Thursday, December 18, 2014

Bunny care: Build your bunnies a warren

One way to fight bunny boredom is to construct things for your bunnies to chew on and play in; if you don't, they will find things themselves. Cardboard boxes are great hidey places for your buns. You can make them more interesting by grouping them.

Having bunnies has changed my Costco shopping habits. In addition to buying mass quantities of vinegar (for cleaning their litter boxes), it has changed the way I select boxes to pack up purchases. The best boxes are "plain" brown cardboard, with no waxy surfaces and as little ink as possible. Then you start prepping them...

Remove all the tape.
(Keep boxes closed by the classic flap fold in sequence,
with the last (#4) folding under the first flap.)

Note: The bunnies' interest may
be piqued before you are finished.

Continuing with box prep:
Remove all labels.
There were no staples in these,
but if there are, get rid of those, too.

After label removal.
(The little stragglers were removed, too.)

For really stubborn labels,
well - here's a window!
(Used the cut-out as a template for sizing other doors)

Bunya has not lost interest yet.
Cut out a door in the side of one box and another door in the side of another box.
Leave the flaps attached. Fold the door flap of one box
into the other box and vice versa.
This will provide a loose connection and
allow the bunnies to run from one box to another.

Even if a door is not use as a connector, leave the flap on.
It gives the bunnies something else to chew.

Attach a series of boxes.
(Could also do this in different arrangements, e.g., an "L" shape.)

Lucy inspects the finished product. Bunya is already inside
and he is chewing away - very loudly.

Miss Ethel always loves the high ground.

As noted above, the bunnies like to chew the door/window flaps.


So be on the lookout for good bunny boxes. Do not construct anything higher than a height from which they can safely jump to the floor. In the case of one large relatively flat box we had, we used a smaller box in the middle as a pillar/support for the top of the box so they wouldn't fall in between the top flaps if they walked on the top. Which they did (walk, not fall). The "inside" box also had doors and they would hop inside it to chew. So it was a bun in a box in a box.

Here's another post about Battling Bunny Boredom.

1 comment:

  1. When I see Ethel I always think about George Carlin.
    And Bunya look so much like my Rodney.

    ReplyDelete