bunny doesnt like cage,

[laura331]

So I just adopted a 1 year old polish dwarf rabbit from the humane society and he is just an absolute joy. Hes friendly and adventurous, although he hates being picked up. he is just amazing.

The only problem is he doesn't ever want to be in his cage. I let him out all the time when i am home, in the morning before i leave, and at night when i get home. and while he is out he will jump in and out of his cage for food and water, and poops, but he hates it when i close the door, he will start chewing on the bars and hopping around. I wish I could let let him roam the house all the time, but he isn't fixed or litter trained so he will still leave me little presents sometimes. I don't want him to be unhappy but when i am not home i need him to be in his cage. any suggestions on how i can enhance his cage experience, so to speak.

thank you so much

 

[MiniLopHop]

Can you add an exercise fence around the cage so he can have some more open space? Mine hate being "cooped up" even though their enclosures are half a room per pair. There's just something offensive to them about a closed gate. I open the gate and they stay lounging in their space.

 

[JBun]

How big is his cage? He might need more space. If you don't already have a NIC condo, you could try building him one of those. It would give him lots of extra room to run around when he's penned up. Some people also will use an xpen to expand their rabbits space outside the cage. You can also use treats, or give him his veggies when you put him back in his cage, so that he associates going back in there with something good.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:yeahthat:

 

[LakeCondo]

I guess lots of people like the nics, but I'm so happy with an xpen, so I can enter it to visit Honey. The 8 2-ft panels can be configured in a 4-ft square, a near-circle, or a 2x6 ft rectangle.

 

[littl3red]

I second a NIC or x-pen, mine has the door open 24/7 (except when my room gets messy enough to not be bunny-proofed, like right now, because I'm adding onto the cage for the rabbit I'm adopting soon) but I love it, Teddy loves it, and I don't feel too guilty if I do have to close her in because it's still so much room and she really does enjoy being in there. Even with free run, she still spends about 60% of her time in the cage, except at night when she sleeps on or under my bed.

 

[Ape337]

LakeCondo wrote:

I guess lots of people like the nics, but I'm so happy with an xpen, so I can enter it to visit Honey. The 8 2-ft panels can be configured in a 4-ft square, a near-circle, or a 2x6 ft rectangle.

It's funny you say that. All 3 of my buns have NIC cages. Two of them have x-pens attached to increase their space. Humma has his own bedroom, but i left his nic cage in there too. I find the NIC cages I built difficult to clean in spite of adding tons of doors. I plan on disassembling all 3 and using the panels in a new way.

I break the connection between the x-pen panels and use 6 NIC panels to create another 2-ft panel in between (a 36" high x-pen, and overlap the panels a bit for support). I use zip/cable ties to attach my newly created panel to the x-pen. I will start by adding 2 new panels to each x-pen to extend them to 10 panels. That will create a 4ft x 6ft x-pen. In this way the possibilities seem endless! That way nothing is wasted from everything I purchased. Plus I like the pre-made sturdy door panel in the x-pen. Just an idea :biggrin:

 

[ldoerr]

My girls have 2 NIC cages. I did not have to buy any of the pannels for either cage (or the cage expantion I am hopping for). We had all of them laying around my parents house already. We have probably over the years bought 6-10 boxes of the pannels. So our total cost for 2 NIC cages is under $30. we only had to buy the coroplast ~$10 and a couple of zip ties because I wanted color full ones. I really do like the NIC cages. For my situation it works wonders.

 

[Blue eyes]

laura331 wrote:

So I just adopted a 1 year old polish dwarf rabbit from the humane society and he is just an absolute joy. Hes friendly and adventurous, although he hates being picked up. he is just amazing.

The only problem is he doesn't ever want to be in his cage. I let him out all the time when i am home, in the morning before i leave, and at night when i get home. and while he is out he will jump in and out of his cage for food and water, and poops, but he hates it when i close the door, he will start chewing on the bars and hopping around. I wish I could let let him roam the house all the time, but he isn't fixed or litter trained so he will still leave me little presents sometimes. I don't want him to be unhappy but when i am not home i need him to be in his cage. any suggestions on how i can enhance his cage experience, so to speak.

thank you so much

You could also try giving him a variety of toys and extra hay to keep him occupied. The hay-stuffed paper towel rolls always seem to keep my buns busy.