for those of you with bunnies....

[lovemyshiba]

Where do they live??
A few years ago, I moved in with a friend of mine, and hers lived in the house and was *supposedly* litter trained, and chewed on absolutely everything in the house, including the wallpaper and couch, and left little "bunny treats" everywhere.
I was just curious, I know they can be trained, maybe she was lax in her training and just didn't care.

[Liradralyn]

It sounds like she just wasn't trying very hard. Sorry to sound harsh. The thing about bunnies is, if they're bored the WILL chew on things. So you have to give them lots of stimulation and acceptable things to chew, like blocks of wood, cardboard tubes, etc.

Re/ the litter-training, yes it does take some effort. Some seem to just take to it automatically, but some need to be told what to do. (For me, this involved literally picking up the rabbit and placing her in the box every time I caught her pooing where she shouldn't.) Eventually they catch on. They're pretty smart that way.

It's not uncommon for people to let their bunnies have the run of the house. You just have to make sure that the house is bunny-proofed i.e. all wires are inaccessible and that they are litter-trained.

[lovemyshiba]

Thanks for the response--I figured it was her laziness, I mean, a bunny is just like anything else, you have to take the time and patience to train it, and make sure it doesn't get bored.
I was just curious.

[Heather Wallace]

Rabbit chew, it is natural. You can train them so much but unfortunately they still with chew things regardless. Yes you can bunny proof wires for their own safety, but I have friends on another forum who have trainned their buns yet they have to replace tables, cords wires, etc everynow and then.

Bunny, my rabbit has chewed through 2 modem cables and has started eating the wall. I can't leave them unsupervised in the house as they cause so much trouble.

[Karen]

Some bunnies need more training than others to use the litterbox - sounds like hers had none whatsoever.

Bunnies chew. They have to, their teeth grow continuouslly throughout their life. Miss Hoppy has sticks and other treats to chew on, but has nibbled the baseboards in a few places that apparently "needed" to be bunny-beveled!

She is free to run around the whole house except the office, where our computers are net-worked. All those cables would just be too much tempation. The rest of the house has any electrical cords hidden or bunny-proofed.

[RockyRoad]

Chewing can be a good thing, well at least in my case . Floppsy ended up chewing a hole in her cage yesterday. So now while my dad fixes it, Floppsy gets to stay inside for New Year's!!
Although nobody here is in that predictament(sp) except me, chewing is for the most part a negative thing. But my bunny is an outdoor bunny so I have never really experienced the *chewing stage* like any of you have. But of course I have read up on it, so I agree with everyone else, you can train them not to chew on important things. Try making everything out of reach to bunny, and get him/her some wood blocks (they are availible at most pet stores) to chew on instead of household items. I also agree with everyone else on the fact that bunnies have to chew as their teeth grow. It is especially hard when they are young, as they need to chew because their teeth are just growing in.

[Aspen and Misty]

My bunny Jilly lives in a cage sometimes but manly has free roam of the bathroom and will eventually, when I get around to cleaning and bunny proofin it , will have free roam of my room exept at night, when Chewy is in there. I bought her some fuit flavored chew sticks and o boy was that one of the best things I have gotten her!!! She has already destroyed one of them and is strating on the cherry one. Myabe she is getting bored and some toys would be fun to play with?

Ash

[Heather Wallace]

Ash, yes jilly will definately want so toys like balls to push around and I know you can buy wood toys so your bun can have a good chew.

[Aspen and Misty]

O no, I ment the other bunny. The one the thread is about. Jilly has lots of toys that Karen suggestes and that I got off of a web site.

Ash

[Heather Wallace]

Sorry, I guess I am still half a sleep

[Aspen and Misty]

Its ok. I can see how you got confussed. I worded that difcultly.

Ash