Lead paint concern....

[trudalupins]

My little Legs is a darling, admirable, noble bunny in every way. An ambassador for rabbit kind ... except when she's eating the walls.

I have seen a few threads on here about deterring the buns from chewing the wooden baseboards and Ms. Legs does seem to dislike areas that I've rubbed with Ivory soap (she is sure to let me know when I've missed a spot with a prompt chomp, too, the little dear).

Thing is, I live in an old apartment building that likely has lead paint under the more recent stuff. We have been struggling with the chewing thing for about a week or two now (it's a new behavior since we moved into a place that has wooden baseboards) - and Legs doesn't show any signs of distress. But I'm still worried.

Does anyone have experience with a rabbit consuming what could be lead paint? Anything I should be looking for outside of usual bunny health check items?

 

[Azerane]

I don't know a lot about it, but I did find this very informative blog post by a person who has had a rabbit go through lead poisoning, worth a read in any case.

http://therabbitadvocate.blogspot.com.au/2008/10/silent-killer-lead-poisoning.html

At the very least, discourage the chewing as much as you can and keep an eye out for any changes in your bunn's behaviour.

 

[tonyshuman]

I would like to know if you come up with a good solution. My bun was in the ER this weekend probably from eating baseboard. I had put soap on to no avail. I am currently trying to keep him from eating the baseboards by putting aluminum foil on all of them.

 

[trudalupins]

Hi Tonyshuman! Delayed response here ....

I got Legs to stop munching the baseboards by rubbing them with plain old Ivory soap (the white bar kind you can find in any drugstore). One whiff of that, the odd lick here and there ans she stopped chomping the baseboards entirely.

I did that months ago now, and cleaned up the baseboards last weekend - she's still not biting them even with the goopy soap gone. I guess the soap convinced her the baseboards would always taste gross.

Other things I tried and did not work: bitter spray, grapefruit seed extract.

Funny about the soap though, it always made me feel like I was washing her mouth out for cursing or something. :bunny24

 

[Imbrium]

Heh, I tried to use Ivory soap (any hypoallergenic, unscented, uncolored soap is safe if that brand isn't available) to stop my girls from chewing the coroplast in their condo... apparently they like the taste of soap. I tried bitter spray (which said it was made from the most bitter stuff on earth), I even tried hot sauce (though to be fair, I'm pretty iffy on spicy stuff and even I like Cholula so I guess I'm not surprised that they liked it - it's no worse than the "hot" sauce from Taco Bell; didn't feel safe going spicier, though).

In my experience, blocking access is the best (and often only) way to thwart a bunny (or cat).

BinkyBunny suggests a plastic or metal wall covering. I know Home Depot sells rolls of thin sheet metal in the section with gutter-related stuff; you can get a roll ranging from 6-14'' wide iirc and 10 or 25 feet long. It's very inexpensive and can be cut with household scissors (or at least mine make easy work of it; they're (cheap) titanium-edged scissors). I'm not sure how you might attach it to a wall without damaging it, though... I'd probably go for nails or screws myself, but that does leave holes.

Another option would be to get kiln-dried 1x4s or 2x4s (KD is a must for soft woods or they're unsafe for rabbits to chew) and ghetto-rig something that would block the baseboards without being attached to the wall... I'm thinking attaching them to form a right angle (two sides of a square, the bottom and back sides missing) and then attach the part that goes on the floor to another board in a way that forms an upside down "T" so that the structure doesn't fall forward (away from the wall) easily. It's hard to explain what I'm thinking of, heh... imagine drawing the thing for the game "hangman" but without the last line that the noose is attached to. Gravity would make the structure inclined to lean towards the wall if anything; on a slick floor, the stuff used to stop rugs from slipping could be used on the bottom of the base.

Really, there's countless ways to block access to pretty much anything without spending much money if you've got a few tools and a lot of creativity, especially if you don't really care about appearance (ie "function over form mentality") .

 

[lovelops]

My little Legs is a darling, admirable, noble bunny in every way. An ambassador for rabbit kind ... except when she's eating the walls.

I have seen a few threads on here about deterring the buns from chewing the wooden baseboards and Ms. Legs does seem to dislike areas that I've rubbed with Ivory soap (she is sure to let me know when I've missed a spot with a prompt chomp, too, the little dear).

Thing is, I live in an old apartment building that likely has lead paint under the more recent stuff. We have been struggling with the chewing thing for about a week or two now (it's a new behavior since we moved into a place that has wooden baseboards) - and Legs doesn't show any signs of distress. But I'm still worried.

Does anyone have experience with a rabbit consuming what could be lead paint? Anything I should be looking for outside of usual bunny health check items?

My buns love eating paint and I can't get them to stop. Chico and Chica love water based and latex paint. Since my house was built in 1933 I truly think all the older layers of paint here are lead since I was given that info in my home buyers inspection. Hell there is probably asbestos in the roofing!
I should take a picture of the hallway and attach it in a day or so. They have eaten it off the baseboards, the doors, the hallway, the bathroom, anywhere else they can get their mouths and I live in Maryland just outside DC.

They have been doing this for a while now over 6 months and so far they I have not found them legs up in the cage. That is not to say I'm freely letting them eat paint. To the contrary. I'm trying to block the areas where they have been pulling the paint off but they just start on a different area. They just have a mind of their own.

They also love soap, so putting soap there wouldn't work either. I went to get a bar of soap out one time and found bunny teeth marks in it, so it would just be a second course to the appetizer.

Vanessa

 

[honeybunnies]

I would suggest an enclosure, such as a puppy pen perhaps.
Even if you wanted to put 2 of them together, if you wanted a larger area?

 

[lovelops]

I would like to know if you come up with a good solution. My bun was in the ER this weekend probably from eating baseboard. I had put soap on to no avail. I am currently trying to keep him from eating the baseboards by putting aluminum foil on all of them.

Hey there I see you are in the "Research Triangle" (my family is from SC.. so I've driven through that area when we have taken detours to go shopping ...) have you ever checked out the services of the Duke Vet School? I remember reading one time that they have a vet clinic... just curious. I would think that it would be pretty decent..

Vanessa

 

[middlemuse]

When we moved into our new apartment a couple weeks ago, Aria suddenly decided eating baseboards was a thing she wanted to do. It's a rental, so nailing up boards wasn't an option, so I used a staple gun to staple strips of cardboard over all of the exposed baseboards. I may have to replace them if she shreds them, but she seems to have lost interest for now.