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Eating cardboard and paper - okay??

rockk

Young Bun
Hello All,

I know I have kinda mentioned this before in some of my previous posts however I feel I need a bit more reassuring (Lita is my first rabbit and if I am finding her a boyfriend I really don't want to do anything wrong ... I'm a bit of a worrier!!)

Can rabbits eat cardboard and paper ??? Lita loves pulling apart cardboard boxes and newspapers but then she eats it all, doesn't just shred it, completely clears up... she has suffered from that blocked gut thing in the past (gastricstatis or something) and I worry about what I feed her ... I don't want her to get ill.

Toy's wise she doesn't really play with them so I like to try and give her other things (toilet rolls or papers) but don't want to if its bad for her.

Any words from you rabbit owner experts?

P.S. Thanks to rabbit rehome for having these forums. I've learnt so much from reading the posts!!!!
 
Hiya Rockk!

My Bundle does this too! she loves cardboard boxes and has a particular penchant for the delivery boxes that Avon stuff comes in! (I keep thinking I must write and tell them how much my bunny loves their boxes - see if I can get some freebies! lol)

I was worried about it when she first started as she eats it - doesn't shred it, just starts chewing at one corner and keeps on going :roll: but she hasn't come to any harm at all, although I don't let her do it all the time now because I was worried she may get constipated. It never seems to affect her though and she really does seem to relish those Avon boxes! :lol: :lol:
 
hope you dont mind rockk but i wanna add something onto this thread seen astho i have a question about paper aswell, instead of adding another thread.... i recently got a paper shredder and wondered if it was ok to use it in hutch under straw/hay in sleeping compartment. its just stuff like letters/bank statements etc.
i havent used any yet but have it kept in a bag just incase it will come in handy for hutch.
 
Hi Bumble - I use shredded paper for Bundle and she's fine with it. I don't tend to put anything in the shredder if it's too highly covered with ink though, or glossy pages like magazines and she's fine.

Besides she much prefers Avon boxes to any sort of paper (except wallpaper chewing but she seems to have gotten over that now!) :lol:
 
Don't mind at all bumble

Thanks for the info about boxes ... I wasn't sure if this was what would have caused the gastro-statis stuff. Probably put 2 and 2 together and got 5!!!

I'll let her have a play / chew / eat some cardboard every so often then
 
I use shredded paper in the litter box, together with a layer of straw and then hay on top. Have never seen my bunnies eat any of the paper. They like to shred cardboard boxes, but again, they don't eat them. I'd just make sure your bunny doesn't get too much of it.
 
My last bunny used to eat paper, magazine paper, etc. In the end, he died of liver cancer. I couldn't help but wonder if it is related to the carpet and paper that he chewed.

The vet said magazine paper has printed on chemical, and those chemical is not good for a rabbit in long run. She recommended Untreated paper, which resemble wood in the wild. Untreated paper is your brown bag lunch bag type paper.

So cardboard box should be okay too. But not newspaper and magazine paper.

In the end, w/ my current bunny, I used chew wood ea. time I see her trying to chew on newspaper. I hide most of it, but the newspaper under the vinyl is to absorb her urine, the little edges sticks out, and that's the only little bit of newspaper that she can a hold of. So no biggie.
 
Thanks for that ... I'll get some brown type paper for her to play with instead of newspaper and catalogues.

Loo Roll's should be good cardboard then because they are that recycled stuff.

I've got a box in the shed with Lita today with a hole in the top and I've hidden her veg in the box ... should be some fun for her.
 
Hiya - my two buns like to eat paper and cardboard too so i don't leave anything near them that they can eat. I just give them wooden toys to chew as I have always worried about what eating cardboard etc would do to them long term...
 
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