Excercise

[dbrocks]

Hello everyone, I have a 4 month old, male, Netherland dwarf rabbit named Galileo. I live in an apartment with a friend who has a 1 year old, male, Netherland dwarf. We got them at the same time a little over a week ago, both are not fixed but will be soon.

Exercising Galileo is challenging. Currently, I change between giving him a bit of the carpeted hallway and the kitchen or just restricting him to the tiled kitchen. The issue is that he hates the tile. If he thinks he can escape, then he has no problem walking on it, otherwise he will only touch it briefly before rushing back to his cage. When he is given access to the carpet and kitchen, he stays on the carpet and poops (a massive amount), occasionally pees, digs, and chews at the carpet.

When I restrict him to the kitchen he does not run around or binky, so even if he is able to get out for hours on end, when it is time to lock up the cage he immediately gnaws at the bars wanting to get out. This breaks my heart, but when I asked the vet, she said he would get used to the tile and it would help with litter training. It is probably worth mentioning that both rabbits have their own space, I tried giving Galileo access to the other's larger area but had to move him immediately since he pooped (I counted) 43 times in the 3 minutes it took to direct him back into his cage.

I just want to do the right thing, and litter training him is pretty much mandatory now due to the amount he poops. Any advice is welcome.

 

[Blue eyes]

It may be difficult to train him now that he is hormonal. You might just need to be patient until he is fixed (the sooner the better). In the meantime, I would keep him off the carpet. He is just learning bad habits by being permitted to pee and poo there now. Plus it will get his smell in the carpet which makes him want to return to the same spot again and again.

I would keep him off of your main carpet until he is trained. But some rabbits do not ever "get used to" tile. Some will, but some won't. You could try putting something else down on top of the tile to help with traction. Maybe a few of those clear plastic carpet protectors can be put on the tile for some grip. Maybe someone else has other floor ideas. Just be careful that whatever you choose is not something that he chews or ingests.

The sooner he gets fixed, though, the sooner he can train and then have the privilege of running on the carpet.

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

I've had my rabbit for a year and a half and she still hates flooring. For me it works great because I don't have to set up any barriers to keep her out of areas I don't want her to go. You could always buy a carpet remnant, they are very cheap, and put that on the tile.
For my rabbit, she has the carpeted living room, plus I have a couple of carpet runner remnants that I've placed going into the kitchen so she has more area to run and be joyful

I agree that once he is neutered, it will be much easier to litter train him.