So I spent much of the afternoon rearranging my study aka Bunny's day room. Here's the routine- at night bunny is in her cage, in the daytime while I'm at work she's in the study w/the toddle gate set up, and when I come home at night she's free range through most of my apartment (except for the bathroom-we've had some issues there.)
In her study, I have to admit, that after bunnyproofing it, I didn't think much of the arrangement. Areas were intruding on each other, and the area I've come to think of as "her cottage" i.e. some cardboard boxes quickly developed into a messy area. She doesn't relax in her cottage, instead she seems to treat it like a rock star in a hotel room - there's digging, chewing, spraying and lots and lots of poop. On warmer days there's a bit of a smell that emanates from it. I've occaisionally changed her boxes and she doesn't seem to mind.
But today, I changed up the area entirely. On one hand she has more stuff to do (tunnels etc.) but I took away her cardboard cave area and replaced it with her "junior" cage (the once she came in) and an open air cage top. There's all kinds of bedding and digging stuff in the cage for her amusement.
And to let her get used to it, I've basically left her the rest of the day in her dayroom to run around and smell everything and get her mad out.
And the reason for this is basically, I want the room to look and smell as good as possible because my Mom is coming to visit and she's looking for any kind of an excuse to re-start her campaign of getting rid of Clovis. There are many reasons for her feelings - she has an aversion to the whole concept of animals living indoors (childhood stuff), she's convinced that bunnies are smelly, unhygienic rodents, and she's convinced that they bring disease to humans.
Arguing on the phone about this has proved a dead end, because my Mom is indeed irrational about this. So I want to show Clovis off in the best light possible. And a clean open dayroom with no smelly cardboard caves is one way of doing that.
So how long can bunnies hold grudges for?
In her study, I have to admit, that after bunnyproofing it, I didn't think much of the arrangement. Areas were intruding on each other, and the area I've come to think of as "her cottage" i.e. some cardboard boxes quickly developed into a messy area. She doesn't relax in her cottage, instead she seems to treat it like a rock star in a hotel room - there's digging, chewing, spraying and lots and lots of poop. On warmer days there's a bit of a smell that emanates from it. I've occaisionally changed her boxes and she doesn't seem to mind.
But today, I changed up the area entirely. On one hand she has more stuff to do (tunnels etc.) but I took away her cardboard cave area and replaced it with her "junior" cage (the once she came in) and an open air cage top. There's all kinds of bedding and digging stuff in the cage for her amusement.
And to let her get used to it, I've basically left her the rest of the day in her dayroom to run around and smell everything and get her mad out.
And the reason for this is basically, I want the room to look and smell as good as possible because my Mom is coming to visit and she's looking for any kind of an excuse to re-start her campaign of getting rid of Clovis. There are many reasons for her feelings - she has an aversion to the whole concept of animals living indoors (childhood stuff), she's convinced that bunnies are smelly, unhygienic rodents, and she's convinced that they bring disease to humans.
Arguing on the phone about this has proved a dead end, because my Mom is indeed irrational about this. So I want to show Clovis off in the best light possible. And a clean open dayroom with no smelly cardboard caves is one way of doing that.
So how long can bunnies hold grudges for?
onder: have you thought about confining clovis a little bit more during the day? also what about a litterbox? i might be misreading but it sounds like she is using one area for a toilet. id also be considering some form of easy clean flooring for the bunny areas.
