I'm new and have a question

Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

shesue

New Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2004
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Location
Spring Hill, Florida, USA
Hi, my name is Shelby :)

My daughter (Brandi)and I are new owners of a rabbit. We'vehad her fora couple af weeks. We have read alot about rabbitsand know what to feed her and about most of the care and upkeep.

But I wanted to see what everyone thought about where arabbit should live. We wanted to keep our bunny inside, in a cage. Butwe have a cat who wanted to paw at her to much. I'm not sureifour catwould hurt our bunny(whom wenamed Ashes- because shes white with gray tips and looks sort ofashy) but I didnt want to take a chance. I was given a cagethatwe keep on theporch. But I live in Florida andI dont like to keep animals outside because of how hot it gets. I wantto find a way to bring Ashes inside. Do you think bunnies prefer to beoutsidein the fresh air? Or are house bunnies more healthier?Does it really matter? And how big of a cage should wehave?

Please help----And Thanks in advance.:D
 
I think most of us in here keep our rabbitsinside, and let them run outside every now and again. Your catshouldn't be able to hurt your bunny if its in its cage. My best friendhas a rabbit and a cat and they attack eachother but in aplayful manner. I suggest maybe you keep your rabbit up on a table(mine's on a cooler lol) so your cat can't easily get at it. Or keepyour rabbit in a seperate room. As for cage size, your rabbit should beable to lay out flat with lots of room and be able to stand on its hindlegs with some head room :)

Welcome To The Boards!



~*Michelle, Megan, Peppy, and Rahoon*~
 
I think overall an inside bunny is healthier, theyget more attention and there are less chances of an inside rabbitgetting certain diseases. If you're worried about heat, just ensurethat the bunny is out of the sun and has a frozen water bottle to layon or beside, plus lots of fresh water.

If you want her inside, then is there any way to keep Ashes in aseparate room from the cat? It would probably be safer if you couldjust ensure that the rabbit stays in one room so the cat can't scarenor hurt it. Rabbits can easily die of fright so keeping the cat andrabbit together is probably not a good idea if the rabbit seems scaredof the cat.

As MyBunnyLovesMe said, that is probably a good size, generally I think the bigger the cage, the better.
 
I think you'll get a wide variety of answers toyour question. Yes, rabbits enjoy the fresh air, however theyalso enjoy the socialization of being at the hub of familyactivities. But you also have the issue of dealing with thecat teasing the rabbit.( I would certainly never leave the 2alone unattended.) On the other hand, you have the concern ofthe heat and humidity, which rabbits do not tolerate very well.

Is there any way for you to set up a raised cage in the house that the cat cannot have access to?



Pam N.
 
M&Smom wrote:
If you're worried about heat, justensure that the bunny is out of the sun and has a frozen water bottleto lay on or beside, plus lots of fresh water.
One problem we have out east is the humidity. The frozenwater bottle alone does not help the rabbit to cool itself without airmovement to evaporate moisture. A rabbit with a frozen bottleand fresh cool water can still succumb to heatstroke in hot,humid, still air.

Pam N.
 
Thanks to all for your advise!

We first hadAshes in the house and we put her cage on top ofa bookshelf . But as determined as our cat(Trix) is she pace and paceuntil she found a way to jump from the frig to a table to thebookshelf. We watchedTrix and tried to get the twoused to each other by holding Ashes and seeing if they would play orwhat. All Trix would do is paw at Ashes (with no nails) but it scaredAshes so I decided not to try anymore.

I do want to move Ashes back insde---I think I'll close off a room forher. I havent tried to train her. Is that hard to do?

Shelby


 
Once again that's a question you'll get lots ofanswers to... as for my rabbit Megan.. no she's not trainable, she's mybad little bun, while my other rabbit Peppy doesn't care what you do tohim, he'll sit there and let you do anything you want! He's very goodon a leash, and even likes Subway rides. You can always try to trainyour rabbit and see what happens :) Have some treats handy!
 
[align=left]Shesue,

Do you mean litter training? Rabbits are naturally clean animals andgenerally pee in one spot, the little poops are more of a problem butsome rabbits, if they are really clean, go all in one spot, you mayneed to train Ashes, to do that, go tohttp://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=7&forum_id=1,it's a post about litterbox training.[/align]
[align=left]Other training, such as teaching a rabbit to come oncommand, requires patience, time, and dedication. You can't just do itone day, leave it for a week, and think they will do it againperfectly. It requires treats and pats as rewards. Some rabbits seem tobe untrainable, because they choose to ignore you. lol, goodluck.[/align]
[align=center]*****************************************************[/align]
[align=left]Pamnock,

You're right, forgot to take that into consideration!
[/align]
 
You could try placing small mouse traps around therabbit cage to scare the cat away. It won't take long for thecat to avoid the area of the cage!

Pam N.
 
Welcome to the wonderful world of lagamorphs!

Best of luck for her training of you :) hehe

Cher, Jezebel'n'Jade
 

Welcome,

I tend to agree with M&SMom about the training issue. It takes timeand patience, but it certainly can be done as I have done it myself.Some rabbits are more stubborn than others, of course, but it's all howthey were raised from the start with you.

* * * * * * * * * *

MyBunnyLovesMe,

Since the verdict is still out on whether your rabbit can hear or not,it's hard to say whether she's chosing not to come to you or can't hearyou.

I suspect that in the beginning of having her, you and your brother'sgames of hiding and then jumping out and scaring her didn't help tomake her come when she's asked. Buck Jones also made a point when I wastalking to him that her not coming or biting you may be as a result ofthat early relationship you had with her. Couple that with the drumsand your brother's friends restraining her in a hold and it's a recipefor exactly the type of behavior that Miss Megan is doing.

I'm not saying it Is the case, but it certainly hasn't helped to make training her easy.

-Carolyn
 
She can hear, she just chooses not to. I find thattalking in a high pitched voice does nothing, she pays more attentionto me when I talk normally. I said "Megan, come" and she hopped righttowards me. Its just most times she doesn't like to pay attention. Asfor playing hide and seek, I didn't think it bothered her that much,she does the same things to us. She'll hide somewhere (usually underthe chair) and next thing you know she's poking the back of your legwith her nose... it scares the crap outta me sometimes just because Ialways figure shes not near me, then suddenly she is. I'm sure thedrums scared her at first, but now loud music doesn't bother her. Ifanything, all it did was teach her to tune things out, which includesme most times lol. Sometimes she listens, most times she doesn't. She'sa rebel ;)
 
Megan's a wild one alright :) Just for an update,she stopped biting people, but still eats her cage when we havent lether out!
 

Hi Michelle,

I hear what your saying about the hearing. *pun* Glad she's not deaf, just stubborn and playful.

So, she's a rebel; you have really met your match, ey? She loves you so much. She's such a sweetie with an edge to her.
:)

-Carolyn
 
lol for sure... you know its like I can see it inher eyes that she likes to be bad, she almost gets this look to herlike "oh yeah, I'm bad...look at me I'm gonna do whatever I want, haha" So she knows shes a bad girl... plus I always bend down to her faceand put my nose against her and say "you are one bad bunny missy" andshe its almost like she smirks and hops away lol.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top