eating carboard

[SnickersMommy]

My bunny loves to chew on his cardboard box, aswell as on toilet paper rolls. But he often eats the cardboard bitsinstead of spitting them out. He doesn't seem to have any problemspooping, judging from the volume of stuff I clean out of his litter boxon a regular basis, so he doesn't appear to be blocked up in any way.He eats plenty of timothy hay and fresh veggies.

Should I be concerned about him eating cardboard? One of the reasonswhy I haven't given him my oldphone book ornewspapersto chew/shred is that he might eat them. Would thatbe a problem if he did?

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

Paper can cause an impaction so I would becareful to not give him too much. That being said, one of my bucks eatsanything and everything in sight. I use cardboard hidey boxes in thesummer because they take up less room then the winter boxes. Within aweek (I'm lucky if it lasts a week) the box is destroyed and flattened,so he ends up eating a lot of cardboard. I've never had a problem inthe almost 4 years of having him but I'm still careful not to give himtoo much because while I can't stop him from eating the box, I don'tthink he needs a bunch of other paper toys.

 

[Flashy]

In all ours years of keeping buns (about 19) wehave used newspaper in the hutches and whilst some bunnies eat bits ofit, we have never had an actual problem.

They get other cardboard to chew too, but they rarely seem to eat that.

It's not something I would advise if the buns were eating a lot ofcardboard or paper, but I have not seen a little bit cause any problems(Although I know it can do).

Maybe it's worth providing lots of other healthier things to chew, likewooden toys, etc, hopefully that would entice him away from thecardboard.

 

[mynameisjeff]

One of my buns eats paper and cardboard. I doworry about it sometimes, but I've not seen any problems, most likelybecause he eats *lots* of hay. I think hay is the key tomaking sure ingested items get pushed out.

 

[maherwoman]

You're absolutely right.

Both my Maisie and my Flower have shreddies (shredded YellowPages/newspaper...both of which are printed with veggie dye so eatingit doesn't poison them) and get cardboard boxes (minus tape andstickers, etc.), both consume them a bit...and both get a huge amountof hay during the day (and a large amount for the night).

Hay is the key factor in a bun's diet. If they have unlimitedhay, they're fine consuming the paper. If you think about it,paper is basically wood...they're just consuming a much finerconsistancy of wood, so it's less fiber that can be used to push thingsalong in their digestive system. So, keep your bun(s) onunlimited hay (not cubes...but whole hay), and he'll be justfine.

Obviously, if you see him consuming a noticable amount more paper thanhay, then there's something to worry about...but overall thereshouldn't be a problem. Just be sure he's still eating alarge quantity of his hay.

Hugs!

Rosie*

mynameisjeff wrote:

One of my buns eatspaper and cardboard. I do worry about it sometimes, but I've not seenany problems, most likely because he eats *lots* of hay. Ithink hay is the key to making sure ingested items get pushed out.

 

[MyBabyBunnies]

maherwoman wrote:

Obviously, if you see him consuming a noticable amount morepaper than hay, then there's something to worry about...

If Spice's diet consisted souly of paper/cardboard he'd be happy. :disgust:

But if your rabbit is NOT like my Spice, eating paper should not be aproblem. Just be careful if they start consuming too much and then youhave to limit how much they have in their cage.

P.S. - Most (but not all, check with the company before using it)newspapers and phone books have soy ink. I think it's law in someplaces because it's ok if kids get soy ink on them and then ingest it.

 

[SnickersMommy]

Thank you, everyone, for your responses.Snickers does eata lotof hay, far more haythan cardboard...and what goes in is definitely coming out...so I guessI shouldn't worry about it too much. I'll just keep an eye on him tomake sure he doesn't overdo it with the cardboard.

MyBabyBunnies wrote:

P.S. - Most (but not all, check with the company before usingit) newspapers and phone books have soy ink. I think it's law in someplaces because it's ok if kids get soy ink on them and then ingest it.

Thank you for this info. I suspect that the Washington Post, being amajor newspaper, uses soy ink, but I will check on that before offeringit to Snickers.