We thought he was not going to be a digger!

Our 3 month old Rex rabbit Flopsy has been so well behaved in his run on the lawn since we took him in as a pet at 7 weeks old. We always bring him in the house for an hour or two in the evening and yesterday he was jumping around all over and doing lots of binkies! He usually settles after half an hour or so, snuggling into a stealthy ball and nearly falling over sideways as he drops off with his eyes shut. Not so this time. We have never seen him so active indoors. Anyway, we transferred him from his hutch to the run as usual late this afternoon. After half an hour, I noticed he was digging! I had a look and he had already dug a decent sized hole in the lawn! I was hoping we would get away with him not being a digger, but this is now not to be. We are in the process of linking the shed/hutch and run together and I was going to put slabs under the run if necessary. I ordered the slabs today! I will have to get on with it after work tomorrow or he will have nowhere to run. We can't leave him on the grass anymore now that he has discovered digging. Hope he does not mind having slabs underneath instead of grass.

hi

Aww - he's very handsome...I wonder if he may be a she though as my girls are crazy diggers - has a vet confirmed Flopsy being a boy?

As for being on concrete - my bunnies all are - it keeps their nails worn down nicely and you can pick grass for them to eat - so long as it's not lawnmower clippings.

I have heard that rex rabbits like yours can get sore back feet on concrete though, as they don't have thick fur on their feet like other bunnies - that's something to watch for - not sure what you could do about it - maybe give him a good layer of bark chippings in there? I expect Flopsy might like a box full of shredded paper to dig in, or bark chippings...

Anyone know if bark chips are poisonous??

Yep Rex rabbits can get sore hocks. Difficult really, you could always put a layer of wire mesh under the grass so that if he does dig, he can't dig out.

I give my Rex lots of Vetbed to sit on so she isn't sitting on hard ground.

I'm going to get mine a run on some slabs as Phoebe is a digger. I good idea someone told me is to grow fresh grass in a tray (a cat litter tray will do) for them to nibble on in the run

Hi elve, thanks for your reply. We have not had the sex confirmed by a vet, but we are thinking of it now he is 3 months old. We have had 2 people say that Flopsy is a boy, but they are not vets.

Thanks for the idea about the bark chippings, I will certainly consider that.

My daughter Jodie has made 2 cardboard houses for Flopsy with rooms, ladders etc. They are in his run. Hopefully this will keep him busy. He has explored these already. I have an 8" x 12" clear perspex tube in the run, but he never seems to go inside it. I have tried putting hay and food in there, but he's not interested. He likes to chew on magazines in the house when we bring him inside in the evenings! We will try putting some shredded paper inside the houses and see what happens...

What about decking tiles instead of slabs?

Aaah boys and digging.....Mine dug out of their new extension the other day which I wasn't expecting them to do so I made a trip to B&Q last night for some slabs..........little rascals......