Bunny Breakout!

[BunnyAlly]

So overnight one of my buns managed to lift the VERY large, heavy door to their cage and get out! I don’t think it was very long just judging by number of poops most of which were located by the cage door. When I walked in the room they were nosing one another through the cage bars. Either Benni was trying to get back in or trying to help Lucy get out. 

I THINK that the only reason it happened was because I improperly latched the cage door. The doors are big. The cage itself is 160 cm long and I think each door is about a quarter of that in width. It”s a bit of a pain to get them latched properly on both sides and both buns are so teeny compared to the doors that I truly never considered it a possibility that they’d nudge it open. 

Naturally I’m going to be way careful about this from now on but I have a sinking feeling this is going to be a thing because they both worked on the door when I closed it for a few SECONDS to sweet up their cage flooring (this time trying to get in. They almost had it!)

Soooooooooo… my question is, should I place out “emergency” food and water for them in case this happens again? They live in a bunny room and I had closed the door to the living room so I wasn’t alarmed by them getting into anything dangerous, but I freaked out because I’d read that not eating/drinking can be dangerous after even a short while and watched him like a hawk until I saw him eat and poop. My first impulse was to put out pellets but I’m afraid this might backfire on me later when they are on limited pellets. Maybe they’ll try even harder to break out just for the pellets. Should I just bite the bullet and put up a secondary hay stand outside of the cage? I wanted to keep the hay centralized because I have a slight hay allergy. I break out on my hands when I handle it so I have to wear gloves when cleaning (which also make me break out just not as bad/fast. I have stupid hands.) But if it’s important I’ll do it. 

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

You could put some emergency food and water out-it wouldn’t hurt anything. See if it happens again, if it does they’ll be fed and hydrated and you’ll have some work to do to escape proof it; if it doesn’t you can stop later.

One day I came home and Rupert was out. My rabbits are old, and don’t jump. I have no idea how he got out-but he never did it again-so it could be a one time thing

[Bam]

Oxbow sells hay-cakes, they could be good as emergency food. They are compact little cubes of hay, no dust etc,

Bunnies can be proper little houdinis.

[BunnyAlly]

Thanks guys! Bam that is a GREAT idea. I’m coming up empty at the moment for a supplier to Germany, but I’ll keep looking and if I can’t find them from oxbow hopefully I will be able to find a similar producer over here.

[LBJ10]

Eh, putting food out might entice them to break out. That is, if your bunny is a little piggy when it comes to food.

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