I can’t see the pic!

Anyway, my bunz usually get about 4 hours out time, divided btw Hugo + Bungee or Mabel out separately.
On weekends they often get way more out time if we are home.

Sophie has free run of my living room and kitchen area for about 2 hours a night when I get home from wrok and then on Saturday mornings I usually pull out some boxes and make her a cardboard castle with some baskets and other fun stuff we call “obstacle course saturday”. Fatty needs her excercise!

My bun is 24-7 free range though she has her condo when she wants to be alone. 

I own five rabbits and since my home is so big, they can’t be free range. So what I’ve done is create a massive play area for them to run around in. I have a bonded threesome and two (for whatever reason) like to be in their own cages although they will “visit” one another ‘s cage. In my play area I have 2 huge litterboxes, a cardboard condo box with two levels that they can run in and hide or go to the “upstairs” level and sit on top. They are cardboard tunnels, play toys, chew toys, two food dishes and a water crock. They can run, hop and binky to their hearts content (which is about 4 hours a day), then they go into their respective cages for the night. When I get home, I greet them, let them out of their cages whereupon they will hop into their playpen. I will sit down on the floor where they greet me and nudge my feet for bunny kisses. Then, they get dinner (fresh veggies) which they eat and then they play until it’s time for bed. Rabbits love rountine and it makes my life easier.

how do you get your bunny to be completely free range? Sophie is out for about 2 hours a night, but I have to watch her chewing at carpet, digging, chewing wires etc. Tell me your secrets!

Welcome MooBunnay!!  We’re happy to have you here!  I am sorry the picture is not showing up. It sounds like it is cute!  This picture thing is a bit tricky and we are waiting for an update in the software to make it more user friendly.    Do you have the picture hosted somewhere else like photobucket or were you trying to upload it from your computer?

Usually Rucy and Jack have free range when I’m around, and since both my husband and I freelance from home, someone is usually here, so they usually get 6 hours minimum.  Rucy would be 24/7 free, but she lives with Jack who can get into carpet chewing fests sometimes.   They go in spurts of true exercise though. Sometimes they come out and just want to lounge in a new place for a while, then they go exploring, or I offer a box or tubes to explore get them moving.

Right now, since we moved, Jack has refused to leave the room he’s in.  First, he wouldn’t leave his pen, now he won’t leave the room  I’ll be updating his blog with his progression.  It’s kinda of funny!

Also, since we have moved, I have had to limit the exercise time of my 3rd rabbit, Bailey, because she wants to mark up the new place, so I have been forced to be right there and retrain her to understand where "her" place is and that the rest of the place is "ours" or neutral which is where they are not allowed to mark.   She’s a stubborn bunny, but she’s getting there – slowly.  But right now it’s about an hour at a time and as she gets better with marking, I allow more free time.  Really rabbits should have a minimum of three hours, but because of her stubborn marking habits, we are progressing slowly with exercise time

But their pens are pretty spacious, so it’s not like while they are in their pen, they are confined and can’t run and do binkies.

The million dollar question!   I have had two bunnies in my life that were completely free range.  They didn’t chew on carpet or things that I cared about, and they were perfectly litterbox trained.  They took to training (limiting free time until they got it, slowly progressing with the amount of space they got as well)

I covered my cords with that corrugated plastic tube covers, and wiped perfume on areas that are usually desirable for bunnies to chew, like edges of carpet, furniture legs, etc.  I offered other distractions, like boxes, toilet paper rolls filled with hay and a treat, and phone books.  That solved the problem for those bunnies.

THEN, there are other bunnies, like Jack and Bailey.  Jack is perfect with his litterbox habits, but likes to find a flaw in the carpet to rip up, even if I have a million distractions. However, I am discovering that he might be doing this to get my attention.  I think I have accidentally trained him this way.    I used to go offer him something to play with and sit with him and pet him when he would chew on the carpet, and uh…that may have been a duh move, but eh….that’s what I did.  So now, he’ll come right over near me and start chewing on carpet.    So now I’ve been trying to give him more one on one attention before any of that, and send him back to his pen immediately when he chews (limiting his freedom).  I am hoping he won’t see his pen as punishment, only that his freedom is limited.   We’ll see

 And Bailey, isn’t destructive at all, but she will want to leave her mark with poop.  So I am training again with her.

The younger they are, the more trouble they get into!  Many times they mellow with age.

Try some of the tips I talked about at the beginning.  House Proof and offer distractions.

bunnies4ever,

What a great set-up.  It sounds so good, I want to live there!

During the work week, I generally let Hareiette out from about 5 – 9 pm and then let Viktor and Dori out from 9 pm until we go to bed (usually 1ish).

On the days we’re home, Hareiette’s out all day and Viktor & Dori get out all evening (we’re usually up really late)

Sneaky Sophie!!!    Just like a child!

Just wanted to follow up- I did try the perfume with the corners that Sophie is always digging at and it worked. I just used a light body spray and she doesn’t go near them anymore. One more step to being free range! yea!!

i know no one will believe this…. but Fujoe is a free range bunny during the day.. even when I”m not home. I let him out in the morning as I’m getting ready for school, and I only put him back in at night before I go to sleep.. otherwise I would hear him running through the apartment.

i know, crazy, right? he doesn’t destroy anymore..

That is awesome!!! Especially with his history, and those of us that were here when you first posted know the hell you had to go through with Fujoe’s evil alter ego.

My first bunny was completely free range too. Once he got passed his destructive stage, he was free range like Fujoe.  

Rucy  & Jack could be free range if it wasn’t for Bailey as they have to trade time out.   But also, ever since we’ve moved they love their new pens and play area that they end up hanging out there during the day even when I did let them explore.  It’s at night that they usually venture out passed the room to explore and get more affection.

Wow!  Fujoe free range?  I never would have bet on it.  Congratulations!  As good as Sable is we don’t trust him to be loose when neither of us is home, but even when we are home he usually hangs out in his pen 95% of the time that he could be wandering.

Ya, I know it’s crazy, right? I mean, he’s only allowed free rang of the living room, dining room and hallway.. I still constider that free range though.. it might not be compared to some people. He’s not allowed in the bathroom- only if one of us is inside then he can hop around. It’s really cute, if someone has taken a shower, and there’s clothes on the floor he’ll get really angry at the clothes and start digging at them and tossing them around. He’ll jump on a shirt and dig at it so he pushes it through behind his back legs. It’s so odd. Or he’ll go after the bottoms of our jeans- when we’re wearing them.

The kitchen is blocked off because he’ll find something in there that he doesn’t like and start tossing it around… like the wine bottles in the recylcing blue bag on the floor.

The studio is off limits because of all of the toxic stuff in there- that’s a no brainer. I use paint and moldmaking materials which are all over the place and my boyfriend works with electronics, so it’s a bunny’s paradise in there.

The bedroom is blocked off too because he would get under the bed and stay there, and we couldn’t get him out. The wires in there aren’t bunny proof either.. he got in there once and I lost a phone charger.

So, other than that he’s free range. I can usally see him at all times and see his binkies. I mean we did have to staple cardboard to all of the baseboards.. so the apartment doesn’t look that great, but he can’t chew on them anymore than he has. He goes after the cardboard pretty hard- but that’s ok- cardboard is easy to replace. The chiars under the dining room table need to be pushed in at all times or he’ll jump up on the table. I mean it’s little things to remember, but he seems happy.

He’s calmed down a lot since the operation, and he’s getting better with age. I’ve noticed now that he lounges more and more. One of his favorite spots is actually in his pen. So even though his xpen is open, he’ll stay inside his fort.

I’m kind of not looking forward to it when we get him a friend and have to deal with some other bunny problem…Fujoe was enough

Fujoe must enjoy having most of the house to roam 🙂 it sounds like the cardboard on the baseboards was a great idea!

ya, I think it was a last resort type of thing. My boyfriend bought some aluminum flashing to screw into the baseboards, but we never got around to it. That and we’re renters… I’m sure if I was in my permenant home I wouldn’t want cardboard everwhere… maybe do the aluminum flashing and try to go with a contemporary/minimalist decor so it would look like part of it.. or work on removable/replaceable natural baseboards… because Fujoe would only eat the paint.. not the wood part of it. But hey, we might not need to worry about that for the next apartment… a friend who bunny sat him over summer said he didn’t touch the baseboards- well just a little, but really not the the extent of my place..