Contemplating bringing her in...

[TurtleShark]

When I got my Holland Lop almost a year and a half ago, she was 4 years old and had always been an outdoor rabbit.

We didn't have a hutch built, so we built a cage for her in a spare bedroom and kept her there for the winter.

Come summer, we moved her outside.

I feel better with her being outside. Even though she was in the house she was in a room no one ever went into except for me, and that wasn't as often as I would have liked. I feel much better with her outside right now, regardless of the cold. There's more to watch; more to hear.

But I still want her back inside where she can be part of the family. Only I would rather have her with the family instead of in a room. But, to do so, I need a little help.

1. I'd probably do a dog crate as her cage. How big and how much do they cost?

2. What kind of bedding? For the floor? For the litter box?

3. How often should the litter be changed? Every day? Cleaned every day? Washed once a week?

4. Any tips on keeping her from spilling her water?

5. Smell, how do I keep it down?

I'm fairly sure that I can manage to keep her litter trained. I use straw in her litter box right now.

What about the cats? They'll get used to her, right? Whenever I bring her in they always chase her and paw at her. And the dog should too... I hope... Needless to say, my lab won't ever be alone with her until I'm 100% certain there is no danger.

 

[Azerane]

Dog crates get pretty big given that they make them to suit almost any breed, you want to go as big as you can afford/fit in the space. I can't comment on cost because it's really going to vary depending on where you live and what shop you buy them from.

You don't really need bedding for the floor as such, not in the sense of wood shavings or anything. A fleece blanket would do perfectly well for soft spot to lie on, and are easy to change out and wash. You could also use foam puzzle mats. In the litter box I would recommend wood pellet litter/horse stall bedding pellets, they have great odour control. You can also put hay on top. How often you change the box is largely personal preference. I liked to spot clean the wet areas daily and once a week do a complete clean. Some people keep the box for 4+ days before cleaning the whole thing out, only topping it up with fresh hay in between.

Water spillage happens, heavy ceramic bowls are the way to go, if she knows how to use a bottle you could use one though I don't like to recommend them.

Shouldn't really be any smell if you clean the litter tray regularly. I find the only thing that smells is the hay, and it's not a bad smell at all, I quite like the smell but it is a smell that I notice.

The part about your cats concerns me. I would worry that they might try to paw/claw at her through the bars of the dog crate. In which case you would need to attach a finer mesh around the outside so that they couldn't reach in and do that. You would always need 100% supervised play time with them too, especially if they have a history of chasing your rabbit, I would not feel safe with that at all. They could certainly be trained to leave your rabbit alone, but would still need supervision.

 

[Blue eyes]

Azarene covered a lot.

I like to use bowls that twist onto a clamp. Those cannot be spilled. You only need to twist them to pull them off the clamp for easy cleaning/refilling.

With a good set up, there should be NO smell at all (other than that of hay). I don't think straw is the best at odor absorption, so you may want to set up the box differently using wood pellets on the bottom. You can still put straw on top since she is familiar with that and then gradually work away from it.

If you'd like even more detail on just how to set up (and maintain -- a key element) a litter box for indoors to your advantage as well as other tips for housing a rabbit indoors, I'd like to offer my website. It is just an informational site that is all about housing rabbits indoors. There might be some tips that prove helpful. Here is the site.