Jumping over barriers

[Ellie]

Hi all,
First I'd like to say thanks so much for all of the help you've all given me so far! It has really helped me, being a first time rabbit mommy and all.

I just have a question about barriers in his "exercise" room. His cage is in a dining room, and he gets about 4 hours or more of running time a day.
He always peers over the barriers we put up. I need to get some of those baby gates or something, but I haven't had time to get into town and look around for them. So, for the mean time he has a piece of wood on 1 door and boxes and his carrier on the other. Yesterday, he decided to try to hop over the wood... he got his front paws stuck on the top and flailed around his feet. I had to lift him off and it totally freaked me out! (But he seems to be not hurt and happy). Then, being the little smarty-pants he is, he somehow pushed his carrier out of the way. He got out into the rest of the house. Luckily I always watch him while he's out, so I walked around with him.
But, now he's continuously trying to get out of the barriers and jump over them. I'm thinking even if I get baby gates they aren't going to be high enough for him... he's quite the jumper now.
Does anybody have any suggestions for this? Or is this him hinting that he's ready to be a free roaming rabbit? He didn't poop around at all while he was exploring yesterday. I opened up 1 room this morning (was going to try to do it gradually) but he still keeps peering over the barrier into the next room.

Thanks!

 

[agnesthelion]

I have a climber and a jumper too! She scares the crap outta me. And it's almostnlike they get obsessed with the area you are trying to block.

I have no specific ideas other than building higher walls. But of course getting the feet stuck could still be a risk and that is scary!!

Unfortunately Agnes free time has had to be cutndown to more supervised free time just until I can brainstorm a solution or I'm confident she won't get hurt.

 

[wendymac]

How high is the wood that he tried to scale? Is he a Rhinelander (hard to see in your little avatar)? If so, that seems to be a popular pick for people doing bunny agility. If he's not going to the bathroom when roaming, and you're always watching him when he's out, then I don't see the harm in giving him more of the house to play in. He sounds like he's on Let's Make a Deal...let's see what's behind door #2! lol

 

[Ellie]

Yeah, he's definitely at the stage where he gets obsessed about the blocked areas... heh. He gets more room and then just heads straight for the barrier.

The wood is only a little shorter than his house (which worries me), which is 2 storage cubes high. I'm not good with measurements so I can't guess haha
And I'm honestly not sure what type he is... It looks like he's similar to the google images of Rhinelander's though. Here's a picture of him the other day (because everybody likes pictures!)

 

[ZRabbits]

Gorgeous Bunny. Absolutely perfect butterfly. His coloring is a work of art. And his pride definitely shows in that pic.

Thanks so much for sharing.

K

 

[BabyRue]

My little Silver Marten seems to be the master of climbing and jumping. The other day I found her climbing the book shelf in the living room. She was on the second shelf(about 2 feet off the ground). Little brat.

I have had to use my dogs kennel to block off an area then the box that the kennel came in. So its about 3ft tall. I am lucky the shape of her play area is walls on 3 sides and just a small area that I need to box off.

Though she seems to be on a mission now to make it over the new area. So the next step is going to be an x-pen and we are going to modify it in a way we add a top to the pen that slants in at an angle so she can't jump or climb out. I am horrible at explaining things. I hope this makes sense. If I can't find a way to angle it in so she can't jump out I am going to try and come up with a mesh cover. I want to make the pen large like 12x12 or so. I want her to be able to run around lots. I am limited on my bunny proofing as I rent an apartment so permanent proofing is not overly easy.

I do have to say your bunny is adorable. You can see how much character he has in his face. I love him!

 

[wendymac]

I think that each cube is 12" high, which means he's clearing 2' already. I think baby gates are usually around 3' high. Try to get something as high as you can, and hope that 2' is his max jumping height. LOL

He's really cute! I'm not familiar enough with the other breeds to say for certain, but he sure likes like a Rhinelander to me.

 

[majorv]

He could be a Rhinelander mix.English Spots have somewhat similarmarkings, but are about 2 pounds lighter than aRhinelander. I know Spots (and I think) Rhinelanders are a running breed so himtrying to jump over an obstacle isn't a surprise.

 

[Ellie]

Hm, that's pretty interesting. It makes me feel a little better that it's in his nature and he just doesn't hate me or something.

He has gone INSANE now though... jumping up like 3 feet onto a non-stable surface just to get upstairs, jumping onto a paper towel roll just to get over it (again not stable...) arggg. Finally got some stuff today so hopefully that helps. I definitely agree about them getting obsessed about blocked off rooms though. Gr!

And he is 6.2 pounds my vet just told me.

 

[BabyRue]

Someone seems a little determined to explore lol. I am ready to set up a camera to catch Rue in the act of getting out of her play area. The other day she somehow managed to get over the barriers she has that are over 3ft and she is just a little over 2lbs. I heard a rattling noise and didn't think much of it. Next thing I knew my little bun was bolting down the hall and got into my bedroom under the bed. Thankfully she comes when she is called or when she heard the box of treats shaking lol.

We should all set up cameras on our bunnies to watch their escapes then send it into one of those silly home video shows lol.

 

[Ellie]

That is a great idea. Hahah. Mine's seemed like quite the magician too... escaping out of (what seems like) impossible barriers.

We still can't figure out how he would have figured out some of them!

Crazy bunnies :headsmack

 

[PaGal]

Thumper has started this just the past week. One day he got a paper off the kids table that is in his room. I assumed he stood uo on his back legs and reached. I removed all items but later found him sitting on one of the chairs.

A few days later he jumped over a four foot piece of cardboard blocking his access to behind a chest freezer in his room. He refused to stop jumping back there. We quickly fixed the problem but he still kept trying.

Today he forced his way past some more cardboard blocking a different area. I simply now let him back there. I wanted to keep him out when we first got him as we cannot reach him easily.

Funny thing is, two doorways are blocked with baby gates that are only two and a half to three feet high but he doesn't attempt to jump them, maybe because it is laminate flooring on the otherside. Anyway, the gates lock to the wall by pressure. I will be buying two more tomorrow just for when we are not home. They will then be placed directly above the other gates making a very tall gate to get across. They are very easy to put up and take down and cost only $11.00 at Target. When I am home I will use one to block off my bedroom because now he races me to the door and I spend a lot of time getting it through to him he is not coming in with me. That is until he decides he'll just jump the gate.

 

[Ellie]

Wow, $11?! Are they just normal baby gates?
The cheapest I could find were $45, from Wal-Mart. I had to get 3 of them so we decided to go with those foam flooring puzzle pieces... it seems to be working as of right now.

Good luck with everything! I know how frustrating it can be...

 

[housetb]

Seems like you got it figured out which is good.

I saw this post listed and I stopped to check it out because one of my rabbits liked to jump over the same kind of barrier you had set up. My wife and I use those cube shelving panels, and before my male rabbit was neutered we separated him from our baby mini-rex. Well, they both always tried jumping over the middle barrier that blocked their cages, being fairly successful each time. Typically they had to get up on something before they would attempt jumping over (although Babs, our mini-rex got really good at jumping and climbing).

Long story short, once we got our male rabbit neutered we had to keep him confined to his cage for healing purposes. He decided 2 days after his surgery to JUMP over the barrier and his right back paw just missed getting over. He seemed fine at the time and just went about his normal hopping, but a couple weeks later we started noticing his back legs were limp and he was kinda falling over when he would hop. Turned out he injured his spinal cord when he took that leap across the barrier. He's fine as far as normal eating habits and health, but he does not hop anymore. He mostly scoots around.

Just make sure you watch more closely to your rabbit and try to find something that will make him not want to attempt jumping over. I would hate for something like what happened to Rupert happen to any other rabbit! Its really sad to watch him sometimes, but thankfully it was not any worse.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Our little boy Finn jumps over the baby gate, so we put a couple of tall boxes on the other side--cardboard is so versatile!