How do you find your free-roam rabbits? too many places to hide

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Tweetiepy

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I was looking at pictures of rabbits lounging all over the house - I'd love to let mine free roam but we have too much hardwood & linoleum so it's too slippery for them and they hate it. But I was wondering how you manage to find your rabbits if they,re allowed to go anywhere? I'm sure they find hidey spots where you can't see them. Have they ever stayed hidden & out of sight?
 
Oh yes they find hiding spots ALL the time especially my female mini rex she seems to be the "Queen" of it, she like to go under neath my loveseat all the time so I "thought" I fixed that by putting metal grids under it, nope she figured out how to go IN my loveseat, so I had to put a nic panel gate around the sides and back of it and that seemed to work, any corner she can crawl in she will, the other day she crawed between my wall and fridge, the day before that she got behind my fish tank cabinet.
Trust me the buns will help you house proof, for the first couple of days after the newness of running free wears off and they start "getting" into stuff more, you just have to follow them or keep an eye on them and figure out a way to block areas off that is not good for them to get into.
 
Natasha Rabbitova (and Scone MacBunny before her) is free range in the house anytime I'm home. It's really not an issue, as she prefers to spend her awake time in the same room I'm in. On weekends, Natasha will hang out with me for the morning, then she'll disappear under my bed until about 5:00 or so. Scone used to do exactly the same thing.

Finding the bunny isn't a problem - I just shake the craisin box and say "treat!". Works every time.
 
MikeScone wrote:
Finding the bunny isn't a problem - I just shake the craisin box and say "treat!". Works every time.
That's what I was thinking reading the post. I can make my rabbits do almost anything with a shake of that craisins bag. They'll even go into a pet taxi for craisins!
 
My fiance and I spent time letting him get hisemfl in corners or under things. We watched him to see how he got in and where he liked to go that was tough for us to get to.

Eventually we found them all and rabbit proofed with pillows, building barricades (plywood under and around the entirety of the couch), and made use of bookcases in corners he normally tried to dig up.

He's only gets past our defenses every 2-3 weeks, which isn't so bad. And he's easy to find because once he gets in he can't get out. We follow the grunts!
 
food is always a good opener lol, Jenny doesnt hide from me though, she comes out from wherever she is as soon as I am present, but Peepers does find hidy places all the time...I just ask my BCs where she is and they will find her and point her out lol
 
butsy is just used to the house and doesnt really go many places anymore. she mostly hangs out my the toy basket or beside me :) , when she's good and ready she will go back in her cage for the night ! , she used to alwaaaays hide. i figured out there is no use trying to catch her to put her in her cage but wait until she decides its time !
 
When it was still new, she'd go behind the couch. But now that her forbidden areas are blocked off she prefers to stick to her favorite areas: napping in the open under the tv, or in her favorite corner (white nose is very helpful for visibility). And she's pretty well trained to come when called so I don't have to go chasing her around anymore.
 
I have a group of 3 (2 bucks and a doe) that free ranges my whole flat and I don't really have many issues. All of the flooring is either laminate or lino and they have no problems, though I have put a runner (is that what they're called? A long rug!) in the hall way and there's a rug in the living room so they don't go speeding through and end up injuring themselves (been there, done that, with a dog. £1,300 and a PTS case later, never ever again.) The rest of the place is lino and they have no trouble getting traction on that, even the super fluffy-footed giant. I don't have much furniture they could get under, just the sofa and my bed. The sofa has hardboard trim just underneath it to they can't get in there, and my bed now has a bunch of storage boxes underneath. That's more because I don't want them getting stuck as opposed to I won't be able to catch them, though. All I have to do is slam the fridge door and they dart into the kitchen waiting for veggies. :rollseyes The only problem I have is being woken up at stupid hours of the morning by a rabbit trying to shuffle under the duvet for snuggles!!
 
The great thing with photos is you can angle them to hide the elaborate rabbit protection systems e.g. the gates, mesh panels, strategicly placed cushions, boxes and books etc. that are just out of shot ;)
 
Mine are free roam when we're home, and they don't really hide anywhere - it's easy to find them lounging in the middle of the living room. Haha. We have blocked off all of the areas they might like to hide, like behind couches or the tv (mostly because there are wires that they can get into that run behind the couches and tv stand). Our living room and dining room are open to each other and they don't really hide anywhere. They're ok with the hardwood in the dining room, but don't hang out in there - they just run through to get from cage to living room.

They have a Maze Haven that they love to spend time in, so if they're hiding anywhere, it's almost always in there.
 
Houdini is our newest addition and we discovered he could get under the tv stand the hard way, internet went out. We didn't think he could get under there because neither of the girls could. With an angora rabbit we have discovered not to over estimate how small he really is, it's all fluff! Now the cord is replaced and the entry has been blocked.

When the rabbits are cuddling with us and decide they are done watching tv they will hop down from the chair/couch and put themselves back in their room. Way too cute and they taught themselves! The baby gate keeps them in the room untilss we are there to supervise.
 
Oh yeah, they can squeeze into the smallest spaces! Hannah is 5.5lbs with the biggest bum and she has squeezed under our couch - about 3" high. She knows better now and we don't even block it off anymore, but I wouldn't put it past her to crawl under there if we left her unsupervised overnight.
 

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