Personally, I wouldn’t let a bunny free roam most of the house until after their behavior stabilizes post-spay/neuter. I understand that Samson is doing pretty well right now, but I’d guess that it’s because he’s still quite young. If unwanted behaviors started to creep up as he hits the “teenage” phase, I’d feel bad decreasing his amount of free space if he’s used to a lot of freedom. Of course, that’s not to say that they shouldn’t have a lot of freedom when they’re still young; I’d just keep it to a manageable area.  

Some bunnies actually never exhibit the notorious teenage behavior, like Tammo – he was free roaming by the time he was 1 yr old or so, although he wasn’t neutered (we didn’t know about it back then). Remi is probably just about a year old now, and I think my parents just started leaving his cage open 24/7; he has a bit of a carpet problem but great litter box habits.

Mine are locked up at night, but free range as long as we’re home. I’ve had Otto for two years and I would trust him completely free roam, but that’s because he has 100% perfect litter habits and never chews anything (he’s also a chicken and doesn’t figure out how to get past my bunny proofing).

I’ve had Hannah for a year and I still don’t trust her. She marks occasionally (though almost always in her cage) and loves to jump on things and get past my bunny proofing. I just wouldn’t trust her overnight, for the most part.

I personally wouldn’t let a bun be completely free roam until they are at least fixed – you don’t want the teenage months to hit and not be prepared. You could come home to a chewed up house and pee everywhere. I would also give the bunny more and more room, while leaving them out for longer periods of time, before going completely free range. It would take me months to get to that trust level.

I think most members here don’t have completely free range bunnies, but instead keep them locked up overnight, or at least in their own room where some damage is expected and there isn’t anything to get into.

I was going to ask a similar question and you beat me to it! Hodari is confined to one room of our house, which makes me sad, but at least it’s right next to my husband’s office so she sees him and hears him often; it’s better than being completely sequestered, but I hope to eventually give her more freedom if it’s safe to do so. The thing I worry about is her small size. She can easily be stepped on because she moves so fast and quietly. For that reason, and the likely improbability of us being able to bunny-proof every area she could possibly squeeze into, I doubt she’ll ever be given full run of the house. My husband is a bit careless at times about watching where he’s going, and we have a clutzy dog to worry about, too. I think with a bigger bunny it would be easier, but maybe it just depends on the bunny and how your house is designed, etc….

Good question keep us posted on what you decide to do and how its going.  I actually just tried an experiment last night of letting the girls out of the pen without the second gate up that defines their play area because I wanted to see how well they behave because hopefully I’ll be upgrading from the apartment to a house by September and I want to give them a bunny room.  They will be 1 year old at the end of next month so maybe now that they are “big girls” they will be able to roam the house without gates while I’m home.  They were actually pretty good but it was hilarious to watch them go into the other side of the room that they weren’t normally allowed in.  They would take a few steps over the “line” and take a few sniffs and bound back to the other side to reassess the situation.

I think you need to wait as well until he is matured and neutered. Partly for his own safety.

Currently all my rabbits are confined to their own space except Bobby who is free roam day and night and prior to that Pepe (who has passed away). I’ve always had a free roam rabbit. I have no idea really how old Bobby is since he was dumped at a rescue but the vet thinks he was about 2 years old so that makes him probably 3 years old now.

He pretty much made himself free roam – initially I kept him in a pen, he escaped, then his cage (which I hate but he is tiny so I kept him there when I wasn’t home) and then just decided he was good on his own and put a baby gate in the door of the rabbit room where the other rabbits are so he wouldn’t torment them.

I have a two story home and while he initially started on the bottom floor, he much prefers it upstairs so I moved his food and litter box up there – funny that was the way it was with Pepe also.

Bobby goes downstairs at least once a day though to check it out and then he’s back upstairs (under the bed, which I hate, but I haven’t blocked it off yet) or in his little room where his hidey houses are.

He has very good litter box habits. I don’t have any dogs or cats and I wouldn’t with having a very small free roaming rabbit or any other size free roaming rabbit.

It’s far too early for Samson to be free roam. Limited time without supervision might be all right in a fully bunny-proofed space (like you have to take a shower or run up to the corner store for something), but for complete free roam, you want to wait until after he’s neutered… AND possibly… until he’s out of the “teenager stage” at about 8-12 months… He is still so young that those good habits will mostly be gone within the next 2-3 months.

With that said, my buns are not (and never will be) free roam at night.  I feel safer knowing that they are contained in their pen in case of emergency.  I couldn’t imagine having to evacuate quickly and not being able to find my rabbits!  Their pen is very large (4×8 feet), so I do not feel bad having them confined at night or if I am gone for an extended length of time.

Koucha always had run of the entire living room at my old house. She was a sprayer, only a little bit, but I always cleaned up the carpet mess.

After being spayed, her habits are great (except the occasional poo to mark my room as hers!). I’ve began to allow her out during the day while I am at work. The bedrooms are off limits. So she gets the sunroom, living room, hallway to herself while my dad and I are out of the apartment. Most of the time, it is during the day, so all that Chacha does it snooze.

I would wait until Samson is neutered, just to be on the safe side

He might not go through a bad period – Otto didn’t. However, some bunnies become chewing and pooping machines and really can’t be trusted out on their own until they calm down. The things I would worry about him getting into are wires, mostly, or eating things he shouldn’t (baseboard, walls, furniture, etc). Some bunnies also decide to start marking on couches and things, which would be annoying to come home to.

Otto never jumped either, which is why he’s pretty safe out by himself. After getting Hannah he will now jump on one of the couches, but just hangs out and jumps off. Hannah is a big jumper and if left to herself I have no doubt that she’d be on the couch and jumping off the other side to the bunny-proofed areas where the cords are. She will also jump the NIC barriers we have if she’s bored, while Otto has never done this. I don’t want to worry about her when I’m not around, so it’s just safer to keep her locked up. When I’m home, I can supervise and she listens well when I tell her to stop something.

Also, as Beka pointed out, it can be dangerous if there is an emergency over night (or while you’re out) and you can’t find him. In a scary situation he would probably get into the smallest space he could find. If they’re caged, or at least in one room, you’ll know where to look to get him out.

Well, normally rabbits go through their puberty at around 10 months old so they can lose their habits again – not all do, but it happens frequently and neutering unfortunately doesn’t stop that from happening.

One thing I’ve found with small rabbits is that they can get under anything including ottomans and dressers and anything else. They may do that in the beginning out of curiosity. Bobby did but he doesn’t now – he does still run from me and he’s next to impossible to catch. My big rabbits were much easier to catch if needed and while they could get under the bed, they couldn’t get under much else.

You will need to rabbit proof the wires because most rabbits never get over chewing wires.

Rabbits also have the unique ability to chew walls. They can actually chew a large hole through drywall in the time you’re away at work or school. This is, of course, an issue as far as your electrical goes too. Not all buns do that, but many will chew baseboards, cabinets, sofas, and furniture legs, so it’s not just about whether or not there is carpet to tear up.

In your initial post, you asked our advice on what age free roam would be appropriate. We gave you a pretty consistent answer that you should wait until after neutering. While not stated, this includes giving about a month or so for healing and hormones to decrease. So, at least 5 weeks from now. Or… you can allow him free roam immediately if you want. As with any topic, the advice you receive might not fit what you want to hear (as seems to be the case); you don’t have to take our advice, but we just don’t want you to have a bad situation later on.

Can you have a larger xpen space for him when you cannot supervise?

Another thing to take into consideration is that bunnies and young children need supervision when in the same space, for the safety of both. I didn’t realize you have a child, but for that reason alone, I would not recommend free roam.

Our first bunny was around for the first year of our son’s life and it was a constant battle to clean up poops that had gotten kicked out of the litterbox, and make sure the baby did not leave things around that the bunny could get to.

With our second bunny, my son was older (4 years old) but she did not like him, so I always had to supervise and keep them at a safe distance.  Now that he is older (almost 8), I’m more comfortable allowing him to interact with them when I’m not around, but it takes a long time.

This is a good article: http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-3/age-related-behavior.html

Oooh, and this… http://www.rabbit.org/journal/2-9/rebel-with-paws.html

Otto is a holland. He’s just a chicken in general and doesn’t like hardwood floors any more than he likes jumping. I’m pretty sure he never would’ve learned to jump on the couch if we didn’t get Hannah. She’s fearless and he learned to jump up by watching her, but is still much more cautious – the first few times he came up I put a box down so he could use that as a step. He’ll now jump onto that couch (the shorter one) but almost never jumps onto the higher couch. It took him a while to learn to jump out of the xpen too over that 4″ doorway. Hannah will jump over an NIC barrier, but Otto doesn’t even consider it. I think it’s just a bunny personality thing, and not a breed thing.