Can’t keep Thumper indoors…

[QueenThumper]

So I’ve been on this forum for a couple weeks and I realize that rabbits are safest and happiest indoors, but I am currently living with my mother who is very anti house-pet.  

I have been keeping Thumper in a room adjacent to the backyard for the past couple of weeks because she was just spayed and have convinced her to let me keep her in for another week while she heals up, but Thumper is normally an outdoor bunny with a hutch and full run of the backyard during the day.  I have prevented stray cat access by lining the walls with water-filled milk jugs, and the only other wildlife that come around are squirrels who don’t really bother her, and the occassional possum or raccoon who she lets us know about by tossing her igloo or food bowl while she is in her hutch at night.  The loud noise usually scares them off or wakes us up so we can see them while they’re running.  I’ve looked up the eating habbits of both animals, and they are supposedly scavengers who won’t go after other animals unless they are attacked.  Should I be worried anyway?  

Ideally, I would want Thumper to live inside so I wouldn’t have to worry about the animals who sometimes come around at night (although thankfully they are not carniverous and we NEVER get hawks, just noisy crows), but my mom is kind enough to let me stay here while I try to find a job so I can get a house of my own for Thumper to live in.  In addition to my mom’s dislike of animal hair around the house, my sister’s boyfriend is very allergic to rabbit dander.  

So for me, it’s not a question of how to convince my mom (because I had tried to do that for months but am now just trying to respect her wishes), but how to make my backyard as safe as possible for my bun while she is living outside…  I’m thinking about getting a run to give the hutch extra protection at night, but I’m not really sure what else I could do.

[RabbitPam]

Yes, that is what I was thinking – building an enclosure that is completely covered with doors that latch well enough to keep clever raccoons from opening them. (Like with a bike lock.) Are you handy with building or know someone else who is? Maybe something simple like an xpen with a cover on it will do the trick.

[Barbie]

Yeah, I think what Pam suggested about the enclosed building/pen area would be a good idea. Check out the 8th picture under Cool Habitats –> Other. It’s really elaborate though, and if you’re trying to move… it might be a bit much. Though you could always take it with you and then use it so Thumper can get some safe play time outside. If you go with the x-pen with a cover idea, just make sure you latch the cover on securly, and that the pen isn’t light enough that a raccoon or something can lift it up and get in from underneath (if you don’t make a bottom for the pen). We used to camp all the time, and raccoons are incredibly. We’ve had many many coolers ransacked by those little buggers. Even if raccoons don’t go after live prey, I’d still try to make the hutch as safe and raccoon-proof as possible. Good luck!

[bunnymama]

Queen Thumper – what part of the US do you live in? I ask because in the northern parts of the US it will get too cold for that bun to survve the cold harsh winter. Just wondering.

[QueenThumper]

Thanks for the ideas! I’ll definitely look them up, and my boyfriend is very handy. So you don’t think a hutch enclosed in a pen is safe enough?

I live in southern California where the winters are warm and close enough to the beach so summers never get too hot! =)

[Deb'sBuns]

I would worry about the raccoons. When my first bunny was in a hutch a raccoon tried to get her and she was in the house after that.

[MooBunnay]

My concern about the racoons would be the possibility of them frightening the bunny. If your bun is in her cage, but feels threatened by another animal, even if it can’t get in the cage it could do some serious harm, so I’d try to incorporate something into the cage so that she can get somewhere where she has no possibility of that occurring. Also, the other difficulty outside is bugs. I also lived in So. Cal. and had chickens, and our biggest bug problem was flies that would lay eggs in the chicken’s skin…I won’t talk about what happens after that but it was pretty *yuck* -and that is why I didn’t let my buns outside, so something bug safe would also be important. Maybe a mosquito type screen that could prevent bugs from getting in?

[Furface]

Yes, bunnies can get something called fly strike, YUCK, not going there, google.

On another forum I read a post about a homesteader getting a new farm dog & they well lost over 1/2 their warren over night.
The dog did not get into the pen but, the rabbits were so afraid that they broke their own backs in the panic.
Some probably had heart failure too. My neighbors dog seems to do that to wild ones a few times a year. She will chase & they fall over dead with no actual contact.

A competed covered hidy spot would help for the fear thing but bug proofing should also be way up there on the list, & fleas are very very very small.

[QueenThumper]

Thanks again for the input!  Please let me know if there’s anything else I’m missing.

I’m planning on getting the run that was made for the hutch I already own and covering it with a big tarp I already own at night.  I will make sure there is a box or other kinds of hidey-spots for her inside the run, Perhaps create a hiding spot directly under the hutch and surround it with wood so it is completely hidden.  I already put clips on the door (you know those really big paper clips) in addition to the lock so that other animals can’t get in.  While the run is up, the inside of the hutch should be safer for Thumper and keep those animals much further away.  I have heard about fly strike and check Thumper’s bottom and potty areas for flies every day, even though she still hasn’t had any digestive problems that would make her bottom a good maggot-breeding area.  I also mix around the dirt area that she uses as her outdoor potty so that it’s dry and not visited by bugs.

Here is a picture of the hutch she stays in and the attachable run I am purchasing:

 

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