Do you leave your bunny out at night?

[swarning1222]

Ok, so I'll start off by saying I'm not sure if I'm actually being logical or not. I'm very paranoid when it comes to my bunnies and I'm not sorry lol. So I assume when people say free range bunnies they're out ALL the time. I have spent so much time training my bun and I'm so happy with what a good little boy he is now, I've been leaving him out of his cage all day even when I go to work now and he is an angel! 😇 he has yet to chew something or get into anything!
But at night I put him in his cage, and he is not pleased. I think he thinks he's one of the cats and dogs so he just looks at them like "EXCUSE ME?!" But I just don't know what it is, I just don't feel right leaving him out at night!! Part of me feels like it's keeping humble lol, like if he's out 24/7 that's when he's going to start misbehaving himself. He already has like a little alpha male complex 🙈. And I'm worried about what he would get into, even though he's perfectly well behaved any other time. Then there's still that tiny part of me going "he's a rabbit, he can't just live around the house like a cat or dog!"

So is this just my paranoia? Does anyone else leave their rabbits out at night?

 

[pani]

I don't, nor do I leave them out if my partner and I are both out of the house for extended periods of time. I feel safer knowing that I can check in on them every so often, even if I'm not in the same room, and I think I'd just be too nervous leaving them out 100% of the time. I want them to have as much freedom as possible, but I also need to know they're safe.

 

[Chewy-de-Lionhead]

I don't leave Chewy out all night either. He's really good at "going home" at night when I'm ready to go to bed. We have a routine, and he's used to it, so he doesn't fight me, but there are times, he's a little upset and will toss his food bowl, but other than that, he's pretty good about staying in his hutch at night. I do wheel his hutch into my room with me at night, so that he doesn't feel alone all those hours.

 

[swarning1222]

Ok so it's not just me lol. My shifts at work are only a few hours at a time so I feel good about him being out for that but your right, at night it's just too long. And he does the same thing, I will tell him to go in his house and he will put his little head down and go, but he does have his occasional temper tantrum lol. Thank you, I don't feel so bad about it anymore! I just can't stand the way he looks at me sometimes!

 

[Chewy-de-Lionhead]

Oh, they know how to guilt us into getting their way. I think that they know they are so cute that we melt.

 

[Chester1_andblueberry]

My bunnies are in my room 24/7 and occasionally outside trips but when I open the door to my moms room he hops in there and they binky ALL the time

 

[missyscove]

As long as he's getting sufficient time out of his cage, and his cage is big enough for him to stretch out in and move around when he's in it, there's nothing wrong with keeping him secure while you're not around.

Try rewarding him for going into his cage at bedtime instead. For example, my rabbits are out in my bedroom when I'm home and awake and in their cage (a large dog crate with an added shelf) when I'm not home or sleeping). Instead of feeding them their pellets or greens when I wake up, I would give them to them when it was time for me to leave the house or go to sleep, that way they look forward to going back into their crate because they get a treat when they "go home". We've gotten to the point where when they hear me open the container I keep their bag of pellets in, they come running back to their cage.

 

[Mastershroom]

When we lived in our old apartment, Oreo and Donut had free roam of the place 24/7. It took a fair bit of work to get everything bunny-proofed to the point that we were comfortable leaving them unsupervised all the time, but they never did any serious damage in the couple years we were there. They had cages, they just hopped in and out as they pleased.

I want to give them the same freedom here in our new house, but there's still some work to do to prepare the place first. For starters, most of the main level is wood floor instead of carpet, and the rabbits hate even touching it since they have no traction. So I'm thinking of getting some patches of carpet and giving them some room to run around, and a pathway through the halls. The basement is carpeted, and we let them loose down there, but we still need to block off some things before we'll leave them to their devices there.

 

[Lokin4AReason]

mine stay in their cage(s). if not they would practice on craving for woodshop class ...

they would go at the carpet, bookshelve(s), clothing, or anything that they would find interesting. plus I have a good amount of toy(s) for them w/ their food and water out for them along w/ a extra place at where they can go to the bathroom ...

as much as I would love too =0/ ... they are kept in their cage while I count sheep tripping over the back fence