First time owner, planning to adopt a bunny!

[Taylor.L]

Hi I have been planning to adopt a bunny from a shelter next week after I come back from a vacation. I work at petco for 8hrs a day and in the fall I will not be working but will be going to grad school at a nearby university with varying hours for 4 days of the week. Right now I am planning to use a dog crate large enough for a rotti for the main home with the litter box, food, water etc. and then getting an xpen to further extend the home large enough for exercise while I am not home. I also will attempt to build a second level in the crate. Would this give enough space?

As for the flooring I have look through past posts and also on google, but I am still unsure what to get and also where to find some of the flooring, so any tips and/or ideas would be great!

I have already started to save toilet paper rolls for toys and will most likely be building a hidey home out of a cardboard box

Thank you all in advance for the help!

[SeaTurtleSwims]

Yay! Congrats!

The crate pan would be suitable for the house, but if you add a second layer you might need to get a hay mat for him to grip on to make the jump. I tried laying pretty cabinet liner in my bun’s cage once to fancy up the flooring but it went south for two reasons: no grip and he ended up eating most of it anyway LOL so make sure you don’t care if it gets eaten whatever you use!

Not sure what kind of flooring you want for your xpen. I went to a habitat for humanity re store and bought old tiles for dirt cheap and laid them around when my bun was in a floor pen and not yet litter trained. I laid garbage bags underneath the tiles, just in case any urine leaked through and set tiles with sticky backs on top. It worked pretty well during the early potty training phase!

Good luck! Post pics when you get him!! Will he already be spayed/neutered upon adoption?

[LuvFurBabies80]

Congrats on the soon to be new member of your family!!!

It sounds like you have it pretty much figured out.  Actually that is what we have for our baby.  I have the x-large crate, it came with a divider that I cut in half and covered to make a second level in the crate.  I then attached an ex-pen to the outside of the crate.  For the floor of the ex-pen area I put down a waterproof shower liner, then a large incontinence pad then a fleece…I bought two of everything and once a week everything goes in the wash and the 2nd set goes down.  Inside the crate my bun was having a problem with the plastic tray it came with so I found this

[Taylor.L]

Thank you! I made a second level and put a piece of fabric to cover it and he loves it! Right now most of his flooring on the first level is bedding because I had to litter train him, but I think he is all trained and I am ready to change his flooring to some other type so its nice and soft for him!  And I will post pictures in a when I transfer them from my phone!

[Taylor.L]

I like that idea I might try that , I just finished litter training him I believe, right now I have bedding as the bottom flooring, but I want to change it to a fabric type flooring the next time I clean his cage and your flooring could work! and using the xpen like that is great, might steal that idea too! Thank you your post was a lot of help!

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

Yay, welcome to the community! Really curious about the pictures, looking forward to see your bun

It’s great to see that you’re preparing so well. Sadly, rabbits are often seen as difficult and destructive pets, but with a little prep and a little knowledge about their natural instincts you can make them great indoor pets. Especially their body language can be tricky, because it’s so different from common pets like dogs and cats. I found a great site about rabbit body language: http://language.rabbitspeak.com/

I wish you both lots of binkies, cuddles and petting sessions!

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