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Bunnies have destroyed garden - help!

FloLo

Alpha Buck
Me and my OH have moved in together for the first time, and of course bunnies have come with us!
We've been in the house about 2 months now, and the garden has been completely destroyed :shock: Flo and Tubsy have eaten all the grass down to the ground, their wee has made grass-less patches and they've dug a massive hole in their molt and bolt box (only discovered today when I lifted it up :lol:). My OH is not best pleased that the garden is such a mess considering its a rented house. He wants them off the grass for part of the year but the run is far too big to fit on our little patio, it only just about fits on the grass!

Any one have any advice ?? Would maybe a small runaround connection help?

Current set up:
tumblr_ox38i34M151rqxmjho1_400.jpg
 
Would the hutch sitting on top of the run at one end mean it would fit on the patio? You would need to reinforce the run to do it I imagine. You could still use the runaround pipe for them to get from hutch to run.
 
I can sympathise, our garden is wrecked. It's full of holes they've dug and there's lots of bare patches. Luckily I can move them around a bit to new areas, but we have 4 different set ups (9 rabbits in total / 1 inside) so it's not easy!

Not sure what you should do really. I just tell myself that we will just have to get some grass seed or turf in the future when we move x
 
Can you put slabs down. I shall be putting my slabs back down for the winter then I take them up in Spring and put new turf down.
 
Although our buns are usually indoors, our lawn has been dug over when they have been outside in the run. We are intending to try and slab an area, then move the run onto it ready for next year

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Unfortunately my experience is that keeping outdoor rabbits happy invariably means the garden will suffer. How much they damage the grass depends on how big the garden is but even with our old-fashioned, sizable garden and even when we only had one rabbit, we ended up with a sorry looking garden. Where they have their wee corner, the grass burns out. We have always allowed our rabbits to dig and given them free range time and the garden ended up looking like it was carpet bombed. Keeping potted plants - forget about it. And actually the summer months are better because the grass can recover; after the winter it will be much worse.

Of course if you put down slabs they can't dig - but they seem so happy digging! When they emerge, their paws covered in mud, they seem so proud...
 
I couldn't agree more, I love my bunnies and I also let them play. They also love digging and making their selves dirty.
 
Unless moving your hutch would mean the run could go on the patio, the other option is to returf when/if you move.
 
Is that a recent pic? The grass looks great so far as I can tell! Maybe I'm not the best judge though because I'd be happy with any grass right now :lol: Ours is very patchy in most areas and there's large patches with no grass at all after droughts killed it off a few years or so ago. It just seems to get worse ever year now. And then the ducks and geese probably don't help with it growing back in, although they used to keep the grass really nice with all their poop fertilizing it so I'm sure once we seed the yard and it grows in they wouldn't destroy it. I guess that's all you can do - reseed it when it starts looking a mess!
 
Thanks all for your replies!
Even if the hutch did not sit on the patio the run would not fit.
Maybe I'll get some slabs for their toileting areas to make it easier to clean, but I suppose I'll just leave the rest! They do love having a good dig :lol: I'll leave them to it!!
And no, the pic is not recent, was from 2 months ago when we just moved in...that grass is all gone :shock:
 
I would suggest artificial grass. We had the same problem the bunnies destroyed our garden, we re-turfed and they destroyed the new turf too! We invested in Namgrass and they absolutely love it, it stays dry all year, drains really well and they can binky around without getting their paws muddy. We also have a tray of fresh grass which they have access to which they munch on and could be replenished as needed.
 
I would worry about them eating the artificial grass. Ours are out for two hours a day and in the year that I have lived here I have not had to mow the lawn once! I have fenced them off the patio so that I can grow some flowers in tubs. There is a LOT of poo though. All over the garden.
 
We've had our bunnies for 3 months now and have just put slabs down to move them shortly... They destroyed it.

On the plus side. The total slab cost was <£100 for cement, slabs, sand. And took about 9 hours on a weekend. Recommend it :)
 
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