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MegaChan5

MegaChan5

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Joined
Feb 11, 2008
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St.Peters, Missouri, USA
Sooo, my rabbit has been ripping up random spots of the carpiting in my room (and i live in an appartment so, that is dubbely bad). she is not eating it she is just pulling peices out. :( :( the first one she did was under my bed then where her cage meets the floor then the corner to where my closet slids opens. now a couple random spots. Is there anything I can do to get her to stop? she is spayed already. and will be 4 years old in december.
 
make sure she is getting a ton of hay first off to help pass the carpet fibers in case she did eat it

is she diggin at all?

has there been any changes there? new pets or people? change in schedule or routine? less attention?

generally it is because their bored but sometimes it could be to show their irritation.

put something under by her cage so she cant chew, cardboard or something cheap simple that you have around home. what kinda cage is she in? could be boredom in the cage

and chewin it up under the door...that could just be that the doors in the way? sounds silly but my rabbits always seemed to be digging at carpet under doors or at walls as if they were "in the way" and specially at the play pen wall flooring, they would scratch and dig at it.
 
yeah she has been digging too.

i guess she might be bored. ever sence she ripped up the carpet under my bed, I haven't been letting her out as much. sence i'm afraid she will do it again...witch she has.

also i did just move out of my parents house at the end of may. But she didn't start till a month or so ago.

also got a new cat a few weeks ago. but she dosen't seem to care about other animals. she acts as if they are not there, inless they start touching her.

I give her plenty of hay, cardboard,and wood from the pet store for her to chew on.....
 
You can deter bun by using smelly perfume on the carpet areas not by her cage. The perfume is nasty to noses of bun, but not bad for human. Keeps my rental carpet intact. I use some leftover Armani Code. It seems to deter her from being interested in the spots, doesn't mark the carpet, and smells good to me. I would not use it by her stuff, and I use barely any when I actually spray it, because their noses are very sensitive....:goodluck
 
Gus liked to chew the carpet at our old place. We bought some small area rugs to cover the spots and that seemed to help a bit. Though, he tended to find other spots to chew then. Our living room carpet was beginning to look interesting, with all these small rugs covering it. Probably should've just bought one large rug. :p

Anyway, we FINALLY, weeks before we moved, discovered it was because he wanted attention. If he started going after the carpet, we'd have to sit down and pet him for a few minutes, then he'd be fine.

Silly rabbit. :p

Hope that helps!

Rue


 
know your pain; my bun(s) have done/did/are doing this same behaviour and I have few theories..

1. Rabbits are territorial and will mark their area buy ripping up carpet.

2. Add a cat to the mix (I have 1 cat and 2 bonded buns) and the female cat and the female rabbit will do their best to make sure the other one knows "This is where your territory stops". Neither one REALLY follows the rule.

3. If you can make your buns area secure in a smaller sence when your not there, but then let them out into the larger area when you can watch them, may make yours to only want to mark/destroy their area. You can thrown down throw rugs that can be washed when you find their "space". I've done with this mine and they seem to be less destructive.

It's alot of trial and error on both parts - wish you guys the best.
 
Lux did this in my last apartment too. I didn't realize how bad it was until I moved all the furniture out and there were little gray islands all over my floor. Best to just get a cheap second hand space rug and cover it up.
 
Try covering the areas she's ripping up with newspaper and phone book pages. My rabbit was ripping up carpet as well, until I gave him something else to rip up.

You can also go to the UPS store or something and get a really big box. Put it together and she might go inside and rip it up while she stands on it (so it gives resistance).

If those don't work, you can buy a Sour Apple spray from the petstore that stops them from chewing. Just spray it on the area she chews and she'll be repelled by the smell/taste.
 
Just fyi, my bunnies thought bitter apple spray was bunny crack, so it doesn't always work since rabbits like eating apples... It's meant more to work on dogs who have different taste receptors. The perfume idea and other distractions/toys are probably your best shot.
 
Yeah I totally agree with the apple spray thing lol. i'm pretty sure that would just make her want to chew thoughts spots more. I remember when i got her spayed, the vet gave me stuff to put around the stiches to keep her from chewing on her stiches. she acholy liked the stuff. I knowticed it kept disappering of from around the stiches. so i put some on a q-tip and held it out toward her and she freckin ate it off the q-tip, that little stinker! lol

so far i put out a couple old mag's and some new cardboard(already keep some out for her to chew on) for her to chew on and she seems to not been chewing on the carpit so far. I do plan on getting a couple of area rugs just in case. the perfume thing didn't seem to help....

oh and have been giving here more attention and more out of the cage time.
 
Hm.. that'd be good except I'm allergic to ivory soap bars. It's weird but they make me super sneezy and congested.

Anyway.. I've just tried to deter my bunny from chewing cabinets/spots by putting grass mats over the areas or litterboxes.. One spot in the kitchen she tries to cram herself into (under the stove) so I stuffed one of my dog's toys in there. She can't figure how to get it out and doesn't like that spot as much anymore. She's small now so it's harder for her to move them but some bunnies are super determined and would probably chew through a hardwood floor if they believed it'd get them somewhere cool!

Good luck finding something that works.. Right now Layla thinks that clothing is her chew-toy >.>
 
Try some cheap perfume, but I mean CHEAP, from like the dollar store. My Bonkers DESPISES it and it worked on stopping him from chewing the carpet, the duck tape covering the electrical outlets and my laptop charger. The only downside is that it smells like cheap perfume all the time here. :p
 
Fooey works for chewing, not digging. What I've found works best for digging/carpet pulling was reducing Samsons pellets and adding a more varied salad to make up for minerals and vits. Turns out the pellets were filling her up so she wouldn't eat as much hay, and now she eats loads of hay and it satisfies her urge to chew and pull up the carpet.

I'll also second what Rue said, I started spending an extra 15 minutes talking to and petting Samson, and that helped a ton.
 
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