Flooring Fiasco!

[Moxie]

Well I just had a doh moment in regards to my flooring choice for Penelope’s bunny room. We have hardwoods through out our home and it is a rental so there isn’t too much that I can do to change that. When I first brought her home she wouldn’t exit the cage at all. I chalked that up to her adjusting to a new place and didn’t think to much about it, just gave her time and waited for her to come out on her own. Each day I would have to remove her from her cage to clean her litter box and the surrounding areas since she would have ‘accidents’ during the night. At first I tried placing Penelope on the hardwood, but she was having none of that! Completely flattened out like pancake bunny and her little feet couldn’t find any purchase on the smooth surface at all! So I got wise to my buns discomfort and placed her on a blanket and she was timid but generally ok with it. We had a large area rug in another room that wasn’t really needed where it was so I moved that into her bunny room after a through cleaning/drying a couple days later (I didn’t want to take any chances of something on the rug irritating her respiratory system) . Eventually she exited the cage after about a week and half (yay!!) and has been fine with the set up since. Well…. this morning I came into the room to do our usual food/water/litter/hay change and she hopped out to greet me. Where she promptly began nibbling the rug! Here is the doh, it is a shag rug….I feel like such and idiot after looking through the old forums and removed the rug immediately! But, now she won’t leave the cage. I found an old fabric remnant roughly 4ft by 6ft and placed that on the floor and she will hop about on it, though she isn’t happy about it. It is way smaller than the rug was and limits her space to run about dramatically. Now I am looking for bunny safe flooring alternatives. I thought about getting a large woven type floor covering similar to those made here http://www.growngreenrugs.com/desig…gner-Weave, but

  (A) The size I need will be pretty pricy.

  (B) She loves to chew sisal and jute!

and

 (C) It will take a couple of weeks to arrive.

I am at a loss here. I want to buy something safe for her to chew if she deems it chew-worthy, but I don’t want to spend a ton of money on something that I KNOW she will destroy. Also I am worried that she will Ingest a ton of the stuff if it is readily available for her nibble as she pleases, haha. Has anyone else had his problem? If so what did you do/ buy? Where did you get it? How have the bun/buns reacted to it? And was it terribly expensive? HELP!

[Sarita]

This is what I buy from Walmart – it’s short piled so no chewing – it’s cheap and when it’s too stained to keep, I just toss it:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays…g/17324471

They also have these smaller rugs at Walmart (not the ones I linked to) that are washable – I wash and don’t put them in the dryer that I also use and have not had a problem with rabbits chewing on those.  This is what I currently use for my senior with some plastic rug runner that I got from Home Depot underneath because he’s on a wall to wall carpet and he’s very messy so I needed something I can wash often.

[MoveDiagonally]

I’m using the exact same rug that Sarita linked in my bunny pen right now. It works great.

[Moxie]

Posted By Sarita on 11/15/2013 10:46 AM

This is what I buy from Walmart – it’s short piled so no chewing – it’s cheap and when it’s too stained to keep, I just toss it:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays…g/17324471

They also have these smaller rugs at Walmart (not the ones I linked to) that are washable – I wash and don’t put them in the dryer that I also use and have not had a problem with rabbits chewing on those.  This is what I currently use for my senior with some plastic rug runner that I got from Home Depot underneath because he’s on a wall to wall carpet and he’s very messy so I needed something I can wash often.

 Thank you guys so much for the help! I just called my local Walmart and they have three in stock, perfect color and size. Yay, my bunny can binky once more !!

[Moxie]

I just wanted to say thanks again to both of you for the suggestion about the rug. It is working out perfectly! I even bought another one to go in the main space of our living room and last night Penelope ventured out into new territory there! She hung out with me while I folded laundry. Although, she was being a little scamp and kept nibbling at my pants leg and trying to steal one of my wash cloths lol  it was great to have her there. I eventually gave up on the laundry and just snuggled with her!

[MoveDiagonally]

I’m glad it worked out well for you

[Author]

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