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Brody

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I know many don't provide enrichment for rabbits but I do ..
I find it helps with temperment, prevents bored behaviour somewhate (digging, chewing the wrong things etc)and is just generally better for them and therefore me - also prevents overgrooming in bored wool coated rabbits (which can lead to blockages)


toys my gang likes (and of course- it varies rabbit to rabbit)

toilet paper rolls stuffed with hay
pinecones
baskets
boxes
kids or bird plastic toys (a key chain is niobes favourite)
blocks of chew safe wood
slices of chew safe wood
wiffle balls
a soft ball (Pongo loved hers)
woven grass mats
wreaths (not small enough to have any risk of getting stuck)
grape vine twists

I also dry fruit and veggies for them on occasion - and stick them in or on the various toys listed above :)

I'd love more ideas so please share your brilliance
 
I'm all in favour of entertainment for rabbits. Years ago, my son David had a pet bunny named Buffy. One day I caught Buffy playing a peculiar game. She lived in a huge glass terrarium with a wire lid... This cage was two feet by four feet. She cleared the shavings from the glass to make an arena and she was busy rolling her dried turds around with her nose! "This bunny is bored!" I exclaimed. :doh: So I bought her a wire cage ball for cats. Something like this:
http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/paw- ... oy-reviews
I took the ornament out of the centre for safety.

Buffy played with that ball by the hour. The big attraction was that she could grab it in her teeth very easily and fling it. She was a pretty good shot too... Slam-dunk into the water crock from halfway across the cage.

Buffy taught me a lot about rabbits. She loved soft sappy music and she would swoon for The Righteous Brothers' Unchained Melody.

Rabbits need toys, especially if they are housed alone in a cage. It doesn't have to be anything particularly elaborate. Right now my buns have the hard cores from packaging tape. We use a lot of tape because we sell on eBay. Tuna cans (check for rough spots) are also good, but noisy. Rabbits seem to like making noise. :)

Ladysown makes a very good point about not giving metal toys in winter!
 
oh you are so right - noisemakers of any sort are a hit here too - I have small hard hard balls with bells inside them (cat toys I bet) a couple of the buns (um Niobe) take great pleasure in slamming them up against metal things to get the most BANG for the effort ...
 
I am big on toys for rabbits, myself. I have used various things, but never found anything that we had in abundance, that was continuously available. I sometimes use little blocks of 2x4. One thing I did notice, is that, whatever the toy, sooner or latter it would get dirty and need replacing, many are not washable. Someplace, years ago, I think it was in a rabbit book, I read about using soft drink cans. They are something we have around, easily replaceable, and the rabbits seem to love them. I put a few pebbles in to make them rattle, and then cover the whole top with duct (duck) tape.
I then take a razor blade and cut around the inside of the rim, so the tape can lay flat against the top of the can with no edge available foor the rabbit to pull. I often make these up 10 or 20 at a time after holdiays, etc. When one gets dirty, or the rabbit gets it bent up enough it can actually gets its teeth in the side, I simply replace it. And Yes.....they do seem to take great delight in "slam-dunking" them into the water crock.:)<br /><br />__________ Thu Dec 31, 2009 6:50 am __________<br /><br />
 
regular aluminum soda cans? YAAAAHOOOO!!! (dunno about pebbles...I can just imagine the noise now.... ;) )

okay. so...QUESTION
chew safe wood...for those amongst us who might not know (like me) ... which woods are chew safe? normal pine lumber for building? hardwoods? or conversely, are there woods that are toxic but the rabbits?
 
Before I moved the buns to indoor colonies, I had a play area for them to use. Hands down, a cardboard box with a few old towels in it was their favorite. They dug like crazy, played peek-a-boo,and generally had a blast. I just watched to make sure they didn't start chewing on the towels. They also liked parrot bells hanging from the cage top. I swear, if they felt I was a little slow getting to them, they'd ring the bell to summon me!

Marian
 
oh yah. I can see the big growout cage now...bunnies rolling cans of pebbles, others ringing bells, and hopping in an out of a box. This is going to be good :) poor things have only had a couple of cups to carry around and a ball to push up to now! ;)
 
for me chew safe wood is from our own property

I use apple and maple mostly though I will throw some willow in sometimes

ohhh also a NOG pile of leaves causes lots of entertainment for the bold bunnies - just like for kids :)
 
If you are using lumber for the buns, be very sure it is not pressure treated. I'm with Brody... much prefer to use wood from our own trees. Apple, sugar or silver maple, elm, poplar, ash and willow are all safe. I feel nibbling the bark adds a nutrition angle to their play and I don't have to worry about chemicals.
 
The large containers that oatmeal comes in are also fun, especially to babies no longer in their nestbox. I've given boxes full of shredded paper for digging in. My rabbits also have soda cans, I remove the tab and put it in the can. Then the rabbits can make a little noise. Just about anything they can destroy, my rabbits love. Around Christmas, one of the packages we had delivered had a lot of brown packing paper. My bunnies are currently enjoying shreddinging to pieces
 
Anntann":2qq2bvgy said:
regular aluminum soda cans? YAAAAHOOOO!!! (dunno about pebbles...I can just imagine the noise now.... ;) )

okay. so...QUESTION
chew safe wood...for those amongst us who might not know (like me) ... which woods are chew safe? normal pine lumber for building? hardwoods? or conversely, are there woods that are toxic but the rabbits?
Click to expand...

I use about any lumber scraps, as long as they are not treated, or previously painted. I also stay away from red-cedar (Juniperous sp.). I do not know if they are truly a problem to rabbits, but some consider the volatile oils in the wood to be toxic to poultry and other animals and have stopped using cedar shavings for bedding. Like was mentioned, above, prunings from around you own property work well. They love the twigs, and you can cut the limbs in to short pieces. They will usually eat the bark and chew on the wood... it keeps their teeth worn down.
 
The only thing I can add is egg cartons. I also give them metal tops off glass jars and scraps of 2x4 lumber from projects around the house. I cut the lumber up into triangular pieces and they usually chew them down until I find the small leftover piece on the floor where it's slipped out through the cage wire.
 
My rabbits get large jingle ball cat toys to play with (I get them at the dollar store, a package of 3 for you guessed it $1.00) They also have wiffle balls, mini tennis balls, toilet paper roles (usually shredded within 1 hour) Cardboard boxes. Plus their resting boards that they would rather eat then rest on.
 
aren't bunnies silly that way? You give them a nice resting pad...but will they use it? natch!<br /><br />__________ Wed Jan 06, 2010 7:11 am __________<br /><br />speaking of rabbit toys...how do you all keep them clean? wood I toss if it gets dirty, I've hesitated to give much beyond hanging toys/wood blocks because when I did before it got dirty. So what do you all do to keep them clean?
 
I've never had a problem with keeping toys clean. I must have fickle rabbits.

Every so often I will soak them in warm soapy water, then rinse and spray with a little disinfectant, but that is just as a precaution.
 
Most of the toys I give are disposable/recycled. As soon as the toys are destroyed or dirty, they are trashed and replaced. I currently have a large selection of toys saved back for the rabbits.
 

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