# Bunny Proofing. Outlets.



## Amaya (Oct 28, 2008)

I know about blocking off as many cords as possible and getting the flexible plastic covering for cord, but I have a different cord question. Outlets are at about bunny head level, do they tend to leave the part of the cord alone that actually plugs into the outlet or do you have to do something to bunny proof that too? Is there something to cover it or do I need to block it off with NIC cubes or something. Thanks!

Don't have a bunny yet- preparing for one.


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## tonyshuman (Oct 28, 2008)

It depends on how crazy your bunny is for a jolt! I don't think you need to get those little plastic things that go into outlets like they do so babies don't stick their fingers in. However, chewing on the plug part itself happens. My guys have done it but they're voracious about cords--I think Tony's an adrenaline junkie. They've never gotten into the electrical "guts" of the plug to cause themselves damage, though, so I wouldn't worry too much. In any case, the easiest thing to do is to put furniture in front of the cord or block off areas that have lots of cords with NIC panels (behind our couch is blocked off, and now so is behind the fridge).

Here are my electrical bunny stories: (most of which have Tony to blame)

they've actually totally ruined a floor lamp
totally ruined 2 cell phone chargers
ruined the cord to the wireless communicator base-thing for a wireless mouse
used to climb up the couch and jump behind it (we had the side blocked off so the only way back there was over the couch). then, to get back out, standing ON TOP of the air purifier thingy and jumping back up to the couch-top. finally figured this out when we thought it was blocked off, but cords were getting chewed on and little poos were back there, so we knew something was up. one day i moved the air purifier, and Tony got stuck back there! now we put up NIC gates at the top of our couch too while we're going to make a wooden thing to block it off a bit more discreetly.
and the grand finale: they've also chewed THROUGH a refrigerator cord--thank goodness it was on a safety switch so Tony didn't fry his little brain out! we're pretty sure he did it to our last fridge that "mysteriously" stopped working suddenly. we rent, so we just called the landlord that time because we didn't know why it had stopped working. the second time, we replaced the cord ourselves and NAILED an NIC grid into place so he can't get back there.
in sum, bunnies have a death wish, some more than others. bf's bunny Benjamin "doesn't ever chew on cords." whatever. he's just sneakier about it than Tony.


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## mouse_chalk (Oct 28, 2008)

*tonyshuman wrote: *


> It depends on how crazy your bunny is for a jolt! I don't think you need to get those little plastic things that go into outlets like they do so babies don't stick their fingers in. However, chewing on the plug part itself happens. My guys have done it but they're voracious about cords--I think Tony's an adrenaline junkie. They've never gotten into the electrical "guts" of the plug to cause themselves damage, though, so I wouldn't worry too much. In any case, the easiest thing to do is to put furniture in front of the cord or block off areas that have lots of cords with NIC panels (behind our couch is blocked off, and now so is behind the fridge).
> 
> Here are my electrical bunny stories: (most of which have Tony to blame)
> they've actually totally ruined a floor lamp
> ...



Oh gosh, if I was going to do an 'electrical damage' list for Mouse and Chalk (Barney and Snowy don't care for wires thank God!), it would look something like this:

* About 8 or 9 phone chargers. Me and Steve have our own 'favourite' sellers on Ebay to re-purchase more now...

* 5 laptop cords. Thankfully Apple so low voltage. One was Sony and I got it replaced under warranty. Chalk was completely fine (she had jumped on the sofa to eat it in the 15 seconds I had gone to answer the door lol) but my arm got a bit of a shock next time I sat down there! :shock: 

* About 6/7 tape/scart leads for DVD players etc- when we moved house, Mouse's new hobby became to jump on/in the TV unit and chew cables :shock::shock::shock: Now we have an NIC gate round it so she can't get in, but she can still get on top if we don't watch her- so we do!

* Countless telephone wires. I'm talking a lot. If not the phoneline then the power cable for the phone itself lol. This was in the early days in our old house where the phone plug was in the living room and we didn't know just how cable hungry they were... I remember giving Chalk some meds once, and she wasn't happy about it. We put her down, and she literally looked at us, then hopped over and snipped the telephone wire, within about 2 seconds! Just to punish us! 

* Fridge cable! One night, we were sat watching TV, when all of a sudden, all the mains electrics tripped. The lights were still working so we knew immediately it was a fuse from a plug. We saw Chalk sat next to the fridge looking quite pleased with herself- the fridge wire was almost completely in half :shock::shock::shock: Luckily, we're well earthed and have modern electrics, so the electrics tripped out immediately to prevent any damage- as they should do in any modern English house, so Chalk was fine, and Steve has electrical experience so he just rewired the fridge, but man was that scary!

My point is, that you need to block off anything you think there is even the slightest chance of them getting at, if they are chewers! They will always find a way. We've learnt that even if we think it's probably out of their reach, it never really is unless it's WAAAY out of reach lol... furniture or something would be a good idea in front of sockets to prevent wire chewing...

I don't say this to scare you, just to show that if your bunny is a determined wire chewer then they will find a way unless it's fully protected lol! 

The cord covers helped a lot with those last little bits you need to cover up near the sockets- we used those for our phone line in the end, and wrapped insulation tape round them for extra reinforcement....


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## mouse_chalk (Oct 28, 2008)

Ok, I've just noticed that you don't yet have a bunny. I'm really sorry! 


I really didn't mean to scare you with that list at all.... I just have destructive bunnies lol... 

The main thing to remember is to keep them out of reach as much as you possibly can...

Will your bunny be free-range, or just on supervised playtimes?

Oh and I think it's great that you are doing this research and preparation for your new bun  Please keep us updated!


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## Amaya (Oct 28, 2008)

Don't worry, you two haven't scared me too much since I know how to prevent these things and you've given me a list of some stuff to make sure is blocked off/cords covered.  You've been very helpful.

Luckily, according to the bun's current owner, he is not much of a chewer! She said he chews things time to time when you're not looking but isn't know to ruin anything. (and he is free-range plus has his own room there, but his room is/has become a nursery for the baby on the way.)

Here he will be free range while either me and/or my boyfriend are home and awake. The office/sewing/storage room will be blocked off since it would be too much of a pain to bunny proof and he doesn't need in there anyway. When we are at work or sleeping, he will stay in a nice big NIC cage, at least until we are ABSOLUTELY SURE everything is safe, then he might be able to sleep with us.


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## kherrmann3 (Oct 29, 2008)

I've had the best luck with those ridged, bendy plastic tubes (cut down the center) to protect the cords. You can get them at Home Depot for fairly cheap. I also "rearranged" my furniture to hide most of the electrical outlets. That way I don't have to worry about the plugs getting nibbled either. 

Toby has nibbled through:
- PS2 controller (while I was playing)
- Several phone chargers
- I have a few holes in my laptop charger (small enough to tape over)
- The cord to a "plasma ball" 
- Several extension cords

Let's put it this way... For "Sweetest Day", Will bought me a mini-soldering iron... True love... lol

For those of you who may not have heard of Sweetest Day, it is a "Hallmark" holiday that is mostly concentrated around the Great Lakes Region. It's kind of like a mini-Valentine's Day.


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## tonyshuman (Oct 29, 2008)

I forgot the laptop cords. Those are the hardest because I take my laptop to work and stuff, so I don't keep a cord cover with it. Now I don't leave them unattended since I've lost two--one covered under warranty, though. Definitely get the "no questions asked" warranty on your laptop.  

My guys actually chew ON the cord covers and have made sizable holes in a few of them. So make sure you check them occasionally to see if they've destroyed it. 

The thing that works well for me (but is by no means foolproof) is bitter spray. It's in the dog section, under grooming tools, because you can spray it on a dog that's chewing itself or something. It has to contain Bitrex (aka denatonium benzoate), which is something they add to anything they don't want kids to eat (i.e. antifreeze, computer duster), also that stuff you can use to make yourself stop biting your nails. It tastes NASTY. The legend is that the chemist who invented it accidentally got some on his lips, went home at the end of the day, and when his wife kissed him she immediately threw up. :yuck 

Unfortunately, it wears off pretty soon, and sometimes they don't care about how bad it tastes. Also, it's sold dissolved in isopropanol, which can ruin the finish on wood. I've sprayed it on all the baseboards in my house. You can fix the finish with furniture polish though, usually. Best of luck!!


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## pamnock (Oct 29, 2008)

I know someone whose dog got a nasty jolt when he licked the electrical outlet.

You find outlet plugs with the babyproofing supplies at the store. 

Pam


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## Amaya (Oct 29, 2008)

"those ridged, bendy plastic tubes" using these.  I told my boyfriend that when we get the bunny they're going on the xbox controllers unless he is going to use wireless 100% of the time. He whined about it a bit, but I'm sure he'd be more upset when the cord got chewed in half.

I've heard of some bitter sprays actually having the opposite effect. Is it only the ones with "Bitrex (aka denatonium benzoate)" that work or is it just a 50/50 chance too? 
Also, how often do you have to spray it on things? And can anyone else tell me what sprays they've used that are effective. I've also heard of using tabasco.. a little extreme maybe? but does it work? does it ruin things?
I want to avoid that nail biting stuff if possible. I want to either use something edible or something made specifically for keeping pets from chewing things. And I'd like to know if there are any anti-chew sprays out there that are known to not be safe or contain ingredients that are known to be toxic to bunbuns.


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## tonyshuman (Oct 29, 2008)

Bitrex is edible, it just tastes awful. It's not poisonous. The ones that don't work are things like "bitter apple" spray because bunnies like the taste of apples, bitter or not.


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## kherrmann3 (Oct 29, 2008)

As far as video game controllers go, I would recommend either using the wireless ones (and investing in rechargeable batteries), or rolling up the controllers when finished with them. The "putting the controllers away" was a new thing for my roommate and boyfriend (both guys, go figure). We haven't had any incidents, either. 

Another idea would be to close-off the area where the game controllers are. Toby (my house-bun) only gets free reign of the master bedroom (rarely the rest of the apartment, unless CLOSELY supervised). Even if it is just for when you are playing games, you could just "section off" that room until the cords are put back in their rightful place. NIC panels make wonderful, fold-able, temporary fences!


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## BlueCamasRabbitry (Oct 29, 2008)

You know those little plugger-things that people put in outlets to prevent children from poking items and fingers inside? Those would work really well! 

My bunnies have never chewed cords (luckily! phew!), and for the outlets, I just tape a large piece of paper over it and that seems to work  

Emily


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## spoh (Oct 30, 2008)

IF you are talking about them chewing on the plugs of things that are plugged into the outlet you can buy covers in the "baby proofing" section that cover the entire outlet, plugs includedto prevent children from pulling the plugs out of the walls. 

Joy


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## Amaya (Oct 30, 2008)

Joy, do you mean covers that would not just plug the holes in an empty outlet, but like a box thing that would cover the lamp plug too? If so, I definitely want to look for this. Again, she said he's not much of a chewer, but I want to be safe and at least have these things on hand. 

I'm getting some ceramic tiles free from a relative that fixed up their bathroom, in case carpet digging in any particular spot is a problem. I'm also going to check the carpet store here for samples/small pieces they can't sell.


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## gentle giants (Nov 1, 2008)

*spoh wrote: *


> IF you are talking about them chewing on the plugs of things that are plugged into the outlet you can buy covers in the "baby proofing" section that cover the entire outlet, plugs includedto prevent children from pulling the plugs out of the walls.
> 
> Joy



I would like to get some of these too, actually. I haven't ever seen them inmy local stores, though. Max and Toby are not free range, and when they are out I watch them closely, but my now crawling 8 month old son is another matter....


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