Planned mini lop housing

As a background, I ultimately want to litter train my bun to be a house bunny. Whenever I am home, it will be roaming around the house where I am and I will only put him/her back into the housing when its time for bed. I am home for most of the day so I guess it will be somewhat of a free roam bun.

http://www.beksbunnies.com/index.php/shop/item/bono-fido-alfie

Even though it is a hutch, I'd like to put it indoors. Since it might be a bit small as its 92cm in length compared to the 120cm recommended which I saw somewhere, I want to set up a fence (same as a play pen) in front of hutch to act like a front yard. The hutch door will be left open so the bunny can hop in and out of the hutch and have space to jump without given free reign of the whole room.


For the buns bedding in the that smaller compartment, I was thinking of getting an rabbit cushion/bed or towel/rugs instead of hay,straw and bedding material such as carefresh. The reason is that I do not want the bun to get confused with bedding and the litter box as they have common items. Basically there will be no flooring. Maybe I might cut out a piece of carpet to make it the same shape as the hutch floor.

I am thinking of putting the litter box (comprising of litter and hay) in the larger compartment of the hutch.

The front yard will consist of toys, water and food.

Hope my idea makes sense and any feedback/advice would be great.

I think you are on the right track. As far as bedding for the larger area, you may want to consider a solid surface until bunny is litter trained. Anything soft, like blankets or towels, may be too much temptation to potty. Maybe you could just get a thin piece of wood and stick those square vinyl self-stick tiles on top to make it wipe-able. Once potty trained, you can put something softer in there.

I couldn't tell from the photo you linked if the floor is all mesh. It has the pull out tray which makes me think it might be. But if you are putting something down in the smaller area and putting the litter box in the other area, then no worries.

I like the idea of using a "fence" or x-pen. It sounds very similar to this photo (not mine) that I found on pinterest.

Thanks for your reply Blue eyes. That is basically what my idea is. That picture has an awesome setup, hopefully I can eventually get my area as good as this haha. My area probably won't be as big though, at least not yet.

I am picking up the hutch tomorrow along with other rabbit essentials, so that should be exciting. I will be setting up the fence using the play pen product. Am just thinking whether it is stable enough for the rabbit to knock over the fence since the end of the fences isn't attached to another fence ie the ends (or edges) of the fence would be next to the wall instead of being attached to another fence that would usually provide stability when forming a hexagonal/octagonal fence. Do rabbits even have a tendency to try and knock things? Hope what I said makes some sense


In regards to the bedding for the larger area should I line it with newspaper instead of hard wood (2-3 page thickness) as protection against accidents? Was reading somewhere that lining it with towel might do the trick. Maybe the piece of wood is the best idea, need to go to the hardware shop for that haha.

Another question I have is whether I should have hay in other areas, such as in its front yard. Since rabbits like to chew as it is excreting, would having multiple hay locations confuse the bun from its litter box? Or should I wait till it is fully trained? I have read that hay should be fully accessible, which in the litter box it will be I assume.

Thanks

Oh, I missed this post yesterday. I personally don't like to use newspaper since it can be mistaken for a potty area and gets nasty and smelly when wet. There are stick vinyl square you can get at hardware stores for like 59cents each. You can stick those on wood to keep the wood from soaking up any urine. It also makes a smooth surface that makes clean up easy. I definitely think it is best to avoid newspapers, towels, carpet or anything 'soft' while litter training.

Having a load of hay in and/or above the (large) litterbox will provide plenty of hay for bunny. You are correct that if you put hay elsewhere, then bunny is likely to think that is another spot to potty. If there is plenty of hay in the litter box, he will know where to find it. One hay place is plenty.

As for the x-pen, I think I know what you mean about it meeting the wall. The photo shows how I did this before. Bunnies may try to move an x-pen if they can. I have seen some people put eyelet hooks directly in to their wall so they can attach the pen. Since mine was on carpet, I put a large ceramic tile down on the floor. It prevented the pen from moving since the pen was on the carpet.

--oh, I should mention that my buns have tended not to PUSH on the x-pen edges but rather, they grab it with their mouths and PULL. That's why the tile is on the inside of the pen -- to prevent him from pulling the pen inward.

The other pen side is pinched between the furniture and the litter box.