Very young rabbits may not be problem chewers because their teeth are still developing. However, when they hit adolescence, as young as three months, most rabbits begin to chew like there’s no tomorrow. They attack carpet, baseboards, antique furniture (the more expensive and rare, the better!), books, and electrical wires (among other things). Maturity, and spaying and neutering, will help ease this hormonal rage, but chewing is a life long issue that must be addressed.
Bunny proofing your house is essential if you want to live with a rabbit, whether they’re confined to a cage for part of the day or have the run of the house. Proofing not only saves your house, furniture, and personal belongings, but it can save your rabbit’s life. Electrical cords can electrocute your pet, and ingested foreign objects and materials can cause serious gastrointestinal problems. Therefore, prevention of problems is far preferable to treatment after the fact.
How extensively you bunny proof your house depends on your situation. If your rabbit only has access to one room, you can customize the environment fairly easily. If your goal is to let your rabbit run free, you’ll need to get more detailed.
If you can eliminate wall-to-wall carpeting, that’s one temptation your rabbit can avoid. If not, you should get to know your rabbit’s habits and decide for yourself if they can live safely in a carpeted room.
You should also remove any knick-knacks, books, and decorative items from low shelves. Anything below two feet is fair game for rabbits. They are curious by nature and will investigate any and all nooks and crannies.
Rabbits are inexplicably drawn to electrical wires. Some people think that they can hear the frequency of the electricity pulsing through the cables; others suspect they treat wires like roots they’d find while burrowing, which is why they snip them in two to create an unobstructed path. Whatever the reason, cords are a terrible danger to rabbits. There are a number of ways to protect your wires.
The easiest way is to arrange your furniture so that it blocks the rabbit’s access to cords. This way you can avoid covering each and every wire in the house, but it may be at the expense of aesthetics. Be creative, and think like a rabbit. Remember, they can squeeze through very tiny spaces.
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