House Rabbits

[Daffy]

I've not been in a position to keep houserabbits until recently. Our 4 bunnies are in the back gardenin their bunny village Due to recent developments ( seeHELP in the rabbitry) I was thinking of keeping some ( all ?) of thewee ones in the house and it would be good to hear some of yourexperiences. How many do you have, do they each have theirown cage, are they free roam etc?

 

[KatyG]

I have two rabbits which live in mybedroom. They have the type of indoor cages intended forrabbits with a plastic base because it is easy to wipe down and keepclean. I got two of these cages and stacked them ontop of each other then made a hole for a ramp to come through so thatthey can both get to both floors.

I only let them run about when I am there but this isbecause I live in rented accomodation and I would get in trouble ifthey chewed the carpet or anything. When I have my own houseI would like for them to have their own little room to run about in. Iwould get an old carpet so they could dig at the corners if they wantedbecause all rabbits I have had seem to be obsessed with doing that.

The most important thing is to make sure they can't chew any electrical cables because they love to do that for some reason.

 

[Daffy]

Hi KatyG , the bunny in your avatar looksexactly like our bun, daffy, very cute I know what you meanabout cables. We had daffy and blacky in the house for twoweeks after they were spayed, bunny proofed the living room and hallwayand only let them out while we were around. They developedthis routine with one on distraction duty ( trying to pull the blinddown, eat the sofa, that kind of thing) whilst the other would runagainst the dining room door in an attempt to break in. Onlytakes them seconds from there to chew through the internetcable!! Very proud of themselves:bunnydance::bunnydance:

 

[Runestonez]

We have 5 bunns. 4 of them have theirown bedroom where they are free to run and play when they want prettymuch. Three are housed together in a big wooden hutch and thefourth (who we are trying to bond to the other 3) is in his own NIChutch in the same room with scheduled out time. Our 5th whois new to the house is in his own NIC hutch in the library fornow. Once our other male is bonded he will be moved into therabbit room as well. Once everyone has been bonded and theyall learn to get along they will have full run of the houseagain---with the exception of our bedroom cause I hate having to getbunnies out from under the bed!

 

[maherwoman]

We have two female buns, one small (just under5lbs) and one medium (we estimate she's about 7 or 8lbs now).They both have their own cage, as they're still young and are not yetspayed, and we aren't going to attempt bonding them until they've beenspayed.

Once they're both spayed and bonded, we plan on letting them have quitea large run of the house, but right now, they live in the cagespictured below (which I made from NIC cubes...quite easy andinexpensive!), and we let them out for as long as they wish eachnight.

We've actually changed things around a bit since this picture wastaken. We now have their bale of hay in that corner, and thecage that is there in the picture is now at the end of that wall (weshifted it to the left along the wall, basically switching it with thedesk that's in the picture). Actually, now that I look at thepicture again, we have Flower switched with Maisie's cage,too! Lol...how things change, eh?

 

[Daffy]

Wow, well done you bonding 5 I washoping someone would have a positive story with multiple buns. Do yourrabbits have to negotiate stairs or is it all on one level? I readsomewhere that stairs are dangerous for them and to blockwitha baby gate, but I know house bunnies who negotiate themreally well ( quickly too!!)

Thanks for your post, I know my mother will have a fit when sherealises I'm not only planning to keep all 6, but move them into thehouse too:foreheadsmack:Its nice to know that other people have done itand it all works well. ( with a lot of work probably but worth it if Itmeans I can keep them)

 

[Daffy]

maherwoman wrote:

We have two female buns, one small (just under 5lbs) and onemedium (we estimate she's about 7 or 8lbs now). They bothhave their own cage, as they're still young and are not yet spayed, andwe aren't going to attempt bonding them until they've been spayed.

Once they're both spayed and bonded, we plan on letting them have quitea large run of the house, but right now, they live in the cagespictured below (which I made from NIC cubes...quite easy andinexpensive!), and we let them out for as long as they wish eachnight.

We've actually changed things around a bit since this picture wastaken. We now have their bale of hay in that corner, and thecage that is there in the picture is now at the end of that wall (weshifted it to the left along the wall, basically switching it with thedesk that's in the picture). Actually, now that I look at thepicture again, we have Flower switched with Maisie's cage,too! Lol...how things change, eh?

I thinkthese NIC cages are great,vry flexible and you can decide your ownsize! I had a quick web search this afternoon but can't find anywherein the UK that supplies them or will ship If anyone knowsosf someplace please let me know. It must be nice having them run aboutyour feet when you're on the PC. Do they never try to investigate theback of it?

 

[Bunnys_rule63]

Daffy, Argos does those cubes, they're called'utility storage system'. You can only get them over the phone incertain shops though.:?

 

[Daffy]

Bunnys_rule63 wrote:

Daffy, Argos does those cubes, they're called 'utilitystorage system'. You can only get them over the phone in certain shopsthough.:?

Ah, so close...., they are on sale at the moment too according to thewebsite, but unfortunately none of the stores near me have any instock. Oh well, at least I have another name to search for.Thanks for that

 

[maherwoman]

Actually, we keep them inside a run made out ofNIC panels because we haven't fully bunny-proofed the house yet, andFlower is quite the cord chewer! It's interesting because wegot Maisie first, and Flower was a rescue from a neighbor a few monthsafter bringing Maisie home. We've had a whole new experiencehaving Flower, because the two of them are so different!

We are planning on bunny-proofing the house a bit more so they can runaround more, though. The only problem is the fact that wewould have to close off half the room, no matter how muchbunny-proofing we did, because the cats' litterbox and food is allalong one wall, and they will automatically eat clay litter pieces whenthey encounter them. I don't want a Bunny Blockage!

We just take the run and hook one side (with a metal clasp we bought ata hardware store) to the outside cage corner and the other side totheir cage door, and the rest we make a large circle out of.It takes up the whole room, and really only blocks off maybe two feetof space from each wall, so they pretty much have the whole room. We do have to be sure to keep it frombeing within a foot from the other bunny's cage when the one is out (ata time) because each one of them is quite cage agressive (especiallyMaisie) with those bunny hormones! Maisie gets so upset, it'squite clear she would bite Flower through the cage if shecould. I'm sure she wouldn't be able to, what with the meshwe have around each one of their cages (which has about 1cm openings),but it stresses both of them out so much, it's best to have thebuffer.

I love having them out, though...they're both suchcuddle-bugs. They love to lay down on the floor with me, withtheir face RIGHT in mine for nose snuggles and such. It'sreally cute!!

Daffy wrote:

Ithink these NIC cages are great,vry flexible and you can decide yourown size! I had a quick web search this afternoon but can't findanywhere in the UK that supplies them or will ship Ifanyone knows osf someplace please let me know. It must be nice havingthem run about your feet when you're on the PC. Do they never try toinvestigate the back of it?

 

[pinksalamander]

I think Will is becoming mroe of a house rabbit.My Mum let him out for 5 hours today while i was away at my Dad's. Sheeven put down one of our best china bowls full of food and a mug (yes amug :shock of water! And she said she wanted nothing to do with him!

 

[naturestee]

I have four rabbits, kept in two separatepairs. They're housed in large pens made of shelving gridsand they each have half of a bedroom for their pen. They'reallowed out in the living room for a couple hours twice a day, althoughI can't have both pairs out at the same time. Mocha hates theother two girls with a passion.

Before I made the huge pens, Mocha and Loki shared a large dog cratewith a shelf in it, and Fey and Sprite had a big cage made out of wireshelving grids.

Those shelving grids make awesome cages if you can get them!You can build different shapes and sizes, pens or cages, and you canmake multiple levels in the cages. Check out the Cages Onlythread for more examples of our cages.
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=1931&forum_id=21

And a thread on NIC cages (shelving grid cages).
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=15348&forum_id=21

 

[platinum charmer]

look at my bunny home!

it was a cell phone pic, sorry for the quality!

 

[turbotina]

My son & I adopted a bonded pair earlyJune this year. Tina & Turbo are brother/sister. They live in acage in our living/dining room. Get about 2-4hrs run time each day. Wehave it set up they can run in the living/dining room, upstairs and inthe upstairs hallway.

 

[luna21]

I have 2 girls and they live in my room!!:colors:

 

[katt]

i have 2 rabbits. until just unter a week agothe lived in NIC cages in my bedroom, but now that we cleaned out ourextra (and tiny) room, that has been made into the 'bunny room'.

i have done regular cages, dog kennels, exercise pens, and NIC cageswith these 2 rabbits and am very happy with the NIC cages. my oldrabbit trixie was basically free range, she was out when i was home(and sometimes when i wasn't depending on how much of an escape artistshe was that day).

 

[NZminilops]

I have two rabbits who live totally differentlives. Dodge is outdoors and free range although she has a hutch that Ican shut her into when I feel she needs the safety.

And I have BunBun who lives in the dining room. He did have a bedroomto himself but he was destroying the walls. He is in a cage I made fromtaking two chick raising cages and removing the bottom from each andsticking them together to make one large cage (hard to explain). I'lltake a pic tonight after I clean it out. It's got some rubber/plasticmatting I found that someone was throwing away as the flooring. He hasa litter tray which he doesn't really use as he is not desexed yet (tooyoung) a box to hide in and other things to play with. I try to let himout as much as I can but his spraying is getting so bad. Usually I tryto let him have some free time on the back lawn but I have to watch himlike a hawk as he is a real escape artist.

 

[ec]

Nibbles lives in my living room, which is whereI spend the most time (other than in bed!) when I'm home.She's got a large NIC house (with shelf for resting and jumping) and a36" puppy x-pen clipped onto that. She's also getting supervised freerun time in the upstairs hall and in the living room - am slowlyincreasing her "out" time in the latter, since she took to hiding underthe sofa at first. It was awfully hard to coax her out for the nightand/or when i was out.

but now I'm having to rethink things a bit, as she's jumped out of thepen two times in the past 3 days. The first time, she apparently cameright upstairs to find me and wake me up! (Very sweet, and also arelief to me - I'm not even allowing myself to think about where allelse she could have gone...) Late this afternoon she escaped to thekitchen, where I found her hiding under a small table. (There'srelatively new linoleum in there, which slows her down but doesn't stopher from getting around.) I'd like to be able to have her in my BR atnight, but:

1) she pees on the bed. (Too much temptation for one little bunny!)

2) She gets wound up about 2:00-3:00 a.m. and is generally prettyhyper, racing around, shredding newspapers in her digging box andmaking a ruckus. So I doubt i'd be able to sleep.

I *might* try bringing her into the upstairs hall when I go to bed,since she already enjoys playing there, and she'd be able to see andsmell me. (i'd want to keep her out of the BR, though.)

I don't know that this will work, so am also planning to go and buy afew boxes of NIC grids - if worst comes to worst, i'll build a fencefor my bed! I'd far rather have her nearby than having to worry abouther escaping and hurting herself - she's not a chewer; it's hercuriosity that might get her into trouble.

 

[Pipp]

Lessee...

Pipp (dwarf) is with me in my office -- which has become my bedroom bydefault seeing as I could never get out of here and gave up trying.

Radar (a bunny) used to be in my old bedroom which is nowaspare bedroom, and now he and his new(ish) friendDarry (amini-lop) have moved into the enclosed back porch (with a roommatemoving into the bedroomtoday, actually).

Dill (mini-rex) had the run of the house (except the two bedrooms) from the time he arrived. (He insisted on that).

Sherry (a dwarf cross) used to live in the spare bathtub but figuredshe'd get better digs if she bonded with Dill, so she made that happenand thus also has run of the house.

EDIT: Oh yeah,nobunny here even hasacage. (And I'm not endorsing this as a good idea!):rollseyes:

sas and thegang of five :bunnydance::bunnydance::bunnydance::bunnydance::bunnydance:

 

[Eve]

Both of my bunnies live in my bedroom. They eachhavetheir own4 levelNICcage.They have to take turns at free roaming(half a day each) as they are not fully bonded yet.