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bunnyface

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Dec 8, 2005
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Location
Lynnwood, Washington, USA
I have a grey four-pound erect-eared racecar named Twitcher. I love him so much, and I care about him more than any pet I've ever had! Heck, he's barely even a pet for me any more and I haven't had him for more than six months.

I have a problem with him. He's perfectly healthy, and I got him neutered about 1.5 months ago, so he's okay. However, he has a chewing problem that I can't seem to get past. Whenever he escapes his playpen(which I wish I didn't have to use) he chews every cord in sight! He rips up the carpet in our rented apartment as well.

I live with my boyfriend Scott in this one-bedroom phenomenon, and he just rejects the idea of twitcher having more than the bathroom/diningroom/kitchen area (it sounds big, but it really isn't).

We are very technologically sound, therefore we have more cords than we can even manage! We are also on a budget. I just think my high-energy bunny doesn't get to run around nearly enough! Any tips? Anywhere I can go to begin Twitcher's leash-training? (He's a very distrustful little guy, hard to manage on a leash as he just panics!)

Thanks guys, this looks like an awesome forum.


Ashley

 
There are a variety of ways you can use to cover the cords...pvc pipe, aquarium tubing, you can buy covers for the cords. Some people around here have even used gardenhose!! I would suggest doing so if he's a big chewer, will be safer for everyone involved!

Good luck, and we love pics around here!

:rainbow:s!
 
Yeah, I've tried covering them, but we move thecords around so much... and (I don't mean to make him sound evil) scottthinks they're ugly-- :?

Twitcher just chews right past the bitter spray too! Gar. Any suggestions for a super-good, super-strong bitter spray?

I use Better Bitters by Canopy.



Sorry! I don't have a digcam! I wish!

Ash
 
Is that the bitter apple? they also make a bitter orange...some people have had luck with tobasco sauce as well.

At the top of the forum there is a section labeled Top Picks, theres lots of good info and tips there that may help as well!
 
if you have a very large amount of wires going across the room, it may be better for you to buy an area rug or if you go to a carpet store, you can ask for remnant pieces to just put over the wires and the rug originally down.

This will help him from having access to wires, and any damage to the original rug in the apartment and then any wires that are poking out from that point you can cover in split tubing so Twitcher can't get to them.

I dont know about your bunny, but both of mine have this HUGE interest in trying to scale my entertainment center daily...o and btw they only have access to my bedroom which is about 12x9..and their bunny 500 run usually includes jumping on and off of the bed...so maybe if you can include some safe things in there he could see as an obstacle course he'd get some more exercise and less boredom (if he is bored at all) ..i know that not actually expanding the space he's in.. But think about you running on a flattrack and thento that same track someone addshills and hurdles... Younow have a much more harder workout...

Can't wait to see pictures of the lil man!!!!!! :)
 
Haha, I guess the thing about letting him intoour bedroom is that he has a certain affinity to peeing on the bed...bed means pee to twitcher, always has!

Oh, some history on the little guy:

When I was living in Spokane (about 400 miles east of Seattle), I hadsome kids next door. Well, one day, they called me over to show me this"wild rabbit" they had caught. I looked in the xerox box they had andquickly saw that this rabbit wasn't wild at all! All grey, thin, whitearound the eyes, and not scared of people one bit.

I picked him up out of the box and held him. He quickly tried to wrenchout of my arms but I held him tight and talked gently to him. I thentook him inot my house with me after permission from the kids.

I spent the rest of that day with him (I thought it was a girl and wasgoing to name him Doe, as he has the biggest brown eyes and long,deer-like features). I carried him everywhere I went. Later thatevening, I asked my mom (whom I lived with at the time) if I could takehim in. What else was I to do?

I paid the kid $7 to take "Doe". From then on, I would come home andimmediately open the small cage to let him roam the floor. What asweetheart!


three months later was the stressful move to the west coast. I loadedTwitcher (who I had by then named) into the car along with my hamsterbungles and my sixteen hermit crabs and made the journey. Needless tosay, he was stressed out of his mind! A couple days in his cage in thenew house destressing quickly took care of that. I moved once more tothis apartment two months later and have been living there since.

I have spent upwards of $400 on this guy, and I don't plan to stop! Butyou know, for a college kid, that's a lot of money! I wouldn't have itany other way.

<3 :bunnydance:

Ashie
 
Hi and Welcome! Twitcher sounds like a cutie. Myrascals love carpets and cords too. it's good to find some way to blockthe cords, i just block off the areas with cardboard and furniture.

Hey, and a trip to Petsmart for me is about a hundred bucks a pop. ;)
 
Welcome, bunnyface!Rabbits are my spirit animal, too... for years before I realized that Iloved real flesh-and-bone rabbits as well as the abstract concept ofRabbit. ^_^

There's a bunch of info linked from here about rabbit proofing:

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabcare.html#rabhome

There are some cord wraps that still allow you to move the cordsaround... and tell Scott that it's better to have ugly, bunny-proofedcords than useless bunny-chewed cords. ;D

If it's really impractical to bunnyproof everything, you can alwayskeep Twitcher in the easily-bunproofed areas most of the time, thenescort him around for closely supervised playtime in the rest of thehouse whenever you can.

If Twitcher is very high-strung & you suspect that he'll freakout on a leash, then you probably shouldn't try to put him on aleash. It's very easy for a rabbit to panic & injurehimself, and I just don't think leash training is worth the risk w/ anervous bun.


 
Good, I'll consider just nixing the leashtraining, as he didn't seem to make any progress when I had him back inspokane on a leash.

It's odd how nervousness varies, no? My other buns all loved their leashes!

Do you have any information about the rabbit totem?

 
One of the most comprehensive & succint overviews to "Rabbit" I've found is on this Donnie Darko fansite:

http://ruinedeye.com/cd/symbol.htm

This one doesn't delve terribly much into the "whys & wherefores", but I find it absolutely fascinating:

http://www.chrischapmanphotography.com/hares/index.html

Beyond that, pretty much all of the information I have can be found byrunning "rabbit symbolism", "rabbit totem", "rabbit spirit animal" etcthrough Google. :}
 
Welcome aboard, Bunnyface :wave:

Just a note about covering cords and what you use, I'd be very selective in the item you choose to cover them with.

Buck Jones covered his wires with a cheap conduit that he purchased ata hardware store. Figured it would work out just fine. It was a thin,hard plastic with some foam under it.

His rabbit, Missy, chewed right through the plastic and ended up $1,700later, miraculously surviving surgery to undo the blockage.

Buck beat himself over the head so many times while she was goingthrough this because he had used the cheaper cord covering. Somerabbits will chew anything they can bite. I'd be very careful of usingrubber products, make sure that the hard plastic coverings have a verythick plastic to protect it so that you would at least hear your rabbitnibbling.

Once you get a blockage of foam or rubber, plastic, carpet, etc., it'susually only surgery that will get it out of their system.



-Carolyn
 
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