Couple questions for the free range bunny owners

[smileykyleigh]

I have recently adopted a 2 1/2 year neutered male lop. (jury is still out over whether he’s a mini or an obese holland )

He is litter trained and has had no urine accidents so far. He’s had a few stray poops, but nothing major.

I’ve had him in an xpen in the kitchen during the day, but this evening I got tired of sitting on the floor so I brought him in the living room while my husband and I were sitting on the couch. He had a blast! He was hopping and flopping all over, and he seemed so much happier than he was in the xpen (even though it wasn’t fully closed).

I’d love to have him free range during the day and just confine him at night or when I’m gone (which isn’t often as I am a stay at home mom), but I feel like he tracks litter and hay everywhere!

Is there a litter that doesn’t track through the house as much? He’s currently using Carefresh.

We live in a small ranch house.

 Do I need to put a litterbox in each room, or will he hop from the kitchen to the living room to use his litterbox?

I guess I just need to know if it’s possible to have a free range bunny without having hay and litter everywhere all the time.

I thought about getting a wire cover for the litterbox so he couldn’t dig in it and the litter/hay won’t stick to his fur, but I’m afraid if I change the litterbox he will stop using it.

Please advise!

[sophie_gretel]

My rabbits are free range. I use wood stove pellets and they do not track at all. You can get them at Home Depot like stores and they are very cheap. I think it’s about 5 bucks a bag and they last a little over a month. You could try using a hay rack if you don’t already. My rabbits don’t like to eat from a rack so they track hay everywhere, but see if your bun likes it. That way it’s all in one spot rather than all over his litter box. They have the litter screens on the BB shop and they are pretty cheap, so if you want to try it out and it doesn’t work, you won’t feel that bad because you didn’t spend a lot on it!

[Snowytoshi]

Toshi and Paige live in a x-pen and come out whenever we’re home and not asleep! We have litter boxes in the areas they tend to pee in: the playroom and their x-pen. They go into either of those spaces when they need to use the bathroom, if they ever started peeing elsewhere we’d just buy another litterpan. your rabbit may need one in every room, but don’t spend money on buying them until she starts to need it. And as jwoo said wood stove pellets are great, they last us a month and that is with three rabbits, so your’s would last much longer.

We don’t use hay racks for our rabbits because when we did, they wouldn’t eat from it, and they’d knock it down. We have several boxes of hay in different rooms and that is perfect for them. One of their boxes is a plastic storage bin and they love being able to hop into it and dig. The other box is just a cardboard box on top of a storage bin top and they spend a lot of time in there. It doesn’t track much and it’s not that hard to clean

[smileykyleigh]

Thanks for the responses!

Is there a certain type of wood stove pellets I need to look for? Or a certain type to avoid?

Do you all have a cage at all for your bunnies? The top comes off his cage and I was thinking of taking the metal top off and just setting the plastic bottom of the cage in a corner somewhere with his litterbox and food/water. Just haven’t figured out how to rig everything up yet.

I’m not naive to the fact that there will be some hay strewn about. I love the thought of him being a free range bunny, I just don’t want my house to look like a barn.

[smileykyleigh]

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100577691/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=wood+stove+pellets&storeId=10051

is this what I’m looking for?

[Snowytoshi]

I do not have cages for Toshi and Paige as their x-pen is their safe spot and they have plenty of places to hide throughout the house. If they get tired of running about they sleep in their maze, their x-pen, or under the kitchen table! A free range rabbit will find many interesting places to sleep: bookshelves, behind toliets, cupboards, etc.

And yes, thos pellets are fine 

[Beka27]

I’m hesitant to recommend free range (true, 24/7 free range) to a family with young children. The bunny needs to retain its own space that is child-free, and this boundary is very important in training your children to respect the rabbit’s space. Our son has been raised with rabbits and I would never consider having them truly free range with no “home base” pen. 24/7 free range also concerns me because of the inadvertent destruction to children’s shoes, clothes, toys that may not be picked up (even the cleanest home has stuff out of place sometimes when kids are present!) The other obvious issue is that although your children are going to be brought up respecting the rabbit, their friends and young family members who come over may pose a threat. A rabbit who is familiar with a pen, can be “put up” during the visit for everyone’s protection during holiday gatherings, play-dates, etc… Finally, I always worry about an emergency situation. Of course, as a parent, the first responsibility is to get your human kids to safety. You may have only moments to go back and retrieve your rabbit. Having the rabbit in a confined space at night will allow you to quickly and easily “capture” him and get him in a carrier.

Just a few random thoughts. I wanted to give a balanced opinion of the “other side”… This isn’t to say that having him roaming all day long isn’t a possibility, but I would reconsider doing away with the xpen altogether, at least at this point.

[sophie_gretel]

I agree with Beka, I think that you should keep your xpen. I still have a cage/pen for my little guy in case I need to close him in for any reason. Even though he is in the bedroom and we don’t get many visitors, he likes to run underfoot so it comes in handy when I am cleaning or need to vacuum.

My girls are really good about being free range and don’t go underfoot too much. Sometimes, they fight with the broom when I sweep, but they will ignore if after a few minutes, haha. They don’t have a cage but they have a ‘litter base’, where they have 2 huge litter boxes and their water bottles set up. When you do have him free range, you need to thoroughly bunny proof your house. I thought that I had bunny proofed everything when I got them, but they are just so sneaky! Even if you think they can’t get into something, bunny proof it anyway.

As far as the hay goes, I just vacuum every night before bed. It also doesn’t help that my boyfriend likes to make the biggest possibly messes when refilling the hay, lol. I just try to keep on top of it so it doesn’t get too bad.

[smileykyleigh]

I completely agree, Beka!
He is definitely going to be in the xpen at night and when we aren’t home.
I know he needs a safe place that is his own.
I was mainly asking for logistics purposes, trying to figure out the whole set up and location of food/water/litterbox.

I want to make sure he knows where his safe place and food/water/litterbox are located, but I also want him to feel free to come out and explore when the xpen is open.

Our rule will be that the kids must leave him alone when he is in his xpen.

To be honest they are quite bored with him now LOL
They like to give him a goodnight snuggle but other than that they don’t want to sit and visit with him. Which is just fine with me. He’s MY bunny

Thanks!

[Stickerbunny]

My buns have a closet as their “safe spot”, they have their own room as well I can enclose them in for people being over etc. Mine have litter boxes in their room, three of em, but none in my room where they can come. When Powder was free roam of the entire house there was a litterbox in the living room too. He was pretty good about going back to his litterbox. Be sure to bunny proof any wires and such, I use the vacuum tube like covers.

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