Bunny-Proofing Your Home

Before allowing your housebunny out to run in your home, there are some precautions you need to take to protect both the bunny as well as your home.

Items you may need

The following is a list of some items you may find helpful in bunny-proofing your home:

	Tabasco sauce or bitter apple
	Indoor/Outdoor Repellents (made for cats and dogs)
	Plastic tubing
	Thin aluminum sheeting (garden aluminum)
	Spray Bottle of water

Electrical Cords

Rabbits will chew on most anything, especially electrical cords. There are, however, some things you can do to avoid this. The simplest and best way is to get any cords out of the rabbit's reach. You can staple them to the wall or hide them behind or under furniture. If this cannot be done, the next best thing you can do is get some plastic tubing and cut a slit down the length of the tube. The tube diameter should reflect the size and amount of cords to be placed in the tube. Then, simply push the length of the cord into the tubing. You will only need to place the tubing around any portion of the cord that could be reached by the rabbit. If this isn't possible, you can rub Tabasco sauce or bitter apple on the cord. Once the rabbit tries to chew and gets a taste, it should leave the cord alone.

Furniture and Baseboards

Sometimes a rabbit will even try to chew on your furniture or baseboards. If it is convenient, the easiest way to avoid this is to place aluminum sheeting around the chair leg, baseboard, etc. so that it is impossible to chew. After a while the rabbit should begin to ignore such things thinking they can't be chewed and you can remove the aluminum. Also, for baseboards, if it is in an out of the way location, you can even just attach a strip of untreated wood for the rabbit to chew on. If neither option is possible, you can rub the Tabasco or bitter apple on the area. You might want to test it in an inconspicuous place first, to make sure no discoloration will occur. After a while your bunny may learn to jump on your furniture. If you feel it needs protected from the toenails and fur, you can use throw blankets on the furniture and simply remove them should you have guests.

Deterrents

If the above precautions still don't eliminate all bad behavior you must use some sort of deterrent to break the habit. If you catch the rabbit in the act of doing something bad, the best way to deter it is to spray it in the face with water. They really dislike this. If you need to keep a rabbit out of a certain area of your home, spray a small amount of indoor/outdoor repellent in the area. The smell will keep the rabbit out of that area. This is ideal for situations when your rabbit keeps returning to one area to display bad behavior.