House Rabbit flooring: what a nightmare, nothing works! Advice welcome

[Autumn's Dad]

Hello all,

I try my very best to be patient and Autumn is my world but sometimes I just can’t keep from getting angry. This is due to the frustration I feel at trying to provide a suitable flooring only to have each thrown back at my face. I realise Rabbits instincts and I realise they do not have the concept that what they do can be damn annoying. But when you get to where I’m at, patience only goes so far and I’m afraid I’m losing mine.

 Her chewing distractions: multiple cardboard boxes, constant hay, brown crumpled paper, dried meadow herbs, free roam of a complex room, loofa and raffia toys.

The frustration:

• wood floors= obviously unsuitable, slippery and dangerous to rabbits
• Tile floors= as above
• Carpet= chewed all over, to expensive to replace so would become ragged. fluffy carpet- risk of impaction, flat hardwearing carpet- friction burns and sore hocks.
• Throws/ blankets= slippery to walk on (both rabbit and human), bunches up and must be constantly reset, is chewed, is dug at despite resting on a hardwood floor.
• Dog beds= chewed and destroyed
• Quilts and bedding= chewed and destroyed
• Mats/ rugs= refer to carpet (same damage)
• Discipline or education in any form fails

As you can see, the list is long, I have tried all bar mats and rugs which are basically carpet. For a while she stopped destroying the throws but has started chewing like mad again and destroyed another one. You can see why my patience is gone! I really have no answers, no direction forward. At this point I honestly feel like ripping up everything and letting her be on bare wood but I don’t want her to be uncomfortable or in danger . I want her to remain cage free. I’m writing this with her chewing this instant.

Thank you for your time

A.D

[DesertBunny]

All my rabbits have lived very long lives on tile flooring

[Q8bunny]

If I remember correctly, Autumn is prone to sore hocks, DB.

AD- have you tried cork floor tiles/slats? You could either create walkways for Autumn or just an area where she likes to hop around and then frame them with plastic border/edging so she can’t chew the exposed edges.

[BanditCamp]

Something you can do is get puzzle mats and use wood on the edges to prevent lifting and put fleece over them.

Something I used in my cage was vinyl flooring with glue or are you trying to talk about your home in general? In my signature you can click to see what I did.

[Wick & Fable]

Weird suggestion, but have you tried really cheap rugs? If a normal carpet is regular length hair, by cheap rug I mean a carpet that has a buzz-cut. My place is all wood floors and Wick travels from rug to rug. They’re kinda like this: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-Sahara-Scatter-Rug-Brown-2-3-x-3-9/17653967 … so there are no carpet heads coming up to get a satisfying dig. I will caveat and say Wick does not chew or dig, but the rug is relatively cheap and small, so it may be worth a shot? It’s also still soft, so hopefully it does not aggravate Autumn’s hocks!

Another suggestion may be taking a t-shirt or something you no longer really use and rubbing it all over Autumn and making it essentially drenched in Autumn’s scent. Then putting that on the surface in question. Perhaps being on something that smells like Autumn’s territory/property would dissuade the destructive behavior.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[flemishwhite]

Our two rabbits don’t like to walk on smooth, slick floors.  They are big rabbits and on a slick floor, their hind feet splay out.   

We have three litter boxes in the house.  The litter boxes are cardboard, newspaper on the bottom to soak up pee, and then layered with a thick covering of oat hay.  They love to jump in their litter boxes, chomp on the hay at one end, and do their business at the other end.  After eating their fill of oat hay, they then start chewing the cardboard.  We also will usually have a couple of other empty cardboard boxs for them to chew and play with.    

A few months ago, they started getting more aggressive about chewing.  They started chewing the painted molding where the wall meets the floor.  I went to the hardware store and bought some 2″X2″ pieces of wood (unpainted pine).  Actually the wood pieces were garden stakes.  We placed these on the floor at various places where they like to lay and sure enough they started chewing the unpainted wood.  My thinking is that it probably tastes better and they also play with the pieces of wood by throwing them up in the air.  

Rabbits can digest cellulose. Cellulose is a polysaccharide and the bacteria in their cecum stomach transform the cellulose to glucose.  So they can probably digest cardboard and small amounts of wood.  They  also should be able to digest cotton.  I don’t think they can digest wool, and certainly not polyester.  We have had problems with them chewing throw rugs…which are probably either wool or polyester.  We yell at them when we see them chewing the throw rugs  and they seem to have learned not to chew the throw rugs.  

.

[vanessa]

Shew… difficult one. I have the same list with Avalon and Morgana. One of these days I actually plan on ripping up my carpet and replacing it with wod floors. Sorry bunnies… but they chewed through the carpet, down to the nail strip and sub flooring. At the moment, they have a linoleum sheet (which they are chewing through) on the carpet, and on top of that, I
‘m slowly adding more sheets of veneer (really thin plywood). They get throw-away towels that they can toss around and destroy – untill I throw them out and replace them. But they chew absolutely everything. There is no “disciplining” a rabbit. You’v just got to find something that works for that bunny and you. If sore hocks weren’t an issue – I’d say the bunnies would have to get used to wood floors, and I’d give them throw-away-towels. For sore hocks – I’d give more and different texture towels so they have a constant veriety of textures/surfaces, not just one consistent type. Yes – towels and blankets bunch up, and the bunnies will move them, toss them around, and rearrange them. You can’t change that. You can only admire their redecorating skills.

[Vienna Blue in France]

I have carpet rugs – rectangular or square – probably about 4 foot by one or 2 foot and frame them with wood slats on each edge. So far (cross fingers) Henry only chews passionately at the wood and cannot get the carpet up because the frame prevents it from rucking up in the middle and him getting purchase on that. I’m quite happy so far and its been a few months

[Autumn's Dad]

DesertBunny: I stand corrected that not all rabbits react badly, but in Autumns case she does. Glad yours lived to a good age
Q8bunny: Thank you for your suggestion but I can almost see her having a field day ripping into the cork. I will keep it as an option though
BanditCamp: Thanks for your reply, unfortunately it is the fleece thow she is destroying, made even more difflicult her having no cage (free range)
Wick: the sore hocks are unreal- shes slim, and even on soft fleece flooring (throws I use) she still has them! It’s a thought, but to cover the space I would need would cost a lot of money and would shift around. Thank you for your reply
lemishwhite: That is very interesting, it’s great when you can fully understand the mechanisms of something. She has her boxes to help steer her chewing in the right direction but maybe a cotton rag where she chews the floor may help. Thank you for the idea
Vanessa : I’m so relieved I’m not the only one, sometimes it feels as though I am an anomaly on here with my ill behaved Autumn. Frustrating isn’t it?! I like the veneer idea, I assume it has a slightly rough surface and that may help stop them sliding on it but yes- those sore hocks are turning out to be a big problem. Thank you for your comment
Vienna: Thank you for the reply, that would make a good sitting area and I may try it but ideally I would like a general flooring option but that seems all but impossible with her

Thoughts: Thanks for the replies, I apologise for the negative nature for this post. Unfortunately, I can’t see this being resolved with my and all of your collective knowledge. Autumn is very difficult to house I must say, she is highly destructive even being spayed over a year ago- this coupled with her sore hocks has proven a recipe for disaster.

[DesertBunny]

Well I am afraid to give advice any more because while perusing the web looking for a bunny bed, I read that carpeted floors contribute to sore hocks. That’s news to me!

[DanaNM]

Sorry, not sure if I understood this, are you talking about flooring for your home? Or for within a pen/condo?

I understand that you’d like Autumn to stay free-range, but I’m wondering if for her safety (and your sanity) you could restrict her to a smaller area while you are not able to supervise her, and have very bunny safe flooring in that area? There is also a chance that she will be so happy to have the extra space when you let her out, that she will just want to run around and will be less interested in digging?

Perhaps layers of cardboard (which are very satisfying to dig/shred), under some grass mats? Maybe coupled with a “digging box”? And some soft, non-piling fleece blankets? I think that uneven surfaces are more important for preventing sore hocks than people recognize (a wild bunny would never be on completely flat ground all of the time… same reason you have to provide natural branches for bird perches), along with keeping the hind nails trimmed.

I think providing some surfaces that the nails can sink into takes pressure off the heels.

I have a digger too, and she probably could never be free-range. She does really like destroying and reshaping cardboard cat scratchers, so you might try placing some of those in problem areas. I want to start doing some positive reinforcement training with those to see if that helps.

I also use large heavy tiles in problem spots (but at some point our whole apartment will be covered with them…. so long security deposit!).

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[vanessa]

I agree with dananm. For uneven surfaces i throw down a few different towls. I also dont allow avalon and morgana to free range, they have half a bedroom – 72 square feet. They r too destructive. They like their habitat though.

[Autumn's Dad]

DB: I heard about that too, it’s really confusing when it comes to flooring- the only aspect of rabbit care I am hopeless at. thanks for the reply
DanaNM: I have thought about it but I fear she would become miserable as where she roams she has made her home, but it’s probably the best solution. Thanks for the reply.
Vanessa: that sounds like a good setup. Thanks for the reply.

[DanaNM]

Yeah, there are definite trade-offs to everything, but she may not be as miserable as you think, if you provided her with a good enclosure. Bertha has a 4 level NIC condo, and I know she is pretty happy with it, because she often hangs out in it even when she has free run of the apartment. It’s also really cute because the top level is the same height as the top of our bed, so it’s about as close as we can get to having her sleep with us (which would be a disaster lol).

Wild bunnies spend much of their time sheltering in their burrows and sleeping, and from my experience of working from home sometimes, mine mostly sleep and eat hay all day, and really are only active in the mornings and evenings. I think as long as Autumn gets lots of supervised run-around time, and has a large enough condo or pen otherwise, she will be just fine. I’m guessing that if she is anything like Bertha, she probably most excited to see you and follow you around, rather than just being happy to have the space.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[DanaNM]

Yeah, there are definite trade-offs to everything, but she may not be as miserable as you think, if you provided her with a good enclosure. Bertha has a 4 level NIC condo, and I know she is pretty happy with it, because she often hangs out in it even when she has free run of the apartment. It’s also really cute because the top level is the same height as the top of our bed, so it’s about as close as we can get to having her sleep with us (which would be a disaster lol).

Wild bunnies spend much of their time sheltering in their burrows and sleeping, and from my experience of working from home sometimes, mine mostly sleep and eat hay all day, and really are only active in the mornings and evenings. I think as long as Autumn gets lots of supervised run-around time, and has a large enough condo or pen otherwise, she will be just fine. I’m guessing that if she is anything like Bertha, she probably most excited to see you and follow you around, rather than just being happy to have the space.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[vanessa]

True. Guinivere knows she can get thru he bunny door and into the hallway and bedrooms, but unless Lancelot goes first, she won’t go. She pokes her head thru the bunny door, but doesnt’ leave her half of the bedroom. When I pick her up and bring her to my room, she hangs out for a short while and then goes back to her room. It’s her den. She likes it.

[Autumn's Dad]

DanaNM: that makes sense, thanks for the comment. I will have wood floors with cotton rugs next time round as that seems the best compromise between comfort and my sanity At least if she does eat it, it wont be as harmful as the synthetic fleece throws I have now (to try and ease sore hocks).

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