Can we spoil these bunnies any more???

[Liza]

So, my husband and I have decided to leave the bunnies out all night. Dancer is the ‘culprit’. After we got back from our 3-week-vacation (never again will we stay away from home for so long!), we noticed that we couldn’t get any good sleep anymore. I have this thing, I can’t sleep without being in the same room/bed as my rats. We currently sleep with one rat, but we used to have four of our free-ranging rats with us in the bedroom. I know how weird this sounds, but that’s just what we got used to. They crawl up into bed with us, curl up on my belly or right next to me and we all get some good sleep. Anyway, we kept waking up because we would hear loud KATHONK! noises from the kitchen and we would wake up thinking someone had broken in. Dancer, of course. We still don’t know what he would bang around but it surely was really loud (our bedroom is wall to wall to the dining room on the other side of the house).

To cut a long story short, Velvet and Dancer get to stay outside in the dining room/kitchen from around 5pm (when I get home from work) to 9am (when my husband leaves the house to go to work). That’s 16 hours every single day. On weekends, they get to stay out from Friday 3pm to Monday 9:30am. I don’t even know why we have that huge x pen set up in our dining room. Might as well take the whole thing down and leave them out at all times…

We have a babygate up to the living room so they can’t get into trouble. They don’t jump up high; they are older.

It is so nice, every single morning so far, I sneak around the corner to peak into the dining room and one of them is doing binkies! I wake up around 6am, right when it starts to get lighter outside and I always see a little bunny-butt up in the air BINKIEBINK! I love that!!!

Just had to share this with you guys. My in-laws think we are way overboard with our animals (rats sleeping with us, gigantic cages everywhere in the house, bunnies occupying the most spacious part of the house, no human grandchildren…).

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

LOL Sounds like a perfect setup!! No matter what the in-laws think I think thats sweet your ratties sleep with you

[Sage Cat]

IMHO – It is not possible to spoil a pet to much!

But then, I don’t have kids . . .

[Beka27]

aw! i think that’s great!

[bunnytowne]

OH spoilt spoilt spoilt.  Cotton’s cage is by me on the couch.  The only place I would put it is there where I like it or in front of the wall a/c which I don’t want them there.

They have 2 willow tunnels 2 boxes 3 litterboxes baby gates and 2 xpens and that is just the living room along with my computer desk 2 couches eating table 2 chairs. Oh plus   the fresh litter container and the hay container and the food container too.  When hubby uses the chair to sit in it makes it hard for me to get to Cotton to get him to bed. Hubby has to move.  The buns take up more space than we do.

Then a litterbox in the bathroom a washer in the corner i don’t use anymore  a cardboard box with a phonebook food dish and grass hut to chew.  oH plus the paperbag and HB’s own personal towel he has been chewing holes in . I don’t know how we do it. But yep us humans live here too and manage to get from one place to another in here.  Oh and the baby gate at the bathroom door and 5 shower curtains to keep the heat out of the bathroom for HB to not get hot in there. OH and don’t forget the water dish to the side of the toilet paper.  Just in cage HB plays with it again and wont get it all wet. 

[bunnytowne]

OH yeah and  the boxes and willow tunnels are in front of the wall a/c so when I go to open or shut the blinds or windows I got to maneuver through that. Plus when I go to computer I have to move the xpen out and move their boxes to get to my computer and chair.

At the other place was so crowded we had to move sideways like crabs to get from the front door to anywheres else in the house.  My son was staying with me and got on me about it we laughed so hard doing the crab walk.  So I got rid of 3 pieces of furniture oh but I hated to. At least then we could walk down the hall ways forward and throught the front door and living room forward without doing the sideways crab walk.

We have more room where we are now. Thats a relief it.  My friend said oh this is much bigger than your other apartment. That was b4 we moved in here.  It didn’t look it but it sure is a good bit larger.

[Liza]

K, I just talked to my husband. Today, I left the bunnies out. I went volunteering for 5 hours, left the house, left the bunnies out in the dining room… came home… Velvet was doing a binkie when she saw me.
We just discussed our set up and everything… we will remove the x pen today and see how it goes. I have a very large one-level- rabbit cage (Marchioro) that I have used for our aging rats. It’s of course in brand new condition (I’m very picky when it comes to the cleanliness of our cages).
We will put that cage out in the dining room with the door open. We will remove the x pen. Velvet and Dancer may go into the cage or not… up to them. If yes, then they already know it in case we need to put them in if we need to work on the house or for whatever other reason though I can’t think of why they should be locked up.
Velvet and Dancer are very, very well-behaved rabbits, they don’t get into trouble at all. They are just happy to be out and to have each other.
My mother-in-law came over earlier (“How are my little bunny-grandchildren doing?”) and she told me that while we were on vacation, they were thinking about getting us a fancy babygate (the ones that are screwed into the wall and they open like a gate). Right now, we are using one that holds between two walls.

I guess it is possible to spoil my two bunnies a tiny bit more! YAY!!!

[Moonlight_Wolf]

If I had ratties sleeping with me I think I would squish them 0_0… I roll around a lot. I sleep with my dog and I squish him! But he does not care because he is much bigger than a rat.

[bunnytowne]

That baby gate sounds great.  I need one. Been looking in thrift stores for one but none so far. I am tired of traversing the pick up move it put it back kind.  I can’t quite step over HB’s. Sometimes I step over Cotton’s.  I put them up then they fall down I hate that.

Oh Ruby is begging for attention I am holding her right now.

[jerseygirl]

Just between you and me, I think the mother-in-law sounds a bit taken with the bun-buns!

Ok, I can’t imagine ratties for pets but no, it’s not weird – it’s great to hear about the bonds people have with there pets! They curl up on your belly? You should post some pics so non-rat people can be influenced!

[Cassi&Charlie]

When we were at the shelter picking up Layla there was a rat there. He was in the reception and was the CUTEST SWEETEST MOST ADORABLE THING EVER! *Ok Cassi, breath*

He was playing a game on the receptionist where he’s zoom down her arm, run across the keyboard, zoom back up the other arm and onto her head. He would repeat this a few times, stop on the keyboard and play with an eraser or something and then resume.

He was the resident rat and had been there a while. I’m in love…if only I could convince bf…

[Beka27]

my brother-in-law has a rat. he is precious. i had never really dealt with rats before (mice and hamsters yes… but no rats) and i adore him! i can see why you love them!

[Liza]

HAHAHAAAA!!!

It’s great to see that you guys are so open-minded and actually interested in my rats! They are my babies. They are all rescues. Last weekend, I took Linus home. Linus had been at the rescue for… oh goodness… more than a year! He is around 2 years old, super shy, hides all day, is scared to death of just about anything… I just didn’t want him to die without ever being home, really home I mean. That’s how we have gotten all our rat kids. We don’t breed them (we actually spay all girls and neuter the boys when necessary). It’s really great to give them their own space by letting them run around in the rat room (one of our bedrooms is the rats’ room). They can come on their own terms to check you out without anybody forcing interaction on them. It has been working great on biters!!! Everyone but 2 of our rats in the last 7 years has turned around and has become a lap rat. I could talk about my rats in forever!!! Benji, currently our only bedroom boy (our master bedroom), is the only one left of a group of four. Rats are fantastic creatures! Very, very clean (much cleaner than bunnies even!), highly intelligent and very affectionate animals.

I took pictures of my bunnies’ new set up but apparently, everyone is more interested in the rats than in the bunnies! Haha!!!
Just FYI, Velvet and Dancer are SUPER happy now! Wow! Dancer is totally social now! He will lie there, all flattened out and I can pass right by him, open the sliding door for fresh air (we have a screen door as well, no worries), kneel down and pet him – he will let me do all this while remaining all flattened out. And Velvet is the binky queen! WOW!!!

[Cassi&Charlie]

I guess we have to beopen minded, otherwise we’d be on a dog or cat forum lol.

Any pics of your rats would be loved! (Don’t worry Velvet and Dancer, we still love you too)

[Liza]

There are some pics on The Lounge part of this forum… but months ago… Let’s see… if we go into Search, we might find that posting…

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