Excaping baby bunny from xpen

[Poka]

Hi everyone, 

I’m a new baby bunny owner. I bought little Poka two weeks ago, and since then I’ve been buying a ton of stuff for the little sweetheart. Since he’s only 7-8 weeks old, I started off with a pet store cage. There’s a ton of space in it for him right now since he’s so small, but he’s growing up fast. Once he’s fully grown I planned to use the case as a litter box and where his hay would be. In the meanwhile I still want him to run around, so I bought a 36″ xpen yesterday. I connected it to his case and closed up the gaps through which he could escape. Put the little guy in, and just as I turned by back around it was outside of his pen running around. Once I caught him I was frantically searching for the place where he escaped from…. only to notice him squeezing through the bars of the xpen. I nearly fell over from the shock. 

While it’s quite cute/annoying that he can fit though the xpen bars, I’m concerned. Obviously that won’t be possible once he’s fully grown but I’m scared that he’ll get stuck. So now he has to stay in the cage and I can’t leave him along in the xpen when I’m not there. 

I’m trying to block the bars of the xpen by surrounding it with boxes, but that’s a total pain. Exactly what I was trying to avoid. 

Have any of you had this problem? Also I bought him a little bed, which I put in the xpen. and he totally uses it as a litter box. Any advice around that? I was thinking of putting a second litter box in his xpen. 

I included a pic of the little escapee. 

[Cocoa]

I would remove the bed for a little while. My bunnies would use their beds as a litterbox too so I took it out for a while so that they would realize they are supposed to use the litter box not their beds. If you use chicken wire around the outside of the pen he wont be able to fit. The first night I had my bunny I woke up cause I heard her running around and spent twenty minutes trying to find her. I can’t see the pic

[sarahthegemini]

I think using chicken wire around it as Cocoa suggested would work or you could cable tie some sturdy cardboard sheets around but if he’s a chewer, it won’t hold up.

[jerseygirl]

Goodness me, little rascal !

I agree with fixing something around the bottom of the pen. Either wire mesh, the grids used to make C&C cages or even some coroplast.

[Poka]

Thanks for the advice guys. I’ve just moved to a new place, so I have a ton of boxes with art supplies that I haven’t yet unpack. So I surrounded the bottom of the xpen with those. It seemed to have worked because I left him alone for 2 hours and he didn’t escape. 

Yes, I think I’ll take away his bed after all for now. I just washed it yesterday and he’s peed and pooped it in again. Does this every time I put the bed in the xpen! I  wish it was that easy to potty train him. 

I think he’s been using his litter box in his cage, though I do still find poop on the floor of his cage. I feel like the amount is lessening. Just ordered a cat litter box for the xpen. hopefully with two litter boxes I will be able to have him trained up. 

Oh he keep nibbling on my clothes and shoes. I’ve squealed very loudly each time so that he knows it’s not ok. Little guy stops, waits and then goes back to it. Don’t know if there’s any solution to that. I think I’m just scared that he’ll start biting me. kind of tried to nibble a couple of times, but I stopped that. try to keep my hands away from his mouth and pet the top of his head and body. 

[OverthinkingBun]

Oh my! What a tiny little scrap When my bunny was a baby, she could slip through some spaces below her cage to escape from the “safe area” I had set up. I got an acrylic sheet at the hardware store, asked them to cut it down to the measurements of the cage (it’s free if you buy it there, usually) and then zip tied it in place. This is more work and a lot more expensive than cardboard, but also a rabbit can’t destroy it. I’ve also seen C&C style pens online that are solid, rather than wire – that might be easier and cheaper for a whole pen.

[sarahthegemini]

Oh my word, that photo of him 

[Poka]

Ok. I spoke too soon. He’s literally so determined to escape and have fun in my empty basement. Just when I thought I made a safe space for him, the little guy decided to prove me wrong. He’s able to jump really high… and also gained climbing skills, And he can push stuff out of the way. I thought I got the quietest and most meek bunny in the bunch, but turns out he’s the real active one. I’m so scared that he’ll get out from whatever corner but not be able to get back in. Or accidently kill himself in an accident. And I haven’t had the time to go buy other supplies from the store. So for now I’m leaving him in his cage, and have decided to let him out for a couple of hours when I go home. I’ll do work in the basement when he runs around. and if he escapes at least i’ll be there. His teeth is so small that he can’t actually break apart cardboard. When I have the spare time I’ll hunt around for zip ties and cut out cardboard pieces to surround his cage. I’m afraid that he’ll try to climb if I put chicken wire or something.

[jerseygirl]

That sounds like a good idea at his age, and his escaping skills! This was my experience also, with a very young bunny. He was able to climb out of the pen initially.
What age were you told the rabbits were when you picked him out. He looks much younger then a 7-8wk old bunny.

[Poka]

I was told around 7 weeks. But after a couple of weeks I got the feeling that he was probably 5-6 weeks old when they sold him. The little guy was living with his siblings in a separate pen when I went to pick him up and he was eating pellets and hay properly, so I didn’t think too much on it at the time. I’m just glad that he’s energetically healthy, but the escaping habit is a big problem. Do rabbits calm down with age?

[PoorLittleButtercup]

Hoping someone will see this reply as I know this is an older thread- but how did you solve this problem? I am having the same issue with my 6 week old bunny. She has incredible jumping and climbing skills! I am running out of ideas to keep her contained! Did yours settle down as she got older?

[Ameelurz]

Gosh this sounds EXACTLY like my bunny. He did calm down with age, but he is still insanely smart and clever. We gave up on keeping him in the Xpen. We tried literally everything but every time we came home he would be at the door waiting for us instead of in his pen. The ultimate solution was that we completely bunnyproofed our guest bedroom. Now he lives in there and when we are home and not sleeping we open the door and he can run around the rest of the apartment. Believe it or not, he has started to figure out how to open the guest room door. But we are still winning that battle…. bunnies are so smart! It makes me sad that the rest of the world doesn’t realize what amazing personalities the little fluff balls have! 

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