Free range bunny.

[jfinner1]

My bun has only been inside for a few weeks, and I've been slowly giving him more freedoms. The first week I watched him like a hawk, and figured out all the places that I hadn't bunny proofed well enough, lol. But I've been trusting him more and more. He hasn't chewed anything, hasn't dug my carpet, and seems to be 100% litter trained, which was a huge surprise. The last time I had him inside he chewed on wires, walls, molding, furniture, anything he could get his teeth on, tore up my carpet, and peed in every corner of the apartment... Anyways, lately, any time I come downstairs I open up his cage and just let him run, but if I need to go upstairs for anything longer them a glass of water or a bathroom break, he goes back in his cage. But today I'm going to be doing a lot of running upstairs and down, cleaning house from the holidays. And I'm wondering if I should just leave him out. I know some of you have buns that are allowed out all the time, and I'm wondering when did you know you could trust them? What sort of precautions did you take?

 

[farmerchick]

your never going totally feel confident the first time you leave a rabbit alone lol, i have 2 bonded pairs and a mischevious flemish, and i remember the first time i left each pair alone with each other just to walk out of the room because i was so afraid, now i can leave the house and trust they are fine, i leave them out in a room size pen for the whole day..

sometimes you just got to take the risk. if your going to be back and forth cleaning, your probably safe to try it because at least you can keep checking on him. you will find out very fast if he can be trusted, some rabbits act totally different if they know your not there watching them.

good luck!

 

[Amy27]

For me it was a slow thing. At first they were only out when I could watch them. Then they were allowed out when I was home. Now one of them is always out. I try to let one out for 12 hours and the other out for the other 12 hours a day. However, while going through the stages of what I felt comfortable with, they got older and I think now that they are older, they chew a lot less. They still chew things they shouldn't but what they chew really won't hurt them. I cover all the cords. Keep all posions up or in cabinets. From letting them out and watching them, I know all their favorite spots or where they will go. I know they hate tile floor so I had to move the cat food there or they would eat it. Things weren't perfect when I started. I learn something new everyday they can get into lol. But I have to say they are pretty well behaved and I saw that before letting them out all the time.

I come home from work at lunch and usually I find them sleeping under the bed. They are not very active during the day. I have found when they do get into something, it is usually at night. So may be starting with the day time when they tend to sleep more would be good.

ETA: I also wanted to add, I have toys and acceptable things to chew in every room. I found that if they came into the living room and all the toys were in the bedroom, they would find something to chew in the living room. So I offer a box to play in and chew with a couple toys. That seems to help them from chewing the bad stuff. But if they are in a room and want to chew something, they won't go back to the room with the toys to chew, they will find something in the room they are in to chew.

 

[itsazoo]

I knew when they escaped their cages and made themselves free range and didnt do anything lol, Jenny wasnt supposed to be free range, she just kept busting out of her pen, thats when I realized she is a VERY active rabbit and 4 hours at night just wasnt good enough lol, she didnt cause any real damage when she was out, so I let her. Peepers was getting many hours of play time in certain area's every day...then she started busting out of her cage and she was fine, she has never so much as left a stray poop outside her box, so now I just open her cage when I get up in the morning and when I get home from work..Peepers is not free all the time only because of my dogs..Jenny is behind a steel door in my basement, so its not an issue for her.

 

[elrohwen]

Personally, I only leave my bunnies out alone if it's in the middle of the day. I know them well enough to know that they sleep soundly from 8am-5pm, and then only get up for some hay and then go back to sleep until about 8pm. During this time I don't mind leaving their cage open for a few hours while we run some errands because I know they probably won't leave the cage area.

So I would start with that time, because he's the least likely to care about getting into things. The more risky time is during the evening or early in the morning because these are his active times when he'll be looking to get into trouble.

If he does well at that, start leaving him alone in the evening while you run out to pick up take out, or grab something from the grocery store - at least then he only has 15-30min to get into trouble before you come back.

 

[Krissa]

Its nice to know the chewing goes down as they age - I just caught Zander chewing on my shoes while they were on my feet! Guess I need to get him some more chew toys (don't tell my hubby) :innocent

I can leave his cage open after 10am and he just chills in it, gets up and eats some hay and then sleeps some more. But around sundown - watch-out crazy bun!

It would be nice to have him out all the time but with three cats and a dog it is a bit too risky to have out of cage time when I am not home. Everyone gets along great but I would hate to have something happen that I could have prevented.

 

[jfinner1]

Well, Xenos has been doing great. I let him out as soon as I wake up in the morning, and don't put him away until I go to work. He doesn't do stairs, so he stays in the basement, which means there was less for me to bunny proof. But I've got cardboard blocking all the computer wires (our computer room is in the basement) and he hasn't done anything he's not supposed to. He has a big cardboard box that he likes to rip up and throw around. The only thing I'm concerned about is his need to lick everything... But that's going into another thread...