Indoor/Outdoor Green Rug Safe?

[Yield]

We bought a rug that looks like that today at Costco. It says it's made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. Says it is "Safe and Natural antimicrobial." Apparently it's from Fosshield which says:

"-Powerful antimicrobial technology that uses silver and copper ions -elements found in nature

-Proven effective, in pre-clinical trials, in stopping the growth of destructive microbes that cause odor, discoloration, staining, and deterioration

-Protected by Agion®, a leader in providing naturally safe antimicrobial solutions

-Environmentally-friendly; silver ions are non-leaching

-Completely safe for human and food contact

-Technology in Fosshield is proven effective against a wide variety of bacteria, fungi and viruses

-Will not wear or wash off; built-in protection that lasts the life of the product

-Can be woven into almost any fabric from cotton to rayon to polypropylene to nylon, without changing the characteristics of the fabric

-Can be made with Eco-fi, the fiber made from 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles, for a totally green product

-Unlike other antimicrobials that are applied via topical coatings, Fosshield's additive is built into the fiber resulting in permanent antimicrobial protection that lasts the life of the product.

Anyways. I figured it'd be safer than the sheets they are on now because sometimes they chew and eat the sheets and it is stringy.. (I heard it can affect their digestive system). I used my fingers and pinched at it to "tear" at it to see if it would break apart and only slight, small and easily breakable strings come off. (thinner than my hair strands).


What do you think?

 

[Watermelons]

Well, cotton string/thread isnt digestable. But neither is plastic. At least the sheets will bio-degrade over time, plastic pop bottles well not really.... That faux grass also will start to fray around the edges with just general use, leaving more fun looking edges for bunnies to chew at. Honestly, neither the sheets or green are safe to digest.

 

[Yield]

Well... which is worse? The sheets or the green?

Cause if I don't have something down, they will chew the carpet- which if that happens, my dad will get really mad. I mean, they don't eat it constantly (obviously) and haven't had any problems. But there is holes in the sheets and today I felt the sheet and sniffed it and it was wet from Sabriel sucking/nibbling on it.

We don't have anything else we can put down, and taking the carpet out is not an option =/ And neither is buying anything new- we're sooooo short on money right now.

Sooo.. it's gotta be the sheets or the green.

Also- the rabbits wouldn't have direct access to the edges if we put the green down. We will have their pens on it.

 

[Watermelons]

Have you thought of putting a sheet of coroplast or Lino down under the cage so the edges of that go past the limitations of the cage? You should be able to find lino on craigslist or other places like that.

I honestly cant say whats safer sheet/green wise. If they were eating the sheet, string by string in decent lengths then that can wrap around parts inside their intestines and litterly slice through sections if its stopped in 1 spot but the peristalsis continues with the other end of the string causing a sawing action. But usually they eat the sheets in small clumps so that may not be as big of an issue, where as the green is more likely to fray apart and come off in decent sized strings, but it doesnt knott and ball up as easily as string. Honestly both are equally as bad when it comes to being eaten. Both can cause blockages, and have the possibility of doing some cutting if they get caught in a spot.

 

[Yield]

Thank you for your input.. not sure bout thr chloroplast and such. Aren't those slippery? Sabriel cannot be on slippery surfaces for too long (he had a broken leg and hates walking on slippery surfaces) and Silas avoids them and refuses to move on them soooo yeah. I'm not sure how it would work out.

They don't tend to chew the sheets in big chunks. (Only Solara and Sabriel have sheets).. I think Sabriel does more nibblingand sucking than chewing though.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

When Nancy was teaching in California, she would bring a rabbit with her every day. I set up a playpen on a 4' X 8' sheet of plywood.

 

[Yield]

I can't ask my dad to purchase plywood. We don't have the money- I'm going to Japan this summer and that's costing a fortune. Sabriel has cost us over 1000 dollars...

Plus, with the space they have, it would be way too much work to attempt to get it in my room and try and get it to stay under the pens. =/ (plus the amount it would take)

Plus- what if they pee on it? They're litterbox trained but Sabriel sometimes pees outside of the litterbox (little stinker!)

How would we clean that? I don't think there's any easy way to clean wood.

Thank you for the suggestion but that probably would not work for us in the long run, Larry :[

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

Can you get cardboard easily? You could tape it together (masking tape) and that would be safe to chew. I would put a plastic sheet or something down to protect the carpet if the cardboard gets chewed or something.
Check recycling places for cardboard. It doesn't need to be fancy, but bigger pieces are better.

If you can, check garage sales in your area. You never know what you may find and it might be the perfect thing.

Construction sites (like houses) might have some plywood or something is largeish sheets that you might be able to get.

Coroplast is also used for signs and ads, so see if you can find some that are used. Just clean it up a bit and it should be fine.

 

[SOOOSKA]

Hey Bailee, I would stick with the sheets. Some of mine don't actually chew the sheets they will just put holes in them.

They are easy to launder, I like the flannel sheets. You can watch for sales and pick up a couple so you have extra one.

Susan