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Indoor Free-Range Houseproofing Experts

GrahamL

Wise Old Thumper
:wave:

Can i get a little advice please?

I have 3 areas i need to bunny proof better than they currently are;

a) Sofa
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The gap under the sofa is easily Biscuit sized. The gap to the right, where the Heroes Tin is scares Biscuit but not Ginger off.

b) TV Area
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Almost need to barricade the TV cabinet off, as so many cables, but want it to look good and presentable and still be accessible easily :?

c) Table/Lamp Area
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The overhang of the sofa arm means i can't block it off too high, which isn't too bad, but means currently i have to block the whole area off, as i can't protect it easily Again, cables behind sofa for lamp and digital photoframe (damaged by bunny chewing :shock:)

Pen panels are okay, but i have to move everything around and as it is a 'living room' i'd like to not have to keep moving things each time i want them let out etc. So i'd rather bunny proof. Thinking NIC panels?

Thing is, rented properly, so it can't be anything too 'permanent' as i'll have to take it out when we move. So please keep that in mind.

Any ideas greatfully received!

Gray
 
I put a piece of cardboard at the back of my tv unit so the wires are behind it and they can't get to it via the shelf :)
 
Hi Gray :wave:
We have covered all of our wires in conduit (think thats what its called, oh is a sparky!) so they are completely protected AND looks neat and tidy, no intrusive blocking off of anywhere :D

Not sure about behind the sofa, mine have foiled every attempt Ive made to block them from going behind there :roll:
 
I bought hard plastic tubing and put all wires and cords inside the tubing. It is a lot of work but once it is done it is protected and looks tidy. The tubing comes in different colors so blends in and isn't every noticeable. As far as keeping Julie out from behind the sofa that has proved impossible. She can remove anything that I used as a blockage but it isn't a problem now that the cords are protected behind the couch. She loves to run and sleeps back there as if it were a big tunnel.:lol:
 
I've put some big cushions ( more like bolsters ) either end of my sofa. I've used the twirly plastic cable tidys ( pushed up tight ) to stop Tobes having a go at the wires.
 
Sofa is tricky - that's a new one we have to deal with as we've just got two new Ikea sofas which are easily big enough for buns to crawl underneath! :roll: Very stoopid of us! :lol: The old sofa we just got rid of even the hamster couldn't crawl under.

We have two ideas for this - the first was that Mr PL was going to use wooden batons screwed to the inside of the frame to basically drop the frame to floor level and prevent access underneath - however, we are pushed for time and so we are going to try MY idea first... which is cheap thick duvet underneath. The test will be whether Poppy digs and chews and pulls it out, or just ignores it.
Poppy always hides behind the sofa at bedtime which was fine when she couldn't get under it but now she hides behind AND under it and hide and seek goes on for hours which is just ridiculous and needs to be stopped NOW! :lol:

To be honest with everything else we just tend to keep stuff off the floor and use rigid plastic cable wrap around cables - if the plug is accessible we use insulation tape to secure the cable wrap to the plug so there is nothing to chew, cable ties to tie cables up off the floor and minimal floor furniture. We're lucky really as ours just don't really bother getting into trouble or chewing anything, the only probs we have is Poppy hiding at bedtime in inaccessible places.

Good luck with it all :wave:
 
I think I should be describing the cable tidys as spiral & not twirly. I got mine from Maplins - they have different gages for the different wire diameters.
 
Me personally for the TV area I would cover wires in conduit AND use NIC panels. NIC panels are relatively easy to move or dismantle when you need to access the area. Or instead of NIC panels a low panel type pen? That you then swing open for access?

For the sofa do you just want to stop them going underneath? Could you cut some pieces of wood to size and screw them to the legs? For the area of the tin would more panels work? Or maybe a thick piece of wood underneath the sofa if you don't want to damage it?

For the table lamp area I'd use two lots of conduit and a load electricians tape and check it regularly for any bite marks. If they chew it then add some NIC panels.

If I stare at those pictures any more I will NEED chocolate I tell you :p
 
See below :)

Sofa is tricky - that's a new one we have to deal with as we've just got two new Ikea sofas which are easily big enough for buns to crawl underneath! :roll: Very stoopid of us! :lol: The old sofa we just got rid of even the hamster couldn't crawl under.

We have two ideas for this - the first was that Mr PL was going to use wooden batons screwed to the inside of the frame to basically drop the frame to floor level and prevent access underneath - however, we are pushed for time and so we are going to try MY idea first... which is cheap thick duvet underneath. The test will be whether Poppy digs and chews and pulls it out, or just ignores it. Good Luck - Biscuit, who we know is similar to Poppy in behaviour digs the duvet out i had under there and then tries to eat it :roll: :)
Poppy always hides behind the sofa at bedtime which was fine when she couldn't get under it but now she hides behind AND under it and hide and seek goes on for hours which is just ridiculous and needs to be stopped NOW! :lol:

To be honest with everything else we just tend to keep stuff off the floor and use rigid plastic cable wrap around cables - if the plug is accessible we use insulation tape to secure the cable wrap to the plug so there is nothing to chew, cable ties to tie cables up off the floor and minimal floor furniture. We're lucky really as ours just don't really bother getting into trouble or chewing anything, the only probs we have is Poppy hiding at bedtime in inaccessible places.

Good luck with it all :wave:
 
How flexible are NIC panels, eg, if i put panels down the side and over the front, but left the connectors off in the 'middle' and at each 'corner' would i be able to swing them open a bit like doors, if they were held together with say, cable ties?

Yeah, stop them going under it. Behind is not a problem, they can't get behind it as its pushed right against the wall. The only entry to under there is via the front as the sides are a lot lower (stupid design!). Wood may work, i just wondered if perhaps there was anything else, but that was something i'd thought about. Perhaps 2 lengths of CFS from B&Q (its only ~£2.50 for ~2m length) cut and shut together stuck under there. I'll have a think about that :)

I'll pop to town at some point and get some conduit for the cables for both the TV and Table/Lamp area. Sounds like lots of people have good success with this and i have black electrical tape upstairs and lots of it, so that should be okay.

Thanks Guys - you've all been really helpful :)

Any further ideas still greatfully received :)

Me personally for the TV area I would cover wires in conduit AND use NIC panels. NIC panels are relatively easy to move or dismantle when you need to access the area. Or instead of NIC panels a low panel type pen? That you then swing open for access?

For the sofa do you just want to stop them going underneath? Could you cut some pieces of wood to size and screw them to the legs? For the area of the tin would more panels work? Or maybe a thick piece of wood underneath the sofa if you don't want to damage it?

For the table lamp area I'd use two lots of conduit and a load electricians tape and check it regularly for any bite marks. If they chew it then add some NIC panels.

If I stare at those pictures any more I will NEED chocolate I tell you :p
 
How flexible are NIC panels, eg, if i put panels down the side and over the front, but left the connectors off in the 'middle' and at each 'corner' would i be able to swing them open a bit like doors, if they were held together with say, cable ties?

Yeah, stop them going under it. Behind is not a problem, they can't get behind it as its pushed right against the wall. The only entry to under there is via the front as the sides are a lot lower (stupid design!). Wood may work, i just wondered if perhaps there was anything else, but that was something i'd thought about. Perhaps 2 lengths of CFS from B&Q (its only ~£2.50 for ~2m length) cut and shut together stuck under there. I'll have a think about that :)

I'll pop to town at some point and get some conduit for the cables for both the TV and Table/Lamp area. Sounds like lots of people have good success with this and i have black electrical tape upstairs and lots of it, so that should be okay.

Thanks Guys - you've all been really helpful :)

Any further ideas still greatfully received :)

I think you'd find they wouldn't sit right. We did a swinging lid on the enclosure and it was ok like that as it rested on the rest but a door we found tricky. Maybe a short pen panel would work better. How often do you need to access it? Every day? Once a week?

I think PL's idea of a duvet is quite a good one. :thumb: Hang on, if it's only the front what about a draught excluder? You know, those long snake things designed to go by doors? You might have to do something so it doesn't get pushed inwards but they might ignore it. I know mine could probably jump over those panels under my desk but it's enough to put them off the idea.

Depending on how thick your conduit is you might want to use double. The Ikea stuff is thin but flexible so I tend to use double and then electricians' tape (which we have in abundance, my Dad is one ;)) wrapped round.
 
I've had an awesome evening with them. I've made some huge changes to the living room today whilst spring cleaning!

They now have the whole room while we're here :)

I've wrapped a 4 panel pen around the sofa, and run 2 panels (2.5ft each) down the back of one sofa and connected that to the dog crate. That means they can't get to the tv stand at all but can go under that sofa as a hidey hole and just somewhere to go.

I've blocked off one side of the other sofa (the fabric one in the pictures) where the tin is with the tin further down towards the back, as the wall comes in there so they can't get down the side of this sofa.

I've cable tied 2 cables to the radiator by the table/lamp area so they cant get at that too.

All in all, it means theres barely anything i have to do now to allow them free-range with us at night (during the day, they'll still have to be penned + hallway as they can do too much damage if unsupervised.

Should i take some pics to explain what i've done?
 
Okay, so here we go!

Pen around the TV
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Fleece under sofa feet blocking under (Biccy digs at this but cant get past it, yet..)
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Me Standing at Patio doors (end of living room)
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Me Standing in understairs cupboard (about 3/4 of the way up the room)
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And Just because she's so cute and has sat here about 300 times tonight...
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Does that explain it Schuey?
 
Oh that looks brill! and that pen is the PERFECT height isn't it! Is it all connected or do you connect it yourself cos that looks like it could swing open ideally.

I wonder if you could get some old tights, stuff them with something and wedge it into the gap with the sofa (assuming the fleece isn't enough of course) :lol:

They're gonna love it :love:
 
Oh that looks brill! and that pen is the PERFECT height isn't it! Is it all connected or do you connect it yourself cos that looks like it could swing open ideally.

I wonder if you could get some old tights, stuff them with something and wedge it into the gap with the sofa (assuming the fleece isn't enough of course) :lol:

They're gonna love it :love:

The pen is all connected, except the two front panels, which quite nicely overlap by ~2 inches, which is enough to not allow them through, but enough to hold together. It swings open nicely for access to the xbox360 and wii and other things :) Can't believe i didnt think of it before :roll:

You don't realise how nice its been for me to have them out all night, without spending ~30minutes putting up pen panels to blcok things off first and the having to take that all down again. This is going to make my (our!) life so much easier and give the buns more space, more free-range time and in my opinion (i dont know if everyone would agree) a better quality of life.

I think its certainly an improvement on what i had :) Im quite chuffed anyway :)
 
The pen is all connected, except the two front panels, which quite nicely overlap by ~2 inches, which is enough to not allow them through, but enough to hold together. It swings open nicely for access to the xbox360 and wii and other things :) Can't believe i didnt think of it before :roll:

You don't realise how nice its been for me to have them out all night, without spending ~30minutes putting up pen panels to blcok things off first and the having to take that all down again. This is going to make my (our!) life so much easier and give the buns more space, more free-range time and in my opinion (i dont know if everyone would agree) a better quality of life.

I think its certainly an improvement on what i had :) Im quite chuffed anyway :)

Oh I bet. Moving stuff is such a chore. Great with those pens, that's brilliant :thumb: It's great cos they can interact with you. I found it really tough with the bonding not being able to interact with them all the time. Having this barrier between.
 
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