Buck digging

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Elicia-Mae

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Oct 3, 2019
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Location
England
Hi everyone,
I have a young squirrel Netherland dwarf Buck called Armani. He is about 6 months old and I bought him for showing purposes. I've never had a problem with bucks digging in my past 10 years of showing and breeding, it always seems to be the does but this boy will not stop digging. He is on wood shavings and only has hay in hay balls, but his digging habits have led him to having wet eyes, which I've been treating with rabbit eye drops. They became quite severe and he also pulled a dew claw when doing it as well. I have put him on rescue remedy mixed into his bottle to calm him down, has anybody got any advice on how to stop then from digging? I will try get some photos uploaded later of his wet eyes and any advice on treatment for them would be good as well as I have entered him for the Bradford Premier Small Animal Show January 2020 and if they don't clear I won't be able to bring him
Thanks, Ellie :)
 
Have you considered possibly switching bedding ? Wood shavings are just not good at all for their overall health. And also, to help with the digging, maybe try a little fleece blanket in there by him to burrow in? That's what I did with my rabbit and it worked wonders. I got mine from our local Dollar tree and just took out the thread around the border so he didn't ingest it.
 
Hi, I think that digging is good and natural for a rabbit, I have a few great diggers myself I just give them something to work on. You can just use different type of bedding, shavings by the way often cause breathing problems and allergies, also depending on type of shavings, some look just more like saw dust very fine, I wouldn't use at all. I would be interested to see your setup, what yo use for his litter box or he just has his full floor covered with shavings?
You can use pressed shavings instead known as wood pellets to absorb urine they are great and won't cause allergy, you can use straw for bedding my diggers love straw and it's low dust. Or fleece as was said, or make him a digging box to keep him occupied. You can fill igging box with shredded paper or stones or straw or hay or fleece. Just give him something that is safe like brown packing paper without print I remove all tape or glue from boxes before I give them to my rabbits.
I also make an extra wall of a cardboard for them they love it they keep working on it and make holes in it and feel and look very satisfied, I find that some rabbits are extremely hard-working and they are so happy when they can see results of their work.

Here's an example of a digging box

 
Last edited:
Here's another example of a digging box

 

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