Dig spots she can dig?

[Jared w/Princess, a Holland Lop]

My bunny is a house rabbit but she is always trying to dig into the carpet. It doesn’t seem to be hurtful to anyone or anything, so I’m not necessarily trying to prevent it. (Does it start off innocently and eventually turn to mayhem?) I just want to give her some kind of toy that she can use to feed her digging desires. Other forums have suggested putting a phonebook and some paper you would otherwise just recycle into a large cardboard box and letting the bunny go to town, but users reported it becoming an unintentional litter box -.- . 

[Monkeybun]

Moose, my little dutch bun, had a diggy box full of shredded paper, and has never once used it as a potty. it depends on the bunny. Give it a try, could work out.

[Elrohwen]

Definitely a phone book – my bunnies love those. Blankets also seem popular. I’d try the dig box and just hope it doesn’t turn into a litter box.

I would discourage the carpet digging – you might not care now, but in a future house it could be a problem and it will be too late to change the behavior.

[Jared w/Princess, a Holland Lop]

I tried just leaving a phone book out on the floor, but she never approached it. (Which kind of makes me happy because I can leave my books on the floor, lol) How can I let her know she can mess with that one particular phone book?

And how do you train her not to dig carpet? I was told that punishment doesn’t usually work well with rabbits. I also can’t watch her the entire time she’s playing (she has a very small cage, so we let her out more than most people do). I have been mostly successful with “No!” and a clap at cords, but carpet is literally everywhere.

[Elrohwen]

Since she’ll listen to you, I would keep going with “no” and clapping to get her to stop digging. You can’t watch them all the time, but if you’re consistent she will hopefully learn eventually that she’s better off finding something else to dig at.

To get them started on the phone books, I find it helps to start ripping out some of the pages yourself, then make sure you put it in a good digging spot. Mine will ignore it unless I put it in a corner of their pen – for some reason digging in corners is much more fun than digging out in the open.

[Huckleberry]

Mine was a chronic digger from the start. She ripped the carpet up all around the perimeter of the room right down to the cement. After we got her spayed, she stopped digging at the carpet almost completely. She still does it from time to time, especially during the early fall, I’ve noticed. She is currently trying to make a cave under the couch so she has torn the little dust ruffle flap off and made a nice little tunnel, now to just dig down through that pesky floor. :-/
I have tried saying “No” but that only gets a short interruption in her behavior. I have recently begun making very loud clicking noises and she responds well to that. She is still learning but its helping. So, you might look into clicker training.
I can not use a paper filled diggy box because I use torn newspaper as her liter, but I have given her several phone books to play with. I have to remove the front cover but after that, she is down to the “m”s in a day!
Does your rabbit have a secret safe place, a nest, she can go to? That might be what she is wanting, is to create a nest.

[RabbitPam]

The ink used in yellow and white page phone books is soy based, so it is much safer than any other form of printed paper, so I’d stick to that.
You can tear up pages, or use a shredder, pop the phone book with shredded pages and paper into a cardboard box and put her into it. Only worry about pee if it actually happens.

OR, you can take a peeled willow laundry basket, like they sell at Joann Fabric, turn it upside down on top of the phone book. Cut the handle holes big enough for her to get through and she will have a hidey house with a shredding toy inside.

Could also turn a cardboard box upside down and cut an entrance hole covering the phone book. If you hear shredding, you have a winner.

Spray some water and white vinegar mix on the carpet to put in a slight smell that won’t be detectable to you but she won’t like.

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