Picky on toys-PLEASE READ

[elleecrawford]

My bunnies, Ashen and Miguel have many toys. They never play with any of them though. I don't want them to be bored. They have baby links, stacking cups, bells, throw "carrots", wood chews, willow, and many more toys. Any ideas on toys that they would be interested in?? :anotherbun:anotherbun:anotherbun

 

[Imbrium]

Tunnels always seem to be a big hit, even with bunnies that don't normally like toys. We love the Ware plastic fun tunnel and this crinkle tunnel (we think it's better than the one Walmart sells since it's 5' long instead of 3'), though I had to throw the crinkle tunnel away after my brief and misguided attempt to free-range the bunnies which resulted in them peeing it (and many other things) up just to ruin it so the cats wouldn't try to share it (I would've washed it to get the pee out, as it had been through the washing machine before and came out fine, but then one of the cats took a retaliatory sh*t on the tunnel. At that point, I was done - it went in the trash). Another good (and inexpensive) option is to get something called a "concrete form" from a hardware store - they're 4' long (multiple diameter choices) tunnels made of heavy-duty cardboard.

Cat cubes are fun, too (website says not available, but I swear I've seen them in stores recently). Cardboard boxes are great hidey-holes and many bunnies enjoy "remodeling" them. Also, old phone books are great to destroy - my girls ignored their first one for a couple months and then suddenly this happened:

A fun interactive play option is to make an agility course. I wrote up a little tutorial in my blog when I made ours.

 

[zombiesue]

whoooaaa imbrium lol

Toilet paper tubes are sometimes fun for rabbits to chew on at least. Newspapers if you wanna keep your phone book usable lol. Some rabbits just aren't as big on what we think of as toys as other rabbits. I've heard stories of people bonding a rabbit that DOES like toys with rabbits who don't and sort of teaching them how... but not everyone is out to get another rabbit of course

 

[Imbrium]

Newspapers if you wanna keep your phone book usable lol.

Pfft, they deliver a crazy number of phone books and the internet renders them nearly-obsolete anyway (though I did use the phone books numerous times to hassle CPS about power outages before I finally programmed the number into my phone). If you're gonna recycle an old phone book, why not run it through a "shredder" first?

 

[Azerane]

Just a word of caution with phone books and having paper lying around. This is probably hardly a problem for anyone, but I have a real problem with spiders at this house during summer, white-tails in particular which could do some serious harm to a rabbit. I have to be super vigilant about cleaning up any shredded paper and cardboard mess of Bandit's because if I leave it sitting there, it attracts the spiders. More than once I've cleaned up paper that had been there for a couple of days and found spiders underneath. I don't leave it even that long any more. A day at most.

Anyway, don't mean to scare you off them because they are great toys! I find the phone book is good for distractions. If he's pulling at a fence/barrier, I sit the phone book down right in front of it and he shreds that instead.

Have you tried putting food inside the different layers of the stacking cups? That's what I do with Bandit, he seems to enjoy it.

 

[Imbrium]

Eep! I've never had an issue with indoor spider clusters... I occasionally see a single spider, but they're always a harmless type - I just trap 'em in my hand or a cup and release them outside so they can go back to eating the icky bugs. I'd hate to have to be so cautious about preventing dangerous spiders from cavorting in the bunny pen ><

 

[elleecrawford]

Have you tried putting food inside the different layers of the stacking cups? That's what I do with Bandit, he seems to enjoy it.

I'll definitely try that, thanks!

 

[missyscove]

Things with food are a bit hit. We take toilet paper tubes and put some hay and some pellets in them. My buns also have a cat treat dispenser toy, the smartykat knock out and they like to eat their pellets out of it.
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bM8w--CECg[/ame]

 

[Tauntz]

My bunny girls, Faith & Hope can vouch for the fun factor in Missyscove's suggested SmartyKat treat dispenser! They look for it first thing in the morning with their pellets! They are gracious enough to let me fix my morning coffee first but next better be their SmartyBun pellet dispenser! lol They knock it about, Hope likes to throw it about & chase after it & the treats as it rolls around! lol I need to get another one as a back up! Maybe after Christmas.

 

[Tauntz]

Thanks, Missyscove for your suggestion of the Smartkat treat dispenser awhile back in another post! We've got our money's worth out of it & more! Its one of the best bunny toys I've spent money on! My bunny girls love it so much it is starting to wear a bit! Maybe it will be an after Christmas present! Want to be sure they always have their treat ball/egg!

 

[missyscove]

I'm glad to hear they're enjoying it! In the wild rabbits will spend most of their time looking for food and eating, so it's nice to give them something to do to get their food rather than just dishing it up and leaving them to nap the rest of the day.

 

[Michelledickerhoff]

Wow that is a neat little toy, I'd like to have one for my bunny, I can't get my rabbit to sleep or even lay in his soft bed, I made him one out of a cardboard box with a blanket to test out before I bought him one of those cat beds at the store, he would rather just lay on the carpet and sleep he won't even give it a try

 

[lovelops]

Yeah I bought a cute bed for my agout's and they are SCARED of it. I'm so upset I used the money for these beds and now they won't even sleep in them.. Bunnies can be funny...

 

[njbunny]

This just gave me an idea to make a DIY food dispenser with all this leftover cardboard from Christmas! Actually, I think I may also try to make one out of the big basket of plastic Easter eggs I have sitting in storage.