which evil is lesser?

[Korr_and_Sophie]

You can see the poster hangers along the back in this photo. They go around the whole cage.

 

[Imbrium]

ohhh, THAT stuff... ok... you said you found something similar at a home improvement store? what section did you find it in?

 

[tamsin]

What sort of apple sticks did you try, fresh or bought and how did you feed them - just on the floor? I would see if you can find someone with an apple tree (freeads/freecycle) and get some branches 1/2 diameter upwards and cable tie them along the edge of the coroplast. I think the positioning plus the freshness might solve the problem.

The other thing is to come at it sideways, instead of trying to stop the chewing, give them lots of other things to do so they have less time for chewing e.g. use a treat ball for dry food, swap out toys daily to keep them interesting, hang up veggies, give them extra out time, cardboard houses to play/chew, digging box that sort of thing

 

[Imbrium]

I tried bought... tried handing it to them, putting it on the floor and putting it on a treat-k-bob. I try to give them all sorts of toys... they do stop nomming coroplast to rip up phone books and redecorate their cardboard castle sometimes, but they always go back to the coroplast. I can't give 'em a dig box 'cause they *always* end up peeing in it whether it's dirt or shredded paper (plus they never seemed to like it when I used shredded paper to minimize the mess). they technically don't get "out" time at all unless you count the occasional trip outside when the weather is nice - they've got my living room fenced in with playpens as a permanent run. I could lock them out of the condo except when they're sleepy, though - they spend most of their time in the run anyway.

 

[whitelop]

Have you thought about taking their condo out and putting an extra large dog crate in their run instead?
Like size for a great dane, then maybe make a level out of the NIC grids and put something other than coroplast on the level.

Or you could take the coroplast out of the NIC cage and figure something else out to put in there. Like maybe some wood or something with the clear stuff you have on there anyway. You could probably get the people at home depot to cut it to size for you. But I don't know, I think they do that here, maybe not everywhere.

Those are my suggestions for the coroplast issues.

 

[Imbrium]

they do cut wood for you at my home depot... but I wouldn't be able to fit it in my car, lol. considering I spent $150 or more on their condo (a good chunk of which was for the shiny purple coroplast they're destroying >.>) and they LOVE the highest level (which is nearly eye-level for me), I'd hate to scrap it and buy a dog crate. I might look into alternative flooring, though, or see if maybe home depot could deliver since I live all of three blocks away.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

ohhh, THAT stuff... ok... you said you found something similar at a home improvement store? what section did you find it in?

I just looked it up on the website and it seems to be called J Trim or J moulding. I have seen some metal ones as well as plastic. I guess it is near the dry wall stuff.

 

[Imbrium]

excellent, thanks!

 

[whitelop]

I totally understand not wanting to scrap the condo. I would just be really mad and i would wind up chucking it out into the yard. Then they really wouldn't be able to chew it! lol

 

[Imbrium]

yeah, but if I leave crap on my lawn, the city will charge me $2000 a day until it's gone (I know 'cause one of my jerk neighbors reported me one time when I procrastinated about calling someone to haul off a fallen tree limb >.>)

 

[Acacia-Berry]

2000$ a day!?!? Oh my.. I wish someone would enforce a law like that around here!

That black and brown bunny pictured above *grabby hands*

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

The log sounds fine to me. It actually sounds like a good alternative for chewing. By pine shavings, I would guess they just mean a processed, compressed wood product, rather than a solid chunk of wood straight off a tree. I've been using shavings as a bedding for as long as I've had rabbits (12 years) with no issues.

If you'd rather not use the log, why not bring in some branches from outside or get some pieces of untreated lumber for them to chew on? It probably doesn't have to be in a log formation to entice them. LOL And pine is a softer wood...they'd probably prefer hardwood anyway.

ETA- Wow, didn't realize this thread was already pages long. Nevermind- I'm sure this is old news by now.

 

[Imbrium]

my concern with the log is that pine shavings have been shown to cause health problems when used as bedding/litter and I'm not sure if compressed shavings still have the phenols in them or not

 

[whitelop]

Don't the phenols go away when you cook the pine? Those things are baked aren't they? Call the company that makes them and ask if they get baked before they package them.

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

Pine shavings are safe to use with rabbits. I use them with newborn kits all the way up to my "senior community" of older pets. Here's a good article about it: http://buckysbunnies.tripod.com/Pine.html

 

[holtzchick]

Hmm... really late to chime in with an opinion. What I did when Phoenix wouldn't eat hay is I bought a huge bale of timothy hay and then mixed in one of the smallest bags of kaytee alfalfa (it's honestly quite small) and that way, it coaxed her to eat the timothy hay until she got used to it on its own

Sorry if someone already mentioned that, I read the first page and was too lazy to read the other two

All in all, you could try putting cardboard around the perimeter of the coroplast. :/ I don't know how safe those logs are but plastic is also pretty bad.