For free-range buns

[mouse_chalk]

I am curious to know for those of you who have buns that are semi or completely free range, and what setups you have for them? Do you have a cage that is always open, or just a litterbox in the corner? If no cage, do you have a bed or something for your bun to sleep in, and do they use it? Have you sectioned off part of your room with grids, or do they have the whole room that is completely bunny proofed?

Since we've had Dotty we've basically made her free-range from the start, because as a big bunny we wanted to make sure she would have enough space. It's just made me curious to see what other peope have got for their bunnies!

:biggrin2:

 

[seniorcats]

Melody and Ali have their own 25' by 45' room to run in. They are free range all the time with no cages. They have two litter boxes in the middle of the room along with 2 hay bins by the boxes.When the previous owner built on to the house he dug a new part of the basement to be his children's play room. There are windows on the front and side along with an out door exit. Since we don't have kids, this became bunny land. There are 2 other separete sections of the basement aside frombunny land.

Greg put in extra lighting because we didn't think there was enough. Bunny land has heating and cooling, a separate well water filtration and fountain we put in 3 years ago for the bunniesand 2 seperate places with sinks and hot/cold running water. Hay gets stored in the old root cellar where it is cool and dry.

They have a lot of card board conrete tubes cut in different sizes for play and sleeping, some bunny beds they don't use and a fresh supply of paper bags which they do use. Both prefer sleeping inside something covered. Ali prefers staying in bunny land but Mel will run all over 3 floors and from one end of the house to the other. Mel likes having as much space as possible and she is a speed demon. The only thing Mel ever chews is apple branches although we have bunny-proofed all the cords.

 

[swanlake]

echo and fiona have free run of pretty much our entire first floor. They don't have a cage. They have various litterboxes in different rooms. Their main 'room' is my parents bedroom. They don't have a litterbox in there because they don't really go to the bathroom in there. We have put down small carpets though, with rubber backs because they tended to not want to pee in the litterbox and would instead go on the carpet.

 

[kherrmann3]

For Toby and Emma, we have cages. Emma's cage is under Toby's. We are only keeping it that way for a little while longer, though. We are going to make a nice, big NIC cage for them to share soon. Out of their cages, we have a litter box on the other side of the room, and a water bottle near that. Other than that, our bedroom (where they roam) is the same as it was pre-bunnies. There are two little footstools near the bed that act like little pet stairs for Toby to hop up and down.

 

[LolaGirl]

We don't have a spare room that we could make a bunny room. Lola has to be in her cage when I'm not home. In the evenings after dinner I let her roam our whole downstairs but she mainly stays in the livingroom. I'm hoping in the next month or two to build her a big NIC cage as I want her to have more room since she is a big rabbit and I can't always have her out.

 

[LizBuns]

My male bunny, Smokey, has free reign of the whole house with the exception of two rooms. He still has a cage downstairs and is in it probably an hour or two a day by his own choice. We also have food and water upstairs for him. For some reason, he really prefers to be upstairs. He likes to sit on the landing watching everything, usually with our fat girl cat sitting next to him. At night while we sleep he is usually downstairs spazzing out. During the day he sleeps under our bed or under our dresser. We've tried to make a hidey for him to sleep in, but he will only lay in it while awake and then go back under the bed when he really wants to sleep.

I love that he has free reign, most of the time anyway. I love waking up to a puff ball jumping onto my chest in the middle of the night and grooming my eyebrows.

My other bun Rosie has free run of our den and part of our garage. She is really a good bun; she doesn't chew on anything except chew toys. She has a cage but is only in it to eat and go pottie. Eventually I want her to be free range with Smokey, but she is three years old and still skittish from years of neglect and bad treatment.

 

[mouse_chalk]

All your setups sound great, thanks for the replies guys! Ann, Bunny Land sounds AMAZING!! What lucky bunners!

For Dotty, we have our bedroom, which isn't huge but still fairly roomy, and she has the whole of the bedroom to run around in. We have a chest of drawers next to the wardrobe, and next to the drawers, we have her food and water bowl, and then the litter tray next to that. We've set it up so she has to go into her litter tray to drink the water, because that way it's a lot safer, as she likes to drag her bowls around if we don't wake up early enough!

Then all day she can obviously run around the bedroom, and when Steve works at home, which is quite often, she runs up and down the hallway too, and has free run of Steve's office. Mostly she sleeps by his feet or binkies in the hallway lol.

It's very different having a free-range bunny... I love it though! We're super-lucky that she's litter trained already and learnt within a week lol so we don't have too much mess to be cleaning up. Did anyone else have that problem?

I was just curious to know how other people had the free-range setup... thank you for sharing!

 

[Hayley411]

My rabbits are semi-free range in my room. They are only caged when I am not home, or when one is out (they don't always get along).

This is the rabbit half of my room: (Oliver/Lunaare on the left, Sherbert on the right)

This is Oliver's/Luna's side. Oliver and Luna get switched back and forth between this cage/pen and a smaller cage. They are not totally litterbox trained, thats why they have a wire bottomed cage and lino flooring.

This is Sherbert's side. She is completely litterbox trained so she gets out the most.

Open:

Both of the cages open. They get to come out in pairs as Luna and Sherbert get on well together and Sherbert and Oliver get on well together. Well as long as they are only together a short time.

~Hayley

 

[BethM]

Nick and Amelia are confined to their pen when no one's home, and when we're asleep. (I wish they could be free-range all the time, but Amelia would eat all the carpet and furniture if no one was looking!) The pen is really large, it takes up a third of my living room, plus they have a 3x2x3 condo on one end of their pen. Some evenings they won't come out, even if they know they can, they really like their pen.

However, in the mornings and evenings, the gate to the pen is left open so they can come and go as they please. They are allowed in the living room, dining room, and hallway. They could also go into the kitchen if they wanted to, but they don't like the lino floor, too slippery for their feet. (Amelia will destroy shoes left in the living room, but won't hop 2 feet onto the lino to get them by the door. She goes for the easy target.) The doorways to the bedroom and office are blocked off with walk-through baby gates, and the guest bathroom door is kept closed.
They are both excellent with their litter and have never urinated outside their pen area. Nick sometimes leaves on poop somewhere just so everyone knows that's *his* space.
Because Amelia is such a chewer, I have to make sure all cords are out of reach. I put NIC panels to block the back of the entertainment center; the entertainment center also has doors on the whole front, so they can't get the electronics.
Because our living room doesn't have an overhead light, we have to use a lamp. The outlet for that is near the rabbit pen, so I found a little cabinet thing that's right in front of the outlet, the cord is tucked behind the cabinet. There is a HEPA air filter on the other side, constantly sucking in loose fur. The cabinet holds all the rabbit stuff. (Open shelves in the top half have pellets, toys, and treats in airtight containers, and some rabbit books. The bottom half has a door on it, and hides a little bucket with a hand-broom for sweeping up.)
Amelia has ruined two laptop cords, so now there are NO laptop cords allowed in the living room unless Amelia's gate is closed. I use my laptop until the battery is drained and then that's the end of my computing for the evening.

There are toys strewn around, a Maze Haven in the living room and a Cottontail Cottage in the dining room, as well as a little box with two "doors" cut in it in the front hallway.

We have to store the ottoman on top of the living room chair so Amelia doesn't eat the chair. (She made a quarter-sized hole in the back cushion already.) I keep a blanket on the sofa and am trying to teach Amelia to not get on the sofa. Both Nick and Amelia enjoy lounging underneath the dining table, or on the tile in front of the fireplace.

Sadly, Tobi must live in her pen in the office. She would very much like to bite Amelia's nose and steal her boyfriend. She does have a good sized pen area with a large condo, so she is not suffering in any way. She gets to come out into the hallway (blocked off with baby gates) at least twice a week for exercise and fun. I keep a large tube in that hallway, she plays in it when she's out, and then the other two bunnies get to re-claim it later.