Jan 08 2009
Rabbit-Proofing the Apartment
I’ll be honest: I wasn’t prepared when my father brought me the grey Netherland Dwarf that has come to be known as Sulis (or Su, for short). Rabbits chew everything, all the time. It isn’t a behavioral issue, rather, it’s because their teeth continuously grow and they need to chew in order to wear them down. That meant that there were electrical chords that needed to be picked up, books that needed to be taken off the bottom shelves, and cabinets that needed to be secured if my bunny was going to be able to explore the apartment.
My first step was to incase all of my chords in plastic tubes which I purchased for pennies at my local hardware store. Then I tied all of my chords together with garbage bag ties and secured them as high as they could physically go. My home was basically a studio apartment, with the kitchen, dining area, and living room all in one large room. Because Su’s area was in the living area and not in my adjacent bedroom, I used child safety locks on all my lower cabinets to ensure that Sulis didn’t accidently eat any cleaning products or chemicals.
The apartment had hardwood floors throughout, with area rugs in front of the couch and bed and runners along the major walkways. I anchored all of the rugs in the apartment to the floor by attaching small rubber dots to their underside. My total cost for rabbit proofing my apartment was under $30.
