help please rabbits eating the shed!

[sparkey]

hi all,
can anyone help with this, we brought a new shed, sectioned it off. looked great, then they started eating it! they have eaten all the lino and started on the wood of the inside and the outside run! i have given them those little sticks for chewing but they only last a sec!
any suggestion pleeease!! (4 dutch rabbits)

 

[Snowberry]

My Strawberry does this and i havent managed to find a way to stop him! I have tried numerous treats, toys, chewing sticks, loads of exercise but he still eats anything I put inside his wendy house and eats the house walls!

 

[Tracy]

My Poppy, Pansy & Daisy were known as the ASBO girls when they were at the rescue as they managed to eat their way out of three different hutches. :shock:

I keep them very busy with lots of different toys and apart from a bit of nibbling of the shelf and ramp in their wendy house and a bit of nibbling of the wood in their run, they haven't done too much damage.

I give them natural wood sticks (apple, hawthorn, hazel). Some of the branches are quite large and they spend time stripping the bark off. They also have bought toys such as large willow balls, grassy balls & grassy carrots. They also love the Naturals Hay 'n' Hide tube and that keeps the three of them very busy. Another favourite is the Busy Bunny Mat which is made of natural grass - doesn't last long, but keeps them occupied for a while. All of these can be found on The Hay Experts website. If you keep varying the types of toys you give them it helps to keep them stimulated and busy.

Try stuffing cardboard toilet/kitchen roll inners with hay/treats. Or a cardboard box filled with hay with healthy treats hidden inside will make them work to find the nice bits. I use Burns dried plantain and I mix a bit of it within their hay - they love it, but have to work to find it!

Hopefully by keeping them very busy they'll keep their teeth off their shed. It has worked for my three and they had a dreadful reputation for being destructive.

 

[cloughie]

I think the only way to protect wood from buns is to protect it with plastic or metal lipping...I prefer plastic lipping as the buns could chip their teeth on metal.

I have put strips up in the buns new playhouse along every chewable edge dunno if you can see it in these pics? its on the stud work, table and acccess hole.

And to stop them chewing the lino up I have covered the edges up with batons of wood, which also has plastic lipping on them.

 

[Sherpa]

my bunnies have eaten my shed. the only way i could stop them.....move them out!!!! :lol:
the plastic lipping idea sounds good though!

 

[Stator]

Fix the lino down with those carpet securing metal thingies that you screw down on top. Put that on all the edges and they shouldn't be able to pull it up. Protect wood corners with metal corner rods you can buy from B&Q , Wickes etc. Protect tongue and groove / overlap panels by fixing some plywood over the top

 

[fluffiebunnie]

I moved Pickle and Pootle into their playhouse and they started eating all the wood edges, so I have been putting plasterers beading (metal strips) around all the bits of wood they can chew... this is stopping them ruining a brand new playhouse.... only problem is they started to eat the ridges on the decking now :roll::roll::roll::roll: