Cage vs No Cage

[Benny&theJets]

My fiancee and I adopted an adorable baby bunny last spring and ever since he’s turned our lives upside down and inside out and back and forth…all for the better…except for the carpet. Anyway, we had him in a cage in the beginning and then eventually transitioned to free roaming and now he basically has run of the whole house at all times. We still have his cage, which remains open and it is still the place he gets fed, has a litter box (one of 2 throughout the house), his water, and his frozen water bottle for hot days. My question is whether or not it’s ok to get rid of the cage now that he’s not confined to it or is it still considered “home base” for him? And furthermore, is it stressful on the bunny to move his things around? I’m a bit of a quarterly furniture mover which means sometimes his things get moved in the shuffle as well. Just trying not to make things harder on him. Thanks in advance for all the support!!

[Sarita]

I have a free roamer – I live in a 2 story townhouse and he goes up and down the stairs.  No cage at all.  His room is an odd open area type room upstairs.  I’ve attached his set up.  There’s no furniture in this room at all.  Of course there is furniture elsewhere in my house and I’ve never rearranged it but I think if I did, he’d be okay with it – maybe he’d thump a few times but he’d adjust.

 

[Benny&theJets]

Thanks Sarita! I think I’m convinced to ditch the cage but my fiancee isn’t so much. He thinks it would be confusing to take away the only constant he’s had in our house since he arrived, which I guess I understand, but I still think it’d be ok. Our bun seems to adjust quite well. Personally I think it’s my fiancee that doesn’t adjust well to change lol.

[Sarita]

Too funny – I bet you are right about the fiance :~)

I think if you start by at least keeping his litter box where it is initially maybe that will make the transition easier and maybe that will make the fiance happy too.

And honestly it will be so much easier for you to clean his area – I hate cleaning cages and exercise pens….I do clean Bobby’s area every morning – I vaccuum because that’s just really all I need to do. I put his veggies on one of those place mats I found in the cat section but I think any plastic place mat would be good and probably would be more attractive but they don’t seem to make those anymore.

I use a bowl for Bobby’s water – you said you use a bottle, not sure what you can come up with to hang his bottle on unless you can transition to a bowl which is so much easier to maintain in my opinion.

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