Wood floor?

[poopy]

Medusa seems to be very slippery on the wood floor. I was hoping she would get used to it. Does anyone have bunnies that walk on it with no problem?

[osprey]

Our guys can walk on the hardwood without too much trouble.  When we brought in new buns they took some time to adjust.  If a bun gets scared and tries to run, they slip and slide like crazy.  We have a small rug in one of the rooms that the buns roam, and they use it for Bunny 500s, running around in tight circles.

[Anita Stark]

We have all hardwood floors with a few area rugs.  Sable seems okay with the wood, though he steps more carefully.  He does his running and binkies on the area rugs.  When we first got him we kept him off the wood until he was older and could keep his feet from splaying out to the sides.  We were concerned this could hamper development of his hip bones.  Now he hops along just fine though his front paws still slide a bit when he comes to a stop on the wooden floor he is able to compose himself and keep going.

[Bunnies4ever]

I have hardwood floors and the only bunny that has a problem with it is my lionhead Chandler. At first, his feet splayed everytime he walked the floor. I’ve put area rugs in their play area. He seems to hop along better now.

[wendyzski]

I have all hardwood floors except for my kitchen which is tile.   Pepper had a horrible time at first  – she’d get up to speed running sprints and then couldn’t stop and thump into the wall.  Funny but not very good for her I suspect.

I went out and got a couple of "runners" – long narrow throw rugs with a non-skid backing and two other solid throw rugs.  I set them out in such a way that she could still do her "Bunny 500" laps and have traction most of the time – AND so that she could slow down and stop!  Since then she’s been fine.  She generally does her high-speed laps on the rugs but not always. Of her two favorite non-cage lounging spots one has a rug and one does not. 

So I think it’s a matter of having some places where Medusa can get better traction and she’ll decide what she likes best.

[Lucy]

Fujoe seems ok. If your petting him on the floor his feet start to slide out. I too have a few carpets here and there.. I think like two or three of those cheap Target cloth mats and a runner. He binkies from runner to carpet. it’s cute.

[LillyBear]

We have tile and wood floor in most of the rooms in our house.. Lilly is mostly on these floors and its funny because sometimes she slips around, when she is being petted she gets so relaxed her feet start slipping out too! hehe. Or if she is standing up against somthing. Its hilarious, actually. If she is on the wood and gets startled (or we are trying to catch her!!) she tries to run really fast but ends up staying in the same spot. I laugh waaaay to much at that. But she can hop around just fine on it, as long as she doesn’t just try and run really fast! Also she slides into things sometimes cause she can’t stop, LOL!

[BinkyBunny]

Only Rucy does fine on the hardwood floors.   So for Jack and Bailey, we got runners that basically connect rug to rug.   When company comes, we’ll pull them up, but the rugs are  nice enough that they are not a eye sore to have around when the bunnies are out running around the rest of the house.

 

 

[poopy]

how do i get her out onto the wood floor? she’s just been keeping to her rug which is small. when i put her on the wood floor she freezes and looks like bambi on ice. she scrambles back to her rug. and its been a week! i know she loves to explore….i want her to get out!

[Gravehearted]

we also have hardwood floors – but we have a rag rug in the middle of the floor for the bunnies. I picked it up at Ross – and since it doesn’t have carpet fibers and was cheap I don’t have to worry if they nibble it. They also seem to enjoy it, since it’s kinda like their binky mat 🙂

[BridgetteBunny]

I think you will probably need to put some rugs down. My last house had wood floors and we had rugs throughout it. My first lop would not walk on the wood and became very frightened if set down on it. Then he was bonded to another lop and this guy was much braver. He would walk slowly across the wood to get to the rugs and then be fine once on the rugs. The scaredy boy would then follow his buddy and learned to go slowly along the wood to the rugs too. I think it would depend on the bunny and how brave they are. The litter of babies I fostered seemed to have no qualms at all about walking along the slippery surface but they all did seem to “walk” and not hop. If you put rugs out you may gradually be able to take them up or spread them out.

[MooBunnay]

I don’t have any hard wood floors, but I do have tile in my kitchen, and the buns did not go in there for at least a couple months…even now they tip toe around…Mayberry is living in the kitchen now, and I bought her a floor mat and rug at Big Lots for $10…they actually look pretty nice, and she likes that a lot better, although she’ll run out onto the tile when I go to the freidge in case a treat is coming.

[jacki fullerton]

Noble hops carefully on our hardwood floors, I notice one of his hind legs spays out on hardwood. he prefers the carpets in the living area. It’s there where he does his binkys and runs. We put throw rugs on the wood floor, so he doesn’t have to be on wood very often.

[poopy]

Help guys! I am still having trouble with Medusa and the wood floors. When I got my second bunny Hecuba, he goes on the wood floors without a problem. He slips sometimes but he just walks carefully. Medusa still has an unusual fear of the wood floor which prevents her from getting exercise outside of her pen. I just can’t put rugs all over the entire room because its really big and she has rugs in her pen. I KNOW she can walk on the wood floor- I have seen her do it before in another room. But for some reason ever since she has been in my room she won’t go near it. I have tried picking her up and putting her on it but it only exacerbates her fear because she’ll freak out and start flailing and running like crazy which causes her to slip and scares her even more. Help! What should I do?

[MooBunnay]

I think if I was in the situation, I would just let Medusa hang out, and I think eventually she will go out on the floor on her own…I have noticed that Buns are particularly good at figuring out what we want them to do..and then doing the opposite It might be because you are putting her on it directly that she has the bad connotation with it, because she can’t explore it and tiptoe on it first (and do that cute bunny thing where they plant their back feet firmly, and streeeeeeetch as far as they can with their front feet to check things out).  I have one bunny that is verrry gradual about things as well.  Maybe by completely ignoring the issue for awhile Medusa will be anle to investigate on her own, espcially now that her husbun does it too! Right now, she probably associates the wood floor with scrambling and panic, but when she can explore on her own she can associate it with fun exploring!

Maybe put a few treats around the floor, but close to the mat so she will stretch out on the floor to get the treat.

[poopy]

eek i hope so. though i am concerned it is a bad phobia. when in her pen i left a 1 foot gap between 2 rugs, she wouldn’t even cross to the other side of the rug for fear of having to go through the wood floor. her water was on the other side even! i had to bring the bowl to her to water her

[jacki fullerton]

Hopefully, when she sees her husbun on the wood floor, she will follow him, especially when she see’s he isn’t hurt or scared.

[wendyzski]

I went to the kitchen to make iced tea.

Pepper decided an immediate visit to the kitchen was in order. I mean, there might be pellets. Even though there were pellets an hour ago, there is still a possibility that it might again be Time For Pellets and Pellets are a Thing of Wonder and Delight to all bunnies.

I was most of the way to the kitchen when I realized that I had left my cup behind me on the desk, so I turned back to get it.

I have hardwood floors.

Pepper was barrelling towards the kitchen with excitement about the possibility of Pellets, and saw me stop.

Did I mention that I have hardwood floors?

*skitter skitter skitter BONK* right into my leg.

[poopy]

ah thats cute

[Tigargurl]

I just found hardwood floors under the carpet in me and my boyfriend’s home. They don’t even need to be refinished, but the bunnies run around in the living room/dining room most of the time and I’m worried about them slipping or their nails scratching the wood. The floor doesn’t have a glossy surface finish, so I think it might be better than how the buns are on tile. I guess rugs are a good answer for the slipping part, although I’m worried they will just chew the edges of the rugs to threads. Anyone know a way to get them to stop chewing rugs and has anyone had their floors scratched up by bunny nails?

[Beka27]

i would think that bunny nails would be too small to effectively scratch a floor. it’s different when you have large 100+ pound dogs walking on wood floors… the main concern would be… like you said, them slipping. some buns will not even walk on slippery floors, other buns don’t care any which way.

[Bunnies4ever]

Most of my home is hardwood flooring and like Beka27 says, it’s depends on the bunny. One of my bunnies will walk on the floor so gingerly as she hates to slip and slide. My other bunnies don’t care. I have rugs for them to hang out and binky on. One time I found my bunny in my office sitting on my chair at my computer! She must have slid all the way in there! Their nails won’t harm your flooring at all. Some bunnies are chewers and some aren’t. None of my bunnies chew anythng their not supposed to.

[Slater91]

We also have wood (well, laminated floors) and little Jimmy doesn’t seem to have much trouble.

Over the first day or so, he was just sliding around, bumping into chairs and the like, but he has now found his feet and is charging and binkying like a maniac…. It is so cute when he jumps from the couch to the floor and skids for a few centimetres

I think it is just what they get used to, I am thinking about cushioning the chairs though

[Beka27]

you do want to make sure the nails are kept trimmed up tho if they are only on wood floors. buns can develop sore hocks if they only walk on harder surfaces, esp. if the nails are too long. that will put more pressure on their hind feet. it’s a good idea, even if they can navigate the wood floors, to have some softer rugs down so they can get off the hard surface.

[sweetbluebun]

I’ve got a 10 week old holland lop who is temporarily on a wood floor because I just can’t bear to keep him in a cage! I laid down a thin blanket and few throw rugs so he’s got some “safe” zones that he likes to sit on. But he still slips all over the place and it’s very cute. He’ll be moving to the basement soon, so he wont be dealing with this for much longer. My other bunny was scared to death of tile for the longest time until he had to cross it to get to the baby lop.

Rabbits are such funny creatures!

[KatnipCrzy]

Older rabbits might have a harder time on hard surfaces- as they get older and get arthritis it can be more painful if they slide or even the effort of keeping all 4 feet where they belong could be painful.  It does not sound like age is a problem in the posts- but since this old thread about hard floors was revived I thought I would mention possible aging concerns too.

 

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