Baby holland and questions about habitat

[JumpinJax]

Hi, everyone! First, let me apologize for the length of this post. I am a new bunny mom and I will be picking up my baby Holland on Saturday. He is about 7 weeks old. Right now, he will be in a spare room that is tiled. His cage is a dog cage, I believe the dimensions are 42 long X 28 wide X 30 high. I also have an ex-pen that attaches to the crate for expansion. I’m wondering if I should confine him to the cage while he is little and working on his potty habits and then once those are pretty consistent, attach the ex-pen? Does a baby bun need more than that at the onset? He will be in the cage while I am at work. I leave the house at 7 am and I return at around 6 pm. Then I was thinking to let him romp for the remainder of the evening, but that would only give him 5 hours of romp time which doesn’t seem much to me. Maybe I should let him roam free between the cage and the ex-pen at night or should I let him roam free between the cage and the ex-pen during the day and put him in the cage at night? So many decisions!!!

I am also wondering about the floor of the dog pen. It’s that black pan but is that too slippery for a baby bun? I know that putting other soft material will confuse the litter training. Also, I’m thinking once I expand I’ll put those kid’s interlocking mats down and pray that bun doesn’t decide to chew on them. Any suggestions for flooring while the bun is still little? Thanks in advance!

[Wick & Fable]

Cheap rugs work well to get some traction. Like, $2 ones you can just buy. Make sure you monitor chewing/eating it though. Cardboard is an easy solution as well. You can add some boxes and flooring.

For the cage/xpen situation, I’d do xpen as the litter training confinement, and if it’s fairly large, that can be the permanent roam area as well until he is free roam. Rabbits need a lot of room! Also, seeing that there’s more in the room may encourage bar chewing, so maybe cover a few sides with fabric, but be careful your rabbit doesn’t use it to scale the pen sides, haha.

If the xpen is rabbit proof and he seems tame being in it, that can be the permanent night-time shelter, rather than all the way in the cage. I’d advise making the cage just a permanent open-door shelter, and shut him in if you need to clean or something else. Eventually, you may just let him be free-roam while you’re gone for work (which is what I do with Wick. He’s only in his hutch while I sleep).

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[JumpinJax]

Thank you Wick for the suggestions. I’m a bit worried about the carpet being that I’m not home for 11 hours out of the day. I can’t really keep my eye on him and he’s a baby so I’m sure he’ll want to eat it! Maybe for the pen I can Velcro a large Timothy may in one area? That would give him some traction but he may potty on it if it’s hay based. So you think I should just attach the ex pen now rather than wait until he is litter trained? Certainly not an issue because I have it already. I suppose I could do some cardboard on the floor. I just want to be sure he doesn’t get confused and potty everywhere in the ex pen. Thanks again for the suggestions, much appreciated!

[sarahthegemini]

You really shouldn’t confine your rabbit to a cage that small for 11 hours so definitely add the xpen and let him have that and his cage as his home base. Like Wick said, just keep the cage door open so he can come and go into the pen as he pleases. If you’re worried he might be a jumper, you could put a blanket or sheet over the top as a roof when you’re not there.

For flooring, perhaps you could get some (non slippy) tiles? I’d suggest fleece but he may pee on that. Hay mats can be good, but my Peanut weed all over his after he’d chewed it sufficiently so again, that might be an issue. I’d probably go with tiles.

[JumpinJax]

Okay thank you very much for the information. I went ahead and set up the ex-pen and attached it to the cage which gives bun an additional amount of space. It takes up a good amount of the room so I’m hoping he will be happy until he is allowed free range of the room without the pen. The tiles in the room are not really slippery in my opinion. They are kind of textured. So, I guess I really don’t need a lot of flooring then.

[Wick & Fable]

Majority of my place is vinyl wood flooring, so Wick runs into walls all the time, but with being with me for 9mo now, he’s learned and doesn’t mind. He consciously bumps into specific points in the wall to make his turns, because he knows the slipping degrees so well, haha.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Boston's Mama]

Mine has a pen permanently as his home , he comes out for cuddles ( since he is a cuddler) but he cannot run the house here for multiple reasons .
I have a pen I think is 2.5metres x 2.5metres in my lounge.
We are a big family so there is always someone home but he sleeps most of the day as bunnies do anyway so you’ll probably find yours Is mainly awake once you get home.

I agree with the others – attach the pen first step few days you’ll probably think we are silly as he will act baby like for a couple of days settling in given he is 8 weeks old – but once settled you’ll see why we suggested it

I have mine on a tarpaulin ( to catch any accidents ) and I have fleece blankets on top of that for traction. If you get a baby 100% polyester blanket in crib or single bed size you should be able to have it held down by your pens edges which will make the blanket not move around while he binkies etc.

My holland lop is now 8 months old and 3lbs and it works just as good now as it did at 8 weeks old.
He no longer has litter training accidents but I still have the tarp down as it catches any water bowl spills or if he (touchwood ) had a pee spill over side of litter box

[JumpinJax]

Haha Wick that’s too funny! I can just see him sliding all over the place. I’m thinking because the tile is textured then it won’t be so bad for Jax.

Boston’s mama it doesn’t seem silly to attach the pen! It actually makes sense. The only reason I was asking was mainly because I have the HRS book and they were suggesting to limit the space the first few weeks while the bunny is adjusting. I don’t think he will ever be free range in the entire house but I may let him free range in the room.

[Deleted User]

I’ve got the exact same dog crate for my buns but I never have the door closed. It’s more like a giant hideaway. They have the front room to themselves and only really go in the crate when someone else is sat in there and they want to be away from people. I don’t think it’s big enough to ever have shut like a cage. I’ve added another level to mine just so it’s a bit more interesting, it does take up some space but like I said it’s never shut so that doesn’t really matter. I’ve just put some thick mdf Halfway up and it has a ramp. It’s actually really good because the level helps to shelter them a bit and makes it darker and makes the bottom area cosy so they don’t feel as exposed. And obviously the top level just adds a bit of interest for them to climb up and down. The only things I have in the dog crate are a cardboard box, small litter tray, water bowls and a couple of hanging toys at the top. There really isn’t room for a lot of things. The metal tray at the bottom is covered with some linoleum, it’s really handy because it doesn’t slip around, they can’t move or chew it and it’s easily removable for cleaning. I agree with everyone’s advice that the xpen should be attached straight away and I think there should be permanent access.

One of the other things you should note about the dog crate is that it’s quite a jump for a rabbit to get in and the bar spacing is quite big. I was worried that my buns might jump over and they might not fully make it and their legs might get stuck and they’re fully grown so your baby may struggle. What I’ve done is got a carpet tile and cut it to size and cable tied it to the gap. You could use anything else you have on hand though as long as it’s covered. I’ve also put a wooded bridge going over it to just minimise them having to jump it all the time. I’ll try upload a picture later if that would help.

[JumpinJax]

Yes I’m worried about the spacing in general. I purchased some of that gauge fence wire to put around the cage, but I’m thinking I’ll need more to go around the pen and cage. I wouldn’t want my baby bunny to hurt his legs or to get his head stuck between the bars. I believe the spacing is only 1 inch so it should be fine but I’m just going to take precautions. Yes if you could post a picture it would be great! Where did you get the wooden bridge from? I do have one of those colorful fiddlestick hideaway that can be used as a bridge across. I’ll put something soft underneath and put the fiddlestick hideaway on top so that he can walk over. Thank you for all of the suggestions!

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