Super destructive bunnies!

Hi, this is my first thread so please be gentle with me!!:wave:

I have two gorgeous little girls, flops and tufty. They are adorable but incredibly destructive. I used to let them have the run of the yard (which my old bunny, buttons had always done) until they started eating the door frame and the pedals on bikes!!! So, then I got them a more enclosed run and they've chewed through much of that and much of their hutch!For Bonfire night I bought one of those mesh style hexagon cloth homes, at just under £50, it lasted 2 days before they found a way out! I've brought them in the house for the winter,I got them a lovely two floor indoor house which I thought was pretty bunny proof and lo and behold, today I've found tufty has somehow managed to open the door (which you have to push and lift!!) and get out. It now looks like i'll have to put a padlock on to stop them getting out! Does anybody have any tips? They have a good diet, plenty hay and veg and when i've bought things for them to knaw on they are not interested. In the meantime my home is gradually being chewed to pieces by these adorable mischiefs!!!

Hi and welcome :wave:

There are some great chew toys out there, not sure how many you have tried. Although I am not a huge Pets@home fan, their carrot patch is a winner, Biscuit loves it!

When we had dogs, I must confess we put a bit of chilli on the walls which were being chewed - but I wouldn't suggest that for a bunny :lol:

Our house was trashed within the first few weeks, we are now on our third telephone! I'm afraid it is just a case of see what they do and work out how to stop it - a bit trial and error! :roll:

Crikey. What naughty little buns! I know it's serious and must be quite stressful for you but I did have a little chortle when you said Tufty got out. Naughty but very clever. :roll:

Have they been spayed? That might be a factor?

Bob was quite destructive as a young bun. He wasn't a chewer so much, more of a digger. I came home one night to find he'd dug a bun-sized hole in our carpet through the underlay and actually down to the floorboard. :shock: He was trying to go under the front door. He did everntually (well almost) grow out of it and only now and then has a sly chew or dig. There was a time when I thought he was going to destroy our flat.

We did find that covering wooden furniture edges and cables with vaseline really put him off. He never tasted it, he just hated going anywhere near it.

I hope someone on here has some good advice for you.

no advise im afraid but i just wanted to tell you your not alone!

steve has chewed the gate on his run, around the entire wooden frame, the leg off his hutch, its now stood on a brick! the straps for his hutch snuggle, the front of the bench, his letter tray.......oh and a rabbit sized whole through the back of the shed. the list is huge. and he has plenty of toys to chew, things to occupy him. he just prefers to chew what he isn't allowed:evil::evil:

i feel your pain. ive just made sure nothing expencive and irriplacable is around for him to get at.

Once bunnies get in the habit of chewing up the house it is hard to break that habit. With a bit of work on my part I managed to break Julie's habit of chewing on everything in the house. Julie is free ranged in the kitchen and had a ton of chew toys but still preferred the baseboards. I covered all the baseboards in the kitchen and the base of the cabinets with a heavy duty plastic like molding that I bought at a home improvement store. I bought her willow baskets, all kinds of tasty fruit flavored chew toys. I even dipped some of the chews in pineapple juice to really tempt her. Once she could't easily get to the baseboards and started chewing on her tasty chews she lost interest in eating the house. I was finally able to remove most of the protective coverings. She even hops about the whole house during playtime and has little interest in chewing anything but her stuff. Some bunnies are just big time chewers. Julie is one. She still chews her litter box and her things but I am okay with that.

Thank you all for your advice, theres some good points there. I've now had to put a little padlock on the door to the girls hutch/cage!! They are lovely little things, just a wee bit too destructive to have the full run of the house! I'll get some more toys too, at the moment they love playing with kitchen rolls and chucking things out of their house!

you could dab a little lemon juice on what ever you dont want them to chew

I know the feeling bought a £200 hutch with run for my buns and the babies have ruined it iv given them millions of toys and chewing things but they obviously prefer eating the hutch lol aslong as mine are happy i dont mind tho

I put Vicks Vapour rub on stuff to stop them chewing - mine still love wallpaper and cables.

Thank you for the vaseline idea, I'll need to try that one next!

I've also used lemon juice which works really well but can bleach so not suitable for everything. I'm also on my third phone and have stopped counting the number of phone chargers she's gone through - even with plastic tubing she still gets through.