Digging up the carpet!

Hi all,

Our most recent bun Dottie is what you might call feisty. She boxes my hand when I feed her, grunts at me and claws at my trouser legs :shock: we've nicknamed her Demon Dottie.

Shes been free range in my daughter room since we rescued her from her previous home where she was kept in a tiny hutch. She has a lovely amount of space and lots of toys etc now but as the title says, she decided last night to start ripping up the carpet.

Shes been confined to her cage base while we figure out what to do. We rent so I can't have it happening again, as it is we might get charged for the damage. Until now she has left the carpet alone and is great at using her litter tray so I was happy to give her free run. She was spayed a few weeks ago, if that's relevant at all.

Does anyone have any tips for dealing with this please?

Thank you x

How large is the bedroom? Could you cover the carpet with a roll of vinyl?
We use vinyl over the floor in the bunnies room, even though it is room sized it wasn't too expensive on eBay

Could still be from hormones but I find it unlikely.

Has anything been spilt where she's digging? I'd maybe give it a little clean with white vinegar.

How are her nails? Phoebe digs terribly when her nails start to get long as it bothers her no end.

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daphnephoebe said:

Could still be from hormones but I find it unlikely.

Has anything been spilt where she's digging? I'd maybe give it a little clean with white vinegar.

How are her nails? Phoebe digs terribly when her nails start to get long as it bothers her no end.

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I agree that's something worth checking out as I've also noticed that my buns tend to dig more when their nails need a trim.

Hope you manage to find a solution. Naughty Dottie

Thanks for your replies.

I'd guess the room is about 9ftx9ft I'm not sure lol, my dd has a cabin bed with desk underneath, so Dottie gets the whole floor space. I could look at some vinyl, although I did buy some for my other buns and it was quite pricey.

I'll have a look at her nails tomorrow they probably could do with a trim. I must admit I'm a bit afraid of her so I haven't checked them that recently.

She did once do a little wee in the same corner, but I don't know if it's that x

If it's just one space then a heavy tile/paving slab is good protection. I'd pair that will an area she can dig in so a storage box filled with soil/paper/hay. Some bunnies that like to dig also generally like shredding so cardboard boxes too. It might be worth popping a bit of plywood under if you think she might dig down through the cardboard.

To rabbits carpet is just the grass they need to dig through to get at the soil below so it's very natural behaviour. I think rabbits that don't try and dig are the odd ones

Thanks Tamsin, at the moment it's one spot but I wouldn't put it past her to try digging up the whole carpet!

She does have a big cardboard box that she has been shredding, but that's a good idea to also include a filled storage box.

I should add the long term the plan is to move her outside as she's not really suited to being an indoor bun. When we got her we didn't have the outside accommodation sorted and then it's been too cold, so she's in for the winter x

If it's just temporary you could try asking on freecycle/local facebook groups and see if anyone is replacing their carpet - laying an old one over the top would give it some protection and be a temporary cheaper fix. 6mm plywood would be an option too - not sure how much a sheet of that compares to lino.

Thanks for the suggestions Tamsin you've reminded me that I do have an old rug that would at least cover the bit she's had a go at and I'll see what else I can come up with x

6mm ply tends to work out about the same as lino.
But chipboard is a lot cheaper and should be safe to use with her. £15 for a piece about 2.4m length by 1.2m wide

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Thanks dp, I'll have a look into it. It's just getting that balance between bunny proofing and remembering that it's still my daughters bedroom x

One of my old bunnies randomly starting ripping up the carpet once, after ignoring it totally up to then. With her, she wasn't digging it with her nails, but pulling out fibres with her teeth. I think there was just a particular section that was slack enough for her to feel like she wanted to destroy it! We had to put some tiles on that particular area, and there were no further problems.

Ply or chip board are paintable so if you do go down that route you could make it snazzier with some waterbased paints (regular emulsion is fine).

Have you tried giving your bunny something else to destroy?

I've got a really destructive bunny [Twinkle ] who was bonded with my little Lionhead [Ghibli] who's always been really really well behaved.

She has been rehomed on more than one occasion, and when I first got her she tore up carpets, wall paper, even DVDs!

Some great advise I got on forums [and through research] was to give her other outlets for her energy.

One great [but unfortunately still quite loud] toy I made for her was a digging box! It's a box filled with paper and hay with a small hole at the front for her to dig into! The deeper the box the better! I've found that she generally rips things up where she can hide, so put things that you don't mind her destroying like boxes and pieces of apple branch under [or emidiatly next to] things like a small stool is a good way to get her interest. It gives her a place to hide, while focusing her energy onto something other than your carpet.

Sometimes you have to try a lot of different toys before you hit on something that she's going to like, and it could be something as simple as used toilet roles, or a piece of wood [just make sure it's not toxic]. I took the door off the hutch because she was chewing it, and put it by her favourite stool [where she hides under] so that she can reach it easier than the hutch. It's the same wood, so it's more convenient for her to chew than than leave her stool to chew the corner of the hutch!

I'm kind of at the early stages with all this, so I can't tell you that your bunny will get less destructive, but with some creative solutions to occupy her time you can definitely redirect her destructive urges onto something that won't cost loads to replace!

Good luck

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Thanks for all the replies. It's certainly possible she's ripping it up with her teeth!

Yes, I got her lots of willow toys etc. She does have a large cardboard box that she rips up, but I haven't tried filling it with anything, so I'll try that.

She's completely different to our other rabbits in that she appears to have fear aggression. She will box my hand and grunt at me, so it's probably part of her being quite destructive generally. I did read that sometimes having a companion can help but I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet x