How to stop chewing? Anti-chewing sprays or vinegar?

[Tigargurl]

Do anti-chewing sprays or vinegar work well on getting bunnies to stop chewing furniture and baseboards?

We have phone books, tubes, and cardboard strewn around the house for the bunnies to chew, but they prefer to taste everything they can get their little mouths on. We have cords in ridged plastic protectors, but they like to chew the protectors up too. We don’t have cords on the floor but they’ve learned to climb chairs to get onto the desk. We also want to get a new couch and don’t want it to end up with holes in it like our old one! I’ve heard about putting shelving grids around the couch, but they also jump onto it and chew the cushions. Please help!

[iriswarrior1]

My rabbits could care less about phone books, cardboard tubes, or sheets of cardboard. They’re going to chew no matter what you use, and sprays will only drive them to chew something else like carpeting. The trick is to find what they really LIKE to chew best, and leave that around.

My bunnies love compressed timothy hay blocks, we leave them everywhere, near their food and water, under the dining room table, just anywhere they hang out. Another cheap alternative is those $1 beach mats made of straw. My rabbits shred those right up,and while cleaning up is a little bothesome, the love it, and it’s not as bad as the thought of having to buy new furniture.

As far as the sofa is concerned…You may have to get plastic slipcovers. Fang and Smokey didn’t like the feel of plastic covers, they kept sliding off, so they avoided a plastic cover. We don’t have plastic now, because my husband is always in the living room with them, supervising his ‘minions’.

Large cardboard boxes work for me (especially if you put something valuable of yours inside), bunnies seem to want to get their owners personal belongings. Just leave the closed box lying around , and they’ll knaw at it. My Smokey is also toatlly into TV Guides, especially those little postcards inside for sending back to order stuff. The TV guide, and most newspapers and paper products, are printed with soy ink, so they’re not harmful to bunnies. Oh, and if you do buy a new sofa, make sure you leave the sales tag ON when it’s delivered! My rabbits LOVED the tag, it took them three days to completely destroy it!

They also adore potted palm trees. Palms are fibrous and woody, and are great for little nibbles. Make sure you VERY CAREFULLY check which type of palm tree you get, certain ones are harmful, check with your doctor. HouseRabbit.org also has a great list of plants that are safe or harmful to bunnies, check them out.

No matter what you do, you’ll have to resign yourself to the fact that you are going to be sweeping or vacuuming up shredded up pieces of something every day, and I personally think it sucks, but the alternative is overgrown teeth, and an expensive dental bill to have them cut. You’re going to have to see what they personally love to destroy most, just don’t give them anything that looks like power cords!

Also, baby gates or pens everywhere will help. it’s annoying, yes, but peace of mind is a great thing. Our TV and computer areas are ‘restricted with baby pens all around. We just ordered a glass fronted tv stand that will hold everything inside and keep the wires completely out of reach, yet it’s really pretty, and inexpensive too. When rabbit owners shop for furniture, they need to think about what will be bunny proof. My bunnies don’t like pine,therefore most of my furnishings are made from it. Wrought-iron bottoms for tables and chairs are great too, no knawing, and my rabbits play with them like a jungle gym!

Good luck, and keep us posted!

[BinkyBunny]

For baseboards and cord covers – Try rubbing a little perfume on the areas you don’t want chewed. YOU DON’T NEED MUCH. My vet told me about this trick and it worked well in my case.

For furniture you will have to supervise to train – the moment they get on, say NO, and either squirt them with a water bottle, or get them off yourself. The moment they even think about jumping on the furniture, you don’t allow it.

This is a real pain, but some bunnies will, liike mine, stopped getting on the furniture. I can’t remember how long it took, but I would say a few months. And then over time if I would catch them “sneaking” up, they would run off the moment the saw me so I knew THEY knew they weren’t supposed to be on there.

And when you can’t supervise, or if you don’t want to supervise every second, I know that MooBunnay said shower curtains worked for her on her bed I think because it was soo slippery that the bunnies didn’t like being up there. I could see where shower curtains may not be the most beautiful thing ever, but during training, this may help.

[dmh426]

My rabbit LOOOOVES the bitter apple spray that’s supposed to be a deterent. What I have found works best for baseboards and carpets, is perfume or a body spray. Sophie can’t stand it. She won’t lick, dig, bite or go near that area.

[megrat7]

I dont know if its true but I read that plain white dove soap is nontoxic to them… I used it with our other bun he HATED the smell and avoided it as much as possible. I rubbed it on the basebaords once a week or so, eventually put it in a spray bottle. India on the other hand could care less.
Vinegar water or perfume seems to work pretty well for us with her.
Bitter apple spray worked for our other bun for a while be he eventually got over it.

I have completely set up our room so that if we want to let her out the gate goes completely around the desk/other cords. Sea grass mats and yucca wheels are her weakness so those help distract.

I was there was a foolproof way to deter carpet chewing…

[Deleted User]

I tried perfume, lemon juice and bitter apple to deter chewing and nothing worked for me.
Wherever my rabbits have access to there is always a chance of destruction.
I only let my buns have free access to the entire house when I can supervise. The remainder of the time they have the largest room in the house which is completely proofed, or already destroyed… As a rule, I always say fancy furniture and rabbits don’t mix.
As far as the toys go, keep offering new ones until you find the ones they go for. For my rabbits it is dry willow branches which they strip the bark off meticulously.

[Kitty]

I used apple cider vinegar as it’s horrible thing and I drink it with water as it helps to loose weight…. and I had this idea to spray sofas from the bottom as we have recliners I can not barricade it cause once it moves, there is a gap again. so I sprayed everything under sofa and after a day when my living room stopped smelling like apple cider vinegar palace, he went under sofa again LOL so don’t waste your vinegar I will try to get cheap perfume and give it a go lol

[Author]

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