Wall Paper issues

Good afternoon,

I have 2 lion head rabbits. George is 3 and charity is 2.
George is fully house trained and has been taught not to chew wires HOWEVER since we have moved house George has suddenly taken a dislike to the wallpaper (We dont like it either to be fair!) but the problem we have is that we want to decorate but we need to get george out of the habbit of chewing the wallpaper.

Each time he chews the wall paper i pick him up and look right into his eyes and firmly tell him no its naughty. I then put him back in his cage and leave charity out to run for a bit to try and prove a point.

This doesnt seem to be working? any suggestions?

I have a small indoor cage from when i first had george, maybe I could put him in there for half hour to see if that does the trick?

Any help would be great as we are desperate to decorate but obviusly cant till this is sorted! Pesky rabbits!!

I'm not really surprised that it's not working, unfortunately it's applying a human logic to bunnies, they won't get it and will more than likely just get cross and frustrated with you. Chewing wallpaper is sort of a natural bunny thing to do as it's the nearest they can get indoors to chewing bark off trees!

Are there any loose bits of wallpaper which is why he was able to get hold of them? Or does he have lots of other things to do, so he has 'distractions' and chews things you want him to instead?

If you're desperate to decorate, could you not just plaster and paint so there's nothing for him to chew?

its not woodchip wallpaper by any chance is it, mine mainly did it cuz he was either bored or to get at the gypson underneath, just tore the paper off and run off with it thinking its a game :evil:

unfortunately rabbits can;t distinguish between what is theirs and yours........they think everything is theirs and end of story!:roll:
I'm afraid having a house bunny means that you don;t have to be house proud
I've had this problem with Audrey who enjoys ripping the wallpaper off:roll::shock:, I've protected what little bit of wallpaper is left:roll: with a row of c&c cage panels along the wall (yes our hallway looks like a cage!:lol Now that she hasn;t been tempted to eat the wallpaper, we intend re-decorating and then once finished put the barriers back.

Tamsin's thread here may be helpful to you......plastic protectors - you could put some up to bunny level after you have re-decorated. see the link here:
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=114551

Hope these help - there will someone else on soon with more ideas!

Well currently they have 2 tunnels, a few noisey balls, small tables for them to sit under.
Tomorrow i am going to get some photocopier boxes from work and make a bit a castle for them and also try and buy some treated wood from the pet shop.

Thanks for everyones comments, they have really helped, sometimes you just cant think. I know that house rabbits are not the most tidy rabbits but mine are usually quite good.

i will let you know how i get on. thank you everyone, george will definatly benefit from it hopefully!!

I had to laugh at the "look firmly in his eyes"

Lola has chewed every corner of my wall paper - she likes to do it under the coffee table and behind the sofa so we cant see her - BUT WE CAN HEAR HER

Ok, we have a little bit of successs. I got some boxes from work and the two tunnels from the run and that seemed to keep him occupied for a bit. i layed on the floor with them and they were jumping on me which was nice.

i am going to my friends house tonight who has a apple tree, can i just saw a branch off can give it to george or does it have to be treated?

thanks for everyones help.!

We had the same problem with Charles eating our brand new, freshly painted pretty walls! If you can paint rather than wallpaper it's a lot more bunny friendly (not to mention cheaper and much easier to decorate!)
We have then used plastic covers attached to the walls so he cannot chew any more - and have painted over these so they blend in well!

lots of lovely rabbit toys..and maybe a cardboard box that he can shred..
we have been very lucky that we have never had a "wallpaper shredder!"