Hello (from a tiny house!)

[thelaurelcrowned]

Hello

My name is Lauren, and I'm about to embark back down the path to house rabbit ownership! Growing up I had house rabbits who were litter trained and (some) were free range around my room, and some had free range of the house. I've had holland lops, rex's, and dutch buns, but next week I'm going to be road tripping to pick up an english lop! My fiancé and I just bought a tiny house, and have a fairly large loft area that is being cordoned off and built to accommodate the bunny (and also be my office space since I'm a freelance graphic designer)...it is also inaccessible to our two dogs (who are great with animals -- but I, personally, still wouldn't trust them around a small animal unsupervised) thanks to the fact that it is only accessible via a ladder, which is part of the reason that I finally feel confident and comfortable enough to get a house rabbit again!

My fiancé and I just bought a tiny house and are currently living in it as we renovate and retrofit it for solar. We're going to be moving it to our property of 40 acres sometime in the next few months before our wedding (we just have to save up for the solar system, new fridge, and a few other small appliances that we need to make it more energy efficient), and are planning on creating a really wonderful and secure bunny run outside for when we're gone during the day (just in case, god forbid, the small window A/C unit we're getting goes out when we're not home!!! We live in Northern California and it reaches triple digits during the summer sometimes), as well as a wonderful garden next to a creek that the bunny can hop around in when I'm home and supervising it! We also have a 4 year old Border Collie x Mini Aussie, a 12 week old Australian Cattle Dog, and five horses, with hopefully a few dairy goats in the not so far off future

We're very interested in sustainable living, and I am slowly trying to transition both myself and my voracious meat eating fiancé to fewer meat filled meals a week and am also interested in small scale homesteading.

Fall of 2020 we're planning on renovating a 4x4 Sprinter van into the camper van of our dreams. We want it to be as dog friendly and bunny friendly as possible, and plan on actually building a hutch of sorts into the van, and also creating a safe and secure collapsible outdoor run for the bun to hang out in when we're all hanging out outside barbecuing that a) keeps the bunny off of the ground and b) is big enough for the bunny and c) we could tie to the top of the van. If you have any ideas -- definitely shoot them my way!

I just wanted to introduce myself so I could gush about just how excited I am to somebody because my fiancé, family, and friends don't truly get it and are a little confused as to why I'm driving nine hours to get a bunny -- when I could just get one from the local feed store. I would also love any ideas that people have as to how me and my fiancé could store bunny items, and make the tiny house and sprinter van remodel as bunny friendly as possible (we actually found a large, very well ventilated hiking backpack for the bunny to ride in when we hike...and we're workshopping a few ideas of how to camp with a bunny safely. We actually have a friend who does so already and I used to do so with my bunnies and guinea pigs constantly growing up

)

Also, before I forget, here is my boy that I'm picking up next week!!!

 

[Imbrium]

I just wanted to introduce myself so I could gush about just how excited I am to somebody because my fiancé, family, and friends don't truly get it and are a little confused as to why I'm driving nine hours to get a bunny -- when I could just get one from the local feed store.

If you're looking for people who totally understand something so crazy, you have absolutely come to the right place! Because of some complications/delays, hubby and I spent probably 10-11 hours driving back and forth to an animal shelter three times over four days in order to get our two new additions last month... but those two rabbits won our hearts and were SO worth it. Anyway, welcome to RO! I hope you enjoy your time here. Also, those ears are beyond ridiculous... and for some reason, they make me want to hug the stuffing out of him, hehe. Super cute.

As for portable options, the two best ready-made ones I can think of are

a) an XL (48" x 30" x 32") or XXL (54"L x 37"W x 45"H) dog crate. You can pop it up and snap it together in (literally) one minute or so and collapsed, I'd guess it's 5-6'' thick.

b) an exercise pen (commonly called an x-pen). Small animal x-pens are too small - you'd need one for dogs. X-pens also collapse to be quite thin and could easily be tied to the top of a van. Standard x-pens have 8 panels that are 2' wide (so a 16' long fence that's very configurable) and come in heights ranging from 24'' to 48''. Some of the 36'' and up sizes have a "door" in one of the panels to let humans in more easily. Anyway, I recommend at least 30'' to prevent jumping over it (though in my experience, lops are more diggers than jumpers).

You can connect multiple x-pens together, form a circle or rectangle or whatever shape you want, add or remove panels at will to change the total size and the two ends can easily be tied, zip-tied or clipped (with carabiners or something) to two corners of the dog crate instead of connecting to each other, providing an attached run. You can also put screw eyes into a wall and tie or clip the pen to a wall (cheap anchor recommended; on occasion I've had a rabbit or human somehow pull the screw eye from the wall otherwise).

You mentioned building some sort of hutch in a camper van... there are many threads around here where people have repurposed furniture (like an old cabinet) and built it into a pretty awesome hutch. In fact, there's an active thread right now where someone is showing off their cabinet-to-hutch project.

 

[Blue eyes]

Too cute!!

Welcome.

 

[thelaurelcrowned]

Thank you so much Imbrium! And I'm so glad to find people who understand...everyone I know just gives me a blank look when I tell them I'm taking two days off of work to go from an hour south-east of Sacramento to upstate Oregon to pick up a bunny, haha. And thank you so much! He does look so squeezable with those ears <3

Hmmm, I really like both of those suggestions! Right now I actually use an X-Pen for his cage (it goes 2x6 when I'm not home, and opens up to include the whole loft when I am home, or he can come down to the floor to hang out down there)...but I don't feel like it's sturdy enough for outside. I'm thinking of creating something similar to a chicken tractor, but collapsible in some way? That way the bottom still has wire to it...Idk -- my grandfather has been working construction for years so I'm going to workshop some ideas with him here soon.

I actually saw that thread and really liked it! I'm going to post what we have right now, and ask people for ideas as well...I need to be able to keep a decent amount of books and art supplies up there as well as the bunny, so I want to try to build some bookshelves and etc into it...

 

[thelaurelcrowned]

Blue eyes -- Thank you so much!! I'm excited to be here <3

 

[Imbrium]

I was thinking of metal x-pens, I've always found them sturdy enough for outdoors provided there's some human supervision nearby (without supervision, outdoor run requires a ceiling and floor (or some other means to thwart digging under it) and needs small enough wire spacing that a potential predator couldn't squeeze in (not sure what's in your area, but stuff like fairly large snakes and things in the weasel family can definitely squeeze through x-pen bar spacing).

 

[thelaurelcrowned]

I was thinking of metal x-pens, I've always found them sturdy enough for outdoors provided there's some human supervision nearby (without supervision, outdoor run requires a ceiling and floor (or some other means to thwart digging under it) and needs small enough wire spacing that a potential predator couldn't squeeze in (not sure what's in your area, but stuff like fairly large snakes and things in the weasel family can definitely squeeze through x-pen bar spacing).

Right now I am using a metal x-pen for inside -- I'm just terrified that he'll dig under it or lift it when we're not looking, haha! We have two dogs who bark at eVERYTHING that's not supposed to be around us, so I'm not super worried about predators (he would only be in that type of a 'cage' when we're supervising him/he's hanging out with us outside), but I am worried about his access to the grass? Just because of possible disease transfer? I will admit that I'm also a weeee bit on the over protective side at times!

 

[Imbrium]

I've used those pens pretty extensively outside with numerous rabbits and never had a problem. If you're concerned about what might be on the grass, buy an inexpensive tarp to lay under the x-pen.

I was actually using one inside with my Holland lop for a long time. She did manage to escape under it once or twice, but only because I was using a sheet of coroplast to stop her from eating the carpet and I had the end turned up on the coroplast to make a border around the pen so that she couldn't push it around. She figured out how to pop the bottom of the pen over the coroplast border, allowing her to get out. A heavy box on each of the two sides that weren't up against a wall sold it perfectly.

I've never had a rabbit lift one of those pens without the help of another object (like the coroplast border) and digging out would take at least a few minutes. I've never had a rabbit even try that outside because there were always more interesting things to see and smell and do.

 

[thelaurelcrowned]

Imbrium,

I may try that! I still have a few other ideas I want to try out as well -- just that would be more aesthetically pleasing and would help me feel better about everything, but it's nice to know that I could use the x-pen outside for now at least

 

[Imbrium]

If you come up with something good, feel free to share your ideas! I was simply offering what I knew of that fit the criteria of being portable, taking up little storage space and getting the job done - to be honest, I didn't take aesthetics into consideration.

 

[thelaurelcrowned]

Imbrium,

I’m definitely thankful for your suggestion! I’m also just looking for something that if I did have to go inside for a little bit and I’m not paying a ton of attention it would be OK... i’m a little bit neurotic when it comes to my bunnies, haha!