digest). You can make different house layouts with the Bunny Maze Haven. In the pic below I have modified the house and this is really a Maze Haven and a half that I used to make the 3 story house for Gracie and Dino. I don't believe that Baby's castle is available anymore.
Once again I can't say enough about having bunny friendly distractions throughout the rabbits room and area to keep them busy so they don't chew or nip a things they shouldn't. Gracie's favorite thing is the Hay Manger. This is just a simple Pyrex glass baking dish filled with hay in the living room where Gracie will sit and chew away for hours at.
Keep as many toys and rabbit friendly distractions in their area as you can. This will always help deter attention away from being a naughty bunny and becoming a honey bunny again.
Here is a good article by Amy Shapiro with The House Rabbit Journal on how to keep your bun in line. Click on this link Rebel with Paws.
Another article with sound advice is More Than Just a Chew Stick by Margo DeMello, PhD with the House Rabbit Society.