Are your bunnies bored? Do they need exercise? Are they chewing your favorite antique chair? Here's how you can transform bored bunnies into happy, busy bunnies. Most bunnies are active animals that are happiest when they are running, performing somersaults, chewing, or playing with toys. Here is a list of bunny-friendly, non-toxic, toys:

Empty cardboard boxes. Make sure they have no strapping or scotch-tape on the sides. Cut a door and windows so your bunnies can hide in there when they want. Put some handfuls of hay inside, and your bunny will enjoy it even more. Then, when your bunny has had enough, (or chewed to her heart's delight), all you have to do is toss it and get another one.

Cardboard tubes from toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls or the hard cardboard tubes from fax paper rolls are also very popular with bunnies. Replace them when your bunny has chewed them down to shreds.

Paper shopping bags, and newspapers (preferably crumpled) also are guaranteed to keep your bunnies busy and happy for hours. Discarded telephone directories and paperback books are also fun to shred. Concrete moulds, made of hard cardboard, and used for making pillars and mailbox posts, are great fun for bunnies to zoom in and out of. Pickabo got his name because he loves playing peek-a-boo in his cardboard tunnel. They are cheap, and easily available at Home Depot or Hechingers. But because bunnies like stability, and feel insecure when the tunnel rolls, I place a 2-by-4 the length of the tunnel inside, and it keeps the tunnel from moving.

Willow baskets, willow plates, grape vine baskets, tubs, and balls are fun for bunnies to chew and safe (so long as they are not lacquered or painted.) They are inexpensive and available in abundance at area craft stores. If you have a willow tree in your backyard and do not use chemicals, break off a branch and watch your bunnies have fun stripping the bark off the stems, and denuding it off leaves. Bunnies also love digging in grass or coir doormats available at Home Depot and Hechingers, and they are safe for bunnies to chew. I often line one inside the cardboard tunnel.

Cat toys are great, especially the three-tiered cardboard condo called the Lazy Cat Lodge. Because bunnies like climbing and getting a clear view of their surroundings (they are prey animals after all, and in the wild have got to watch out for predators), most bunnies like jumping up on sofas, chairs, or racing up the ramps of the multi-storied Lazy Cat Lodge. And they especially love sitting on the third level sun roof! Again, because it is cardboard, it is easily replaceable when your bunnies' chewing causes it to topple! It is also safe to give bunnies hard plastic cat toys such as balls with bells in them, or metal wands with bells on them. Ninotchka, my busiest bunny, loves tossing cat balls in the air and catching them just before they fall to the ground.

Human toys are also fun, especially hard plastic teething keys designed for infants and plastic and metal slinkys. If your bunny is a chewer, try soaking a piece of untreated soft wood (pine is fine) in apple juice. (Unsweetened, organic is the safest). Then dry the wood in the sun, and voila, you have a delicious bunny chew toy guaranteed to provide hours of bunny happiness.

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