Bunny freedom and access to food

[curiouscarrot]

I've just got rabbits for the first time and am learning everything I can.

They're still settling in, but when (if?) I can let the bunnies out to run around the backyard, what happens in relation to access to food? The bunny info says not to change their diet suddenly because they'll get tummy troubles, but they'll have access to whatever is growing in my yard, so will they guts themselves on everything and make themselves sick? I've got an informal garden (alias a mess ), there are self-sown herbs as well as herbs in pots (which they could probably reach by standing up) and lots of weeds and different things. Do they have any sense of what is "wrong" to eat? There will be some oxalis (once you've got that, good luck ever getting rid of it) which I saw on a list of poisonous plants, but if there's parsley and oregano and lots of nice things, will they ignore the potentially harmful in favour of "the good stuff"?

 

[JBun]

It's hard to know if they will leave the poisonous plants alone. One member on here, a little while ago, was having problems with a few of her rabbits suddenly having hind limb paralysis, that would start to get better, then would get worse again. The rabbits were allowed to run around the backyard, and i think one day she saw one of them nibbling on a mushroom growing in the yard. Well, sure enough it was the mushrooms causing the paralysis. I think once she fixed the problem, that the paralysis problems mostly got better. So rabbits don't always know what's bad for them.

If you decide to let them run around, it would be best to try and get the poisonous plants out of there. Then to get them used to having the new kinds of greens, you could let them out for short amounts of time to slowly get them used to the new foods, and gradualy increase that time if they aren't showing signs of digestive upset.

 

[curiouscarrot]

Thanks. There really is no way of eradicating oxalis. You can dig it out, or poison it. Digging is ineffective, because it has these little bulbs which fall apart and you can never get them all, and obviously I'm not using sprays on the garden with rabbits about (I don't like them anyway). My backyard is enormous, so it isn't feasible to get rid of absolutely all of it.

Yes, I'd closely supervise. Will they be likely to run away from me if I want to stop them eating something? They are quite tame in that they don't bite or object to being touched, but they don't know me yet to come to me or not be suspicious of me. I'm going to give them time to settle before letting them out, but I figured I should start finding out what I should know.

 

[majorv]

Is there a way you can fence off the oxalis so they can't reach it? I wouldn't depend on them recognizing it as dangerous. I agree that until you know how their digestive systems will react to the different herbs/plants it's best to control their access. I don't know if your bunnies will run away. You could try different methods to get their attention and see what works best.

 

[curiouscarrot]

Is there a way you can fence off the oxalis so they can't reach it?

It's invasive, so it's all over the place. You can dig it out, smother it, but it'll always find a way to reappear.

it's best to control their access.

Yes, thanks, I think that's just what I'll have to do. I just want to let them out of that hutch to run around! They came with a little pen, and I'm going to add a run to their hutch, so that'll have to do while I research further about the plants/weeds I've got and how much of a threat they are. It really depends on their level of toxicity and their tastiness to the rabbits I suppose.

I don't know if your bunnies will run away.

No, nor do I, I suspect they will, they move away from me in their big hutch when I open the doors. I want them to not be afraid of being handled, but I don't want to make them unhappy by manhandling them if they don't want to be...... It's nervewracking, the extent of my ignorance. I don't know how people cope when they bring home human babies. I've got to stop being impatient and give it time.

 

[JBun]

No, nor do I, I suspect they will, they move away from me in their big hutch when I open the doors. I want them to not be afraid of being handled, but I don't want to make them unhappy by manhandling them if they don't want to be...... It's nervewracking, the extent of my ignorance. I don't know how people cope when they bring home human babies. I've got to stop being impatient and give it time.

The more time you spend with them in a smaller area where they can't run away and hide, the more comfortable they will get with you. It sometimes works better to spend time with one rabbit at a time, but that just depends on how calm and outgoing your rabbits are. If they are both skittish, it's usually better to spend one on one time with them so they don't just huddle together in a corner, but then sometimes it's good for them to have each other cause then they feel a little bit safer. So just try it and see which way works best. But if you have an xpen, that works well, or a bathroom. And you just sit there with them, don't try to pet them or anything, and you can just sit there on your laptop or read, while they hop around and explore. This gives them a chance to let them know that you are ok and aren't going to hurt them or anything. Pretty soon they will start to feel curious and come up to you. When they are doing it often, you can slowly offer your hand to them to smell is all, and eventually you can work up to petting them.

 

[curiouscarrot]

They'll let me pat them, they'll let me pick them up, but they have a lot to adjust to. I don't want to let them alone toooo much where they stop being used to "being tame", but I don't want to hassle them either. I'm going to get another hutch to put in the carport and I'll put them in there for the time being. One, it isn't as deep, so I don't have to lean so far in to "grab" them, and I can shut the side gate and they won't be subjected to my little dog staring in at them the whole time, when he's outside. I suspect that his "friendliness" isn't helping them settle in. I'll have some "alone time" with the boy while his "girlfriend" goes in for her operation. I'm not sure what her recovery will involve, whether I'll need to separate them or what, or how quickly she'll "bounce back". I'm sure she'd rather have some quiet time without the woofer wanting her to play with him.