How can you stop them eating the carpet?

Maddie is a licker, she licks the sofa until she leaves damp patches if I don't stop her and also licks the carpet. Her sister Millie is a digger and a chewer! I've got a cardboard box in each corner of the front room as that's where the digging was mostly confined to so she digs in the boxes now! But she keeps eating the carpet and she doesn't have a specific spot but does it all over the front room. She's got plenty of toys dotted around and unlimited hay but still insists on eating the carpet even when she flopped sometimes! How can I get her to stop? I'm not too fussed about the carpet it's tatty anyway but I'm worried she could get a blockage :? Anybody got any ideas? Thanks

Mine had cardboard over the floor (laminated though) and rugs on top but they did eventually chew the rugs so I had to change them. They really loved to dig/rip the cardboard ... perhaps you could put down correx or some kind of tarp with cardboard or newspaper on top to protect it.

I guess if they are free ranging around a carpeted house then its pretty tricky ... Mine were shut off in half a room so it was a bit easier to contain the chaos.

All you can do is cover it up, I have sheets and blankets over the carpet where I worry they'll chew it, and in their pen I have their marble tiles at the edge of it to stop them lifting the sheets quite as easily.

Yeh they free range when I'm home. They have a pen in the kitchen when I'm out which is lino so that's ok. It's getting quite tiring trying to stop her doing it or distract her with other toys! I've had them 3 months and they were good as gold to begin with. But they've been quite naughty the last few weeks! They've not long turned 6 months old which I think might be the "teenage" period, plus it's Spring and they're moulting too. Do you think it's one of these factors causing it and she might stop doing it or do you think it's just a learned behaviour now?

Maddie's licking is less worrying apart from if I'm not looking I think one's piddled on the sofa and it's just where she's been licking! :lol:

Digging is natural rabbit behaviour and they need to have somewhere that they can do it. I used a box with scrunched up newspapers (I did try earth but they just wee'd in it).

tulsi said:

Digging is natural rabbit behaviour and they need to have somewhere that they can do it. I used a box with scrunched up newspapers (I did try earth but they just wee'd in it).

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I don't mind the digging and they generally dig in the boxes now. I might try the newspaper idea thanks (although I'm not sure if they might try and eat it!). There's a blanket on the sofa that they like to dig too and they haven't tried chewing that (or peeing on it) so I might get them their own blanket!

The problem is Millie actually pulls bits of carpet out and eats them! She doesn't always dig before she does it, sometimes she'll be flopped out and just start eating the carpet. I don't care about the carpet as it's not very nice anyway but I'm worried she'll get a blockage if she keeps eating it. Most of the time I manage to stop her before she eats much and she does eat a lot of hay too. I just can't figure out why she likes eating the carpet, she's got loads of hay and chewable toys like willow balls dotted all over the place too! I don't think it can be a dental issue as they went to the vet recently and he had a little look at the front ones and said they looked excellent.

take the carpet away. that's the only solution.

Are they spayed?
T&F started to do this badly too in the last few weeks before they were spayed. They were slightly better after that, but it didn't solve the problem!

They hardly ever do it now and it was just persistence worked for us. Every time they started to chew, we clapped to distract them, then sprayed that area with a chew-stop spray. That would put them off that particular area for an hour or so. IT would have taken quite a few weeks but in the end they seemed to get the message.

Of course then they moved on to the furniture....:lol: