Cage change

[Benson2]

Two weeks ago, my partner and I adopted a 1.5 year old Netherland Dwarf bunny we named Benson. Benson came with a small triangular cage which we used for the first two weeks.

Benson spends the day in his cage whilst we are both at work, and in the evenings he has free run of our lounge room with us. He would be excited for us to come home and when we opened the door to his cage he would come straight out, only ever returning to go to his litter tray or access his food/water.

On the weekend, we purchased him a larger, two story cage. He now does not want to leave the cage. As soon as we open the door he doesn’t move, and when we pick him up and take him out, he goes straight back into the cage. He is like a different rabbit!

Previously he would sit on the couch with us, and roam around the room investigating everything. We tried to close the cage door when we had him out but he kept going towards the cage and trying to figure out a way to get back in.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what we can do to encourage him to be more social with us like we was previously? He has been in the new cage for 3 nights now. We are contemplating selling the new one we just purchased and using his old small one again, however we are concerned that he will be negative towards going back to the smaller cage.

[Sarita]

I think the best thing would be to allow him to enjoy his cage for now…he will eventually come out again and be more sociable – I would not go back to the small one.

I think too that the behavior he had initially was curiosity and now he’s feeling a bit more comfortable and his behavior is probably going to be more like a normal rabbit.

Just allow him to get resettled and come out on his own terms. I know it seems like he’s snubbing you, but he’s not.

[Pipje]

You could get an xpen to attach to the front of the cage, that way he can still come and go into some exercise room when he feels like whilst still feeling like he is in his own safe place. Plus it is just better to have a more spacious living area like that even if he is only in at night (2nd stories in a cage don’t count for floor space). I wouldn’t put him back in the smaller cage,unless you can attach an xpen to that so he has more room.
Do you sit on the floor when you let him out? The best thing to do is lie or sit down on the floor with some treats in your hands or on you, and he may be curious enough to come and explore again.

[Author]

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