Buns on wooden floors and too small hutches.

Thought I'd share this, in case it's useful to anyone
After Berts was diagnosed with arthritis in his lower spine, I was talking to my bunny behaviourist friend about why he had it so early, as by my calculations, he'd have been not much over 2 whan the pain started.

She asked me if we'd had him from a baby, i said not, and that as far we know he'd had 2 owners before. She then said that it could be possible that Bertie was kept in a hutch that didn't give him enough room to periscope properly, and this could have caused an compression in the lower spine. Although the spine is already rounded, trying to straighten it up and not achieving it would put unnatural pressures on the lower vertabrae. Arthristis attacks the weakest points first, so if there had been any problems due to this, it would present itself in these parts first.

The other thing she asked was if he was kept on a laminate floor, a wooden floor or Lino. He isn't, but he does have to make a 10' run twice a day on a floorboard floor. She then said that buns on shiny floors, laminate being the worst, cannot get a grip on it, so their legs can splay out, causing a pull on the spine at the hips, which could lead to an injury, and then the arthritis would attack there.
She'd been called out recently to asses a bun who refused to move from the round carpet under the round coffee table in the middle of a room that was laminate floored. The owners thought the bunny was having mental problems, but as soon as the carpeted the room (from her advice) the bun was completely happy and running around as they expected him to.

The same can be said of smooth vinyl flooring too.

Interesting piece Jay and certainly something anyone thinking of getting a house bunny should consider. I sometimes use my kitchen or bathroom for bonding which is the only smooth flooring in our house, and usually put towels down for the duration to protect little legs.

Someone mentioned this to me recently, we have a vinyl floor in the conservatory where the buns go when indoors, so we carpeted the run area (just a cheap offcut). The difference in their behaviour is quite noticable, they are much more active, they binky and run around much more than they used to, I assume because they now have proper traction so are not concerned about sliding. (They can really get some speed up too!!!)

Yeah I have wooden flooring throughout and provide rugs for mine to use. The laminate is great from a cleaning point of view, but doesn't give them any grip bless them.

The frozen lake scene in Bambi comes to my mind.

I would have never that that wooden or laminate floors would create such problems Alfred is kept on wood floor with a few rugs down for him. I'm thinking maybe I should put rugs over the whole thing now

Some of them don't seem to have any problems, Blanket for example, never struggled with the wooden floor. It's weird.

Does make you wounder. ??is this why briony never comes in and sits and waits at the door for connie to come back out.(shes only every been in the once)

NickieM wrote:The frozen lake scene in Bambi comes to my mind.

It's a very good analagy. Anne is also a dog behaviour specialist, and said that wooden floors are even worse for dogs. There's an ad out at the mo (apprently - I don't watch them) with a dog tearing around a corner on a laminate floor and its legs are going everywhere. She was appauled by it, said it was quite clear the dog is distressed by the lack of grip

It makes sense though that the lack of grip will frighten any animal, I know myself if I've slipped on ice it's scary. Then you are weary afterwards. I've also pulled muscles in my leg from slipping on a wet floor!

I've now put carpet and covers on my kitchen floor for Shadow when he's in there to protect his legs.

Emma x

AprilGirl wrote:It makes sense though that the lack of grip will frighten any animal, I know myself if I've slipped on ice it's scary. Then you are weary afterwards. I've also pulled muscles in my leg from slipping on a wet floor!

I've now put carpet and covers on my kitchen floor for Shadow when he's in there to protect his legs.

Emma x

What a beautiful rabbit!

This is very interesting, you kind of assume that lino or laminate is great since it's easy to clean up. Does that mean that they would also have slipping problems in cages with a plastic base? What would be the best thing to put on the floor if this is the case? Thanks!

Bruce wrote:This is very interesting, you kind of assume that lino or laminate is great since it's easy to clean up. Does that mean that they would also have slipping problems in cages with a plastic base? What would be the best thing to put on the floor if this is the case? Thanks!

That's just made me remember something very relevant to this issue
When Bertie arrived here we had a big cage double storey with a slippy floor, and he wouldn't leave his litter tray. After a couple of days I cut some cardboard to fit and put that down. As soon as i did it he was out and exploring, went straight up the ramp and I can't believe I'd forgotten that ...numpty
He didn't soil the crdboard at all, so I changed it every few weeks.

It could well be that he was having some sort of problems then from previous bad housing, handling or slippy floors. So in this case, it was definately advantageous

(I made a website of Bertie's first few months here, you may find some of the info useful for Bruce Clicky

Thank you Jay, I'll definitely have a look through your experiences with Bertie.