- Give rabbits plenty of paper
A pet bunny with something to burrow into will be a happy one. Offer your rabbit shredded newspaper, crumpled-up phone book pages or other similar paper, placing it in the bottom of his cage so that he can dig away.
- A cardboard hidey-hole for a bunny
Rabbits enjoy the comfort of a ‘cave’. Remove the lid from a cardboard box and cut out a door shape. Turn the box upside down in the rabbit cage and your pet will use it as a cosy hideaway.
- A roll to gnaw on
Almost all pet animals — dogs, cats, rabbits, mice, guinea pigs, ferrets — enjoy gnawing on an empty cardboard roll. So do some birds, such as cockatiels. Put some rolls aside for your pets. They also like to gnaw on cardboard tissue boxes, but remember to remove the plastic liner attached to tissue boxes’ dispensing slots.
- A healthy home for guinea pigs
Guinea pigs need lots of exercise, so it’s important that they have a big cage, but they also need to have a few ‘destinations’ within a large cage in order to get that much-needed exercise. The easiest way to do this is to put in a sturdy, small cardboard box with a couple of holes for entry and exit. A large plastic or cardboard tube is also great for encouraging exercise. By doing this — and providing plenty of fresh green grass and vegetables for vitamin C —your guinea pigs will be able to run around within their new home and eat well, resulting in good health and a longer life.
- Nibble, nibble, nibble
Most pet rodents enjoy chew toys, which can end up being ridiculously expensive. But you can provide just as much munching pleasure for free. As well as all those empty cardboard rolls and small cardboard boxes, give your nibblers small blocks of wood left over from carpentry projects. Caution: never give rodents treated wood to chew on as it could be toxic.