Completely new to rabbits - talk to me about housing!

Hi everyone,

I am considering get a couple of bunnies. I've got guinea pigs so am experienced with them but am really unsure of bunnies and want to make sure we're doing the right thing for them before we get one.

(My son and I volunteer in a rescue centre and I've completely fallen in love with the most delightful rabbit! They are hoping to pair him with a lovely lady bun very soon).

So...the guinea pigs live upstairs in my son's bedroom but I had intended to have a hutch and run outside for the rabbits for night time and when I'm out, but to bring them in when I'm in, on an evening. I wouldn't get them if I thought they were going to be stuck outside with no interaction. Is this realistic, being almost 50/50 buns between in and outside?

A lady from the rescue centre I was chatting too has tons of rabbits (15!) and she houses them all outside unless they are very elderly or sick. She said they are fine outside and grow a winter coat, as I was mainly worried about them being outside in winter. I'm from the UK though so it doesn't get desperately cold usually.

From what I've seen on this site you nearly all seem to have indoor bunnies, is the general idea now that it wrong to keep them outside?

Any advice would be much appreciated, as I said I am new to buns and want to make it's the right thing to do.

Thanks,
Sally

Bunnies make great indoor pets. Easily litter trained. Not stinky. Heck their cleaner then guinea pigs.

The problem with 50/50 indoors outdoors is they will never grow proper winter coats if you keep bringing them inside. So either inside all the time or outside all the time. 50/50 doesn't work well.

Thanks watermelons, I hadn't thought of that about the winter coat not growing.

Do they chew skirting boards? I can easily get wire protectors etc. but years ago we had chinchilla's and as lovely as they were my skirting boards were ruined, and I really don't want that again.

Sally

Every rabbit is different.
Some do some dont.
You can either place stuff infront to protect them and have the rabbit confined to an xpen while its loose in the house.
Blue eyes on our forum tacks boards to the baseboards that the bunnies can chew instead.

We have a few threads on cages and pens people have built for the bunnies here (new thread each year) hard to link from my phone while at work sorry.

Thanks watermelon, I do appreciate your advice

Sally

I have two indoor rabbits. One gives the skirting a nibble (although not as much as before she was spayed) and the other a male has no interest in skirting but he loves phone charger wires lol. Despite that, I love having them inside!x

Its not 'bad' to keep them outside (some crazy people say its cruel) as long as you have the right setup its fine. But it is much easier to house them indoors, plus you get see and play with them more often if their indoors the http://rabbit.org/# is a great website for rabbit care.(diet, housing, toys etc) you can put cardboard on baseboards, its cheap, but it might need to be changed often if your rabbit likes to chew it a lot.

Brill thank you, I'll look at the link now. I am in info gathering mode!

I would like them indoors, my husband's not so keen (not that that ever stopped me :wiggle ) but as I said I don't want a destroyed house if I can help it...

As long as their fixed and have plenty of chew toys they shouldnt be too destructive.

It is possible to have indoor rabbits without a destroyed house, I've lived in a flat in Paris with two free-ranged rabbits for 5 years. Nevertheless, you'll have to be very careful about 'bunny-proofing' (electrical cords being the BIG thing) and well, it's probable you'll sustain some damage like with any living creatures (I've had guinea pigs too and they did a number on my library ^^). The really good thing about having rabbits indoors is that everyone will be greatly motivated to tidy after themselves. I'm really not that fond of cleaning up but there hasn't been a single thing of mine of the floor since I've gotten my rabbits (if it's on the floor, it's fair game .