Cage flooring

[Rayen]

Sigh, I can't stand it anymore. My adorable (evil) Briar bunny has been chewing up her flooring since she hit around 4-5 months of age. She hasn't been eating it, just shredding it to pieces and leaving giant piles all over the place that I have to clean up daily. She was getting better though, so I figured she would stop when I moved them together so I might be able to keep what I have. Well, now she's probably worse than she was before. There's probably a hole the size of two bunnies on the bottom floor in the furthest back corner and she's started on the second floor as well now. I've tried the same thing I did when she was chewing the carpet/door/walls/whatever else when she came out (clapping and saying 'no' and moving her) she just ignores that. I've tried rubbing vinegar along the edge of the carpet where she would chew, and that stops her for probably a day as she licks every single piece she can find to see if she can chew it. I've been giving her more toys and hay cubes, toilet paper tubes full of hay, treats/vegetables attached to some hanging toys, but she ignores those too.

I don't know what to do now. It's a giant shelving cube cage, it's not like I can just go out and pick something up easy. Alternatives are fairly expensive, and usually something I could see her shredding to pieces. So I'm not exactly thrilled to go out and spend 30-60$ for a sheet of potential flooring just to find her chewing it up within a day or so.

Is there anything I could find relatively easily that she wouldn't chew? Or some way I can stop her from chewing it? I love the carpet squares I have now, they're very easy to clean and cut up into pieces for smaller sections. But obviously they're also very easy and tempting to chew and shred. She's the only one that does it, all of Quinn's carpet was in perfect squares when I combined the two cages and now I wake up to her on her second level making a racket as she rips and destroys.

 

[delusional]

Is it just the edges that she chews, or does she pull it up from the middle as well?

If it's just the edges, then you could stick with your carpet squares and protect the edges with those metal strips that go down the edge of plasterboard... erm.. no idea what they're called.. or what I've done on some cages is fix a baton of wood on top of the flooring, at the edges, so that the edges can't be gotten to.

If she's pulling up carpet from the middle, then it may be better to invest in something flat that she can't get her teeth around, like lino, and then protect the edges in the same way as above.

Or if your cage is likely to be the same setup for a while, since it's more expensive, ceramic tiles also work well (and are great in hot summers).

 

[Luvr of Wabbits and Polar Bears]

I bought the children's play cubes foam squares at Walmart cheap. They work really well and easy to clean up.

Here's what they look like

 

[SweetSassy]

For my bunnies NIC cage: I had vinyl/ linolieum flooring that both of my bunnies ate through. So I bought Coroplast. It's a hard plastic. And on the second story of their NIC cage i use long strips of cardboard. Easy to replace....April



* you can get coroplast at a sign store or a sign manfacturing place.

 

[Rayen]

Luvr of Wabbits and Polar Bears wrote:

I bought the children's play cubes foam squares at Walmart cheap. They work really well and easy to clean up.

Here's what they look like

I was looking at those too, but are they easy to rip up after connected together? Or for that matter, easy for little bunny teeth to grip in the middle?

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[bunniekrissy]

I suggest a linoleum sheet that the cage simply sits on top of so no edges are exposed within the cage. Those squishy squares look like something to check out, too!

 

[SweetSassy]

bunniekrissy wrote:

I suggest a linoleum sheet that the cage simply sits on top of so no edges are exposed within the cage. Those squishy squares look like something to check out, too!

Thats what I had but some how my bunny, Daisy put a hole in it. You can try it. She would dig at it, I don't know if her nail started the hole or not. IDK.

 

[Luvr of Wabbits and Polar Bears]

Rayen wrote:

Luvr of Wabbits and Polar Bears wrote:

I bought the children's play cubes foam squares at Walmart cheap. They work really well and easy to clean up.

Here's what they look like

I was looking at those too, but are they easy to rip up after connected together? Or for that matter, easy for little bunny teeth to grip in the middle?

Thanks for the suggestions!

Surprisingly Smokies hasn't tried to pick the mat up or chew at it. Once there connected they are pretty tight fit.

 

[missyscove]

I have sheets of wallboard that I got at the Home Depot. They had two kinds and came in 4' by 8' sheets. I put the thicker sheet under the two cages and cut the slightly thinner sheet to fit the shelves with a box cutter. Timmy nibbled on the sides of his a bit, but just to the point where the metal grids are then he left it alone. Fiona hasn't chewed hers at all.

Bottom floor:

 

[delusional]

Those coloured sqaures that fit together can be eaten from the middle - I had them for Nigel, and he's not even really a chewer, and they ended up with holes in them.

 

[billinjax]

I think I have something like Missyscove mentioned. My cage came with floors that are a single solid piece of hard textured plastic. Because it is so strong, he gave up immediately and the floor digging became an non-issue. As he got older, outgrew serious digging, and learned good litter box habits, I've been able to use indoor/outdoor carpet on top of this. Sounds crazy but I think he sees the carpeted area as off-limits for using the bathroom and digging - just like the carpet on my floors.

http://www.petwerks.com/Cat_images/BA300b_lg.jpg

I imagine you could buy this at a hardware store. This cage company makes the cages do so by hand. So, it's probably not a specially manufactured item but rather something that can be found at Lowes or Home Depot.