Completely Free Roam?

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Channahs

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Questions about total free roam (in his room photo attached).

Barry has his own room. He's an E-Lop and he will be 3 months old on August 1. He is extremely intelligent for a bunny of his age. I spend a lot of time with him because I'm fortunate to work mostly from my home.

There is very little human furniture in his room, no bed, and it is relatively bun proof, although I'm sure there is something he can find to get into if he thinks about it hard enough. There are no electrical cords in his reach, and so far he's not chewed any base boards. Today I'm adding a kitty perch to the window ledge.

During the day, he is completely free to roam his room. He is 99.9% litter box trained. I've only found two or three right outside the box where obviously they've stuck to his fur while hopping out and he never pees anywhere but in the box.

At night I've been locking him in his condo an ohhhh how he hates that. He rattles the bars when I lock him in. When I go in to collect him for the evening, usually about 9:30 p.m., he's normally flopped out in the closet asleep. My worries are that he may get spooked in the night and hurt himself. However since putting his larger litterbox out for him in the room, he refuses to use the box in his condo. I put his food and water dishes in with him at night, he eats, but he will NOT use that litterbox anymore and in fact he holds it until I come in the next morning and let him out. Then he runs beeline to his bigger box and sits on it for what seems like forever. I'm worried that holding himself for however long is unhealthy.

Should I let him stay out? He has absolutely no use for that condo, wants nothing to do with it. He's pretty rotten. I'm sure there's always more bunny proofing that I can find to do, so any suggestions are welcome if consenses says free Barry.

In My Room.jpg

All Mine.jpg

Barrys Room.jpg
 
I would let him stay out and see what happens in the morning. IF he can be trusted…why not? Especially since he isn't using the box when he's in his condo. He will probably be more comfortable if allowed to stay out.
 
This is a tough one. I'm all for saying just letting him stay out. But at some point, you may need him to be in that condo, and he will need to be ok with it. Bandit used to hold everything in as well, it's quite strange how they do that I think. The only thing I can recommend, is holding off on a favourite treat or portion of his pellets, and giving it to him when you put him in his condo at night time, and if you can, get him to go in on his own by luring him with the food, as opposed to picking him up and putting him in there, then he's not forced into it.

The thing with having a condo, I feel you need to be able to know, in case of some night time emergency, that you can run in there, know exactly where he'll be, and grab him.
 
I think it should be fine. It could be bad for him holding it all night
 
My bunny does the same thing..seems to hold it when he's locked up. When he gets up he definitely has a huge pee in the upstairs box. I don't have to clean his box in his condo often at all. What if you made his condo a little bigger? I'd be worried about him loose...but that's just me. I'm paranoid he's going to find something to eat since he'll chew anything. But if you're comfortable with give it a try.
 
I actually asked at the bunny meeting I went to tonight about rabbits holding it in. She said that when she used to breed and show rabbits, she had two particular rabbits that she did an interstate (driving) trip with for shows three times. Each time the trip was about 23 hours and she said that both of them simply refused to go the entire time, but as soon as they got home out of their carriers they would just let loose. She said she was very worried about it the first time, but after the second and third time realised it was just something those two bunnies did. It's probably not good because I'd be worried about an impaction forming in the gut, but bunnies tend to poop less overnight anyway (from what I've noticed of Bandit) and produce ceacals instead, so he may just be feasting on those too.
 
Well. The last two mornings I've gone in to let him out, he's already out. I'm not sure if he sleeps in the condo until morning and then makes his escape, or if he escapes in the dark after I've gone to bed, but somehow he manages to pry the door of his NIC condo loose and slip right out. I clip it with those big black binder clips two on top and one on each side, but the stinker's smart! Nonetheless, he's happy as a clam to see me in the morning and all poops are perfectly placed in the littybox outside of his condo.

He's very, very rotten. :hbunnysmell: Of course that's because I'm so stupid in love with him and have made him that way. The super funny thing about all of this is that during the day, he likes to lounge around inside the condo (with the door off of course). Maybe he would sleep in it if I left the door open...I suppose that I will be doing a doubly detailed crawl on the floor major bunny proofing of his room and see how that goes. His room is sparsely furnished and he likes to sleep on the closet floor. I close his doors at night and his room is literally three steps from my bedroom door, so if some emergency should arise, I could scoop him up in a minute.

Thank you all for your input!
 
Tried to edit to add to my last message but could find no edit button...so! I figured out that his escapes are made in the mornings. I almost left him out last night, but by 10:30 p.m. he was still thumping around in his room and I could hear him "doing things". It sounded like he was building something, so I decided it was better that he go in the condo. I peeked in at him around 11:00 p.m. and he was sound asleep. Woke up around 5:00 a.m. this morning, came in the office and waited for his morning sounds. Heard them, and he was at the cage door, so I let him out. If I would have slept in this morning, there's no doubt he would have made another escape.
 
I say leave him out. Twigs has 24/7 run of our living/dinning room he doesn't even have a condo. We do leave a night lite on for him so if he does get scared there's a little light.
 
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