Best flooring to avoid sore hocks

Hi all,
Hoping for some advice.

We lost our house rabbit (a dwarf lop called Max) a couple of months ago after 9 happy years. It was a pretty distressing experience, he had regular problems with his teeth which we thought would eventually see him off, but in fact he suddenly developed terrible sore hocks and despite hours of care and medication from us and the vets things got worse and worse until we had no choice but to lose him.

We miss Max a lot and are now thinking of getting a new bunny but are concerned that our setup is really not ideal and worry about causing any harm to a new adoptee. We have fired tile floors in the main kitchen area where our last rabbit lived and similar tiles or carpets elsewhere. He used to sleep on a blanket in the kitchen but obviously would run around on the tiles and carpets (including happily bounding up and down our stairs). Our back garden is far from a rabbit paradise as its part tiles / slabs but for the most part part gravel, no grass I'm afraid.

So the questions are;

1) can we put down some covering on part of our tiled floors that will be better for a rabbits feet and if so what is the very best option eg cork or straw tiles or lino which seems mentioned a lot

2) are we being unfair getting a new bunny if we dont have grass for him to run on and maybe running on those hard surface in our garden contributed to Max's hock problems?

As I mentioned we had Max for 9 years before the problems started but it was so upsetting losing him and his hocks were such a mess by the end that we are now a bit nervous about the same thing happening again!

Any guidance appreciated

rawzer

I'm sure an expert will be along soon but I think the only thing that can have caused such damage to his hocks is the gravel. There are many people with indoor rabbits who have tiled floors, carpets, lino etc with no problems. Mine run around on the patio and their feet are fine, it just keeps their nails nice and trim so I don't have to put them through the stress of cutting them.

I would make sure your rabbit has a secure indoor home, perhaps a dog crate, for their own safety really when you're not home. Lined with blankets etc they should be more than comfortable.

I would seriously avoid the gravel. Do you use litter trays? They are best lined with megazorb and hay :wave:

PS welcome to the forum!! :wave:

Max lived 80% indoors, he had an outdoor hutch when he was banished (eg for the cleaners). We gated a little patio area for him which kept him off the gravel but we did start to let him run more free after a while because he loved to rush around after us in the garden and jump up on the walls, but maybe we would have to be stricter this time.

He had a litter tray which we lined with paper and straw with lots of hay at the front which he would never eat (hence the teeth issues), and was incredibly clean and tidy with his droppings etc until the last few weeks when he really struggled to move much but still made an effort

He didnt have a crate because we dont really have the space (ie no utility room and a fairly small kitchen), but we kept the doors of the kitchen closed when we were out and there wasnt much harm he could do himself in there. one corner was his blankets which he happily snuggled into and nearby his litter tray.

It sounds like Max had some real difficulties with his eating etc. I would make sure any outdoor area is fenced in - for their own protection from cats, foxes (even very large birds!) but also so the bunny can't get themselves into any kind of trouble or a situation where they might get hurt. I think a run outside on the patio 20% of the time wouldn't cause any harm to feet. The worst things for hocks in my experience are caged floors and mesh floors etc. Like I say, I think in your situation it may have been the gravel (but I'm no expert).

If the kitchen is a secure environment then I don't think there's a problem with having another bunny.

I think sometimes we let our past experiences with pets haunt us a bit and put us off. We've had several rescue dogs for example, and one of ours got in a fight with another dog and he nearly died. It put me off having dogs for ages in case it happened again. I understand you don't want another rabbit to end up with poorly feet so I can see why you're doing your research.

Check out this thread. You'll see there's some links in the first post about hocks and what flooring to use etc.

Thanks for the pointers they look really useful. I have had a quick read and one thing that did stand out was some people felt carpets were a potential problem and could burn the hocks and cause problems. We did change our carpets and I think its quite possible that was as much to blame as anything, so perhaps we will also focus on making sure any new bunny sits on a blanket or some vet bed when he is visiting us in the lounge rather than running free - although one of the things we most miss is Max running through from the kitchen to see us in the lounge, watch TV and demand hours of fuss

It depends on the carpet, if it's rough and short pile then it can rub off the fur on their hocks. Deep pile carpet that is soft is best. Or if you don't mind it then duvets I found were really good as they are spongy but also cotton so soft.

The best thing is deep hay but not feasible indoors unfortunately. I found replacing carpet with lino helped greatly but reduced their grip so they didn't run around so much. I have some carpet offcuts down as rugs for grip but I've noticed some of Mini and Nutmeg's fur has worn from their hocks so when they need replacing (which will be soon) I'm getting a deep pile offcut.

I also found putting things soft and spongy down where they tend to sleep was helpful. Depending on how they sleep it can put more pressure on their hocks.