Where does your bunny roam?

[mdith4him]

Hi all,

Just curious about where your bunnies can go in your homes. Right now, my bunny has a cage that we keep him in when we're not home, but during the early morning and evenings, he has a large xpen to play/run in.

Recently, he's been standing up as tall as he can on his back legs right against the xpen walls and seems to be looking at the rest of the room (quite longingly!). I really want to let him out of the xpen to let him run around the living room/kitchen area of our apartment, but I'm not sure he'll be able to handle it. He's quite the nibbler (hence his name) and he WILL NOT let us pick him up (so I'm not sure how we would get him back in his cage when we need to go to bed). How long did you wait with your bunnies before letting them out into various parts of your home? What "milestones" did you want your bun to achieve before you were comfortable giving him/her that freedom (e.g. litter box trained, able to be picked up, spayed/neutered, etc.)?

 

[OneTwoThree]

Our house was fairly bunny proofed to start since it was toddler proofed prior. Both buns go in their pens at night, on their own, but have free run of the house all day (its split in 2 right now since they aren't bonded yet). Once they are bonded they'll have reign of the whole house together

ETA I started as soon as they showed they could go in their litter box. We've also had a few cord casualties that were my fault for leaving down, and I spray all the wood furniture with Fooey every couple of months.

 

[MiniLopHop]

I have two bonded pairs. One pair lives in my bedroom and the other pair in my office. I use a gate to keep them in their rooms. They do get more freedom with supervision, but I have to keep an eye on them or the boys will get into a pee war.

They needed to be litter box trained before having full access to the room. They are also all fixed.

Ican pick them up, but Houdini and Cinderella are also very good about putting themselves away when I point and tell them to "go home". Ghirardelli is just 6 months and a crazy man. When he gets himself upstairs to taunt Houdini it is hard to catch him. The boys like to stare at each other and pee on either side of the fence. I'm hoping that changes as Ghirardelli's hormones die down. Becky won't go out of the room even when the gate it down, unless I carry her.

Eventually I would like the boys to get along so we can have supervised play dates with all four together. Cinderella tendsto stealBecky's food, so they will never be able to live together, but it would be nice to have them play together. They are all fine in the same shopping cart when we go to the pet store.

I think the biggest thing is to have the area well bunny proofed before letting them roam free without supervision. We lost several cords to inadequate proofing before we started to look at things from Houdini's perspective. He LOVES to chew cords!

 

[mdith4him]

OneTwoThree wrote:

ETA I started as soon as they showed they could go in their litter box. We've also had a few cord casualties that were my fault for leaving down, and I spray all the wood furniture with Fooey every couple of months.

:? What is Fooey? One of the things I'm worried about is our furniture being chewed since that's practically the first thing he does with anything new!!

 

[OneTwoThree]

mdith4him wrote:

OneTwoThree wrote:

ETA I started as soon as they showed they could go in their litter box. We've also had a few cord casualties that were my fault for leaving down, and I spray all the wood furniture with Fooey every couple of months.

:? What is Fooey? One of the things I'm worried about is our furniture being chewed since that's practically the first thing he does with anything new!!

Its like Apple Bitter spray, except most bunnies seem to like apple bitter haha. Its absolutely disgusting stuff, it keeps them from chewing. You have to spray in a well ventilated area (windows open even) because you can taste it in the air for a little bit after you spray it *yech* I bought it at the local pet supply.

 

[Bugsy12]

Yeah, Hey

My rabbits (Oreo and LuLu) are in their cage and every 2 hours i let them out for an hour until 9:00 is their sleep time

 

[MiserySmith]

Peppy's cage is in a corner of our living room, we use grids from the side of his cage(3x2 C&C with an L level) to the back edge of the couch. He then has from the corner all the way behind the couch and down the hallway. I just put a bunny gate up in front of the doors so we can still access them but he can't.
He gets out in his pen for about 3 hours a day, everyday.

 

[Nitis3334]

My boy Cricket is only allowed free roam in my bedroom. I have 4 dogs and don't trust them not to hurt him. They aren't aggressive, just a little over enthusiastic and play to roughly. So I bunny proofed my bedroom and he has free roam from the time I wake up till I go to sleep, even when I am not home. I have a small bathroom attached to the room where I keep his litter box. I put him in his cage at night just because I worry if my pillow or blanket falls on the floor he will put a hole in it or chew pieces off and swallow it and get an impaction. My two cats usually hang in my room and they enjoy sitting with him and keep him company when I'm not around. I had to change the cat litter I was using though, I had originally used clumping litter but he started using the cats box too.

 

[qtipthebun]

Q has had her out-time in my room whenever I'm home since I got her. So, she gets several hours out a day, and if I'm just disappearing for less than 2 hours, I keep her out. If we're all sitting in the living room, I let her out into there sometimes, but it's not fully bunnyproof, so I only let her in there if we're watching her.

My room is well proofed, so there's really nothing she can do when she's in here (the furniture isn't nice, so I don't care if it gets nibbled), but I've trained her pretty well, so she doesn't really do anything devious. I waited to let her into the living room though until she knew wires weren't food and until she'd come when I called her, in case she went under the couch or somewhere where I couldn't grab her.

 

[BunnyButter]

I pretty much let butter run around as soon as she looked comfortable. She pretty much has full reign of my room. She goes back inside her cage to eat or take care of her business.

 

[lapaki]

My bunny, Zoom-zoom was restricted to my kitchen when I first got him. It was the easiest room to bunny-proof, since all the outlets are above the counter tops. I got a 36" Ex-Pen and cut it down to fit the wide opening. I cut one panel up and anchored part to each wall (right/left) then clipped 4 panels (including the gate) in between.

That left 3 panels unused. So when I want to use it as an actual Ex-Pen, I just un-clip the 4 panel part from the kitchen, attach it to the remaining 3 panel section, and have a 7-panel Ex-Pen for outside play.

I usually let the Zoomer out for free run of the house when I was home and able to supervise. He turned out to be very trainable, and it wasn't long before he learned where he could, and couldn't go (and what he could, and couldn't chew on). After that I just left him out all the time I was home, supervised or not, even while I was asleep.

In fact, he started sleeping with me at night, so I set up a 2nd litter box and feed station in the bedroom for him. When I go to bed I say, "Goodnight, Zoom-zoom, see you in the morning" and he comes running and hops up into bed with me.

Recently he seems to have learned that I brush my teeth right before going to bed, so when I exit the bathroom I'll find him already in bed waiting for me.

I still contain him in the kitchen when I leave, mainly to prevent him from zooming out the door. He's quite the adventurous bunny (always looking for new places to explore) and often rushes the door if I open it while he's out.

I used to be a Dog person, but after living with the Zoomer I can't imagine anything better than a bunny for a pet. He's awesome!

 

[lapaki]

Sorry, I didn't really answer some of the OP's questions.

Milestones were, litter box trained, and come when I call him (which works... most of the time). He is fixed. As far as picking him up goes, some days he likes it, and other days he wants nothing to do with it.

Most rabbits are very food motivated. Training them to come when you call them is usually pretty quick and simple. But if that fails, waving a treat in front of them and leading them back to their pen is a good backup plan (or simply stand in their pen and shake the treat bag, if they have learned that noise).

Teaching your bunny to tolerate being picked up is a matter of patience. Rabbits are prey animals, and as such most do not like to be picked up at first (Aggh! He's going to eat me!).

Start small. Sit on the floor and interact with him, then pick him up and quickly put him on your lap. Pet him or reward him if you can before he hops off, but praise him either way (maybe have some treats in your lap or hand as you release him). He should learn pretty quickly to get used to that small step. Then you can go from there.

The most important thing to remember is that rabbits do not like to be unsupported. Put a hand or arm under their feet when you pick them up. And if you are going to stand and carry them any distance, hold onto them. Some will hop out of your arms at the most inappropriate times (like when you are over the tile floor). So it's good to start low and work your way up.

 

[mdith4him]

Thanks for all the replies, everyone!

We're still trying to get Nibbles comfortable with being picked up. He's jumps away as soon as you get a hand under his belly! It's like he knows what's coming.

We need to bunny proof our living room first, so thanks for the ideas there. Both our sofa and love seat have tiny rabbit-sized crawl spaces under them--what type of barrier do you have up for that? Or do you let them crawl under there, too? I'm afraid he'd get under there and not come out. He doesn't respond at all to calling his name yet.

 

[JjGoesBounce]

Pembrooke is allowed to play everywhere in the basement for 2-4 hours every day. Over the weekend she gets 5-9 hours every day.
Jj

 

[qtipthebun]

Under the couch crawl spaces are the hardest thing to get her out of. I set up makeshift barricades (cardboard, roommate's DVD boxes...whatever I can) to make it so she can't get under or behind the couch.

 

[lapaki]

I have a Futon sofa-bed which has plenty of room under and behind it. Zoomer does like to hang out under the sofa when I'm watching TV, and will sleep behind it sometimes. He also runs behind it when he's in a "don't pick me up" mood.

But as I said, he's very food motivated, so it's usually not a problem getting him where I want him to go.

A common thing people use for bunny barriers are those storage cubes (aka NIC panels). You can build temporary or permanent barriers by either using the included plastic connectors, or just Zip tying them together. The advantage of Zip tying is that the barrier will fold up (like an exercise pen) when not needed. Avoid the one's at Target, though. The holes are too big on the Target cubes. K-Mart has them on sale quite often, and it's a good deal there (the ones I use are from K-Mart).

You could wrap the barrier around the sofa and love seat when he's out, and put it away when he's not. My friend, Kris has a really long one that goes all the way around her living room, to not only keep "Gozer the Destructor" from getting under the furniture, but also to keep him contained in that area and protect the rest of the house.

Here's a permanent barrier I built to block access to the back of my computer desk (for obvious reasons). You can adjust the height & width by overlapping panels. Those side pieces are for support, so it's self standing.