how long is your rabbit “out” for?

[Beka27]

from what i’ve seen, the HRS (and my vet and i’m sure other people/sites as well) recommend rabbits get at least 30 hours of run time a week.  this equals out to over 4 hours a day.  aside from the folks who are fortunate enough to have free roam bunnies… which would of course be the ideal situation… how long is your bun out for?  do you have a set schedule where your rabbit comes out at a certain time and goes back in at a set time?  i understand some folks need to work around work schedules and such… so i’m just curious about what you do.  and how your bunnies react to their run time?

the reason i’m wondering is… Meadow has an open cage all day… but it seems that she spends less than four hours actually out and about.  she’ll do her playing and furious running for about an hour in the morning… a little bit in the afternoon (maybe about 30-45 minutes)… and then she comes out again later in the evening for about an hour.  this is on average.  i think i also thought that being young she’d have so much more energy.  is this abnormal?

could it be that she loves her cage that much… or she’s more comfortable chillin’ in it?  she only flops in the room with us for maybe 10 minutes before she’s hopping back in to lay down.  i suppose i can’t force her to be out, but what if she’s not getting enough exercise?  i don’t have a second litterbox in the room, but she has the one in her cage and she knows she can use it.  usually, she’ll hop in to do her business for a few minutes and then come back out to play more.

does anyone have any suggestions on what i can do to increase her playtime?  [aside from getting her toys or things to chew up… she has plenty of options in that regard… and ignores most of them most of the time.]

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

My bunnies are out and about for four hours or more a day. I give Kokanee about fifteen minutes in the morning while I get ready (I can’t let kahlua out b/c I can’t catch her in time and it makes me late for work ) and she runs around like a crazy bunny! I let them out when I get home, or when I am done cleaning if its a cleaning day. They go back in if I take a nap (they aren’t destructo’s but it seems there is a lot of pooping all over when unsupervised!)…I don’t do a routine on purpose-I find that animals who have strict routines are fine, when the routine is fine; but any interuption causes alot of stress-so I try hard to make sure we dont’ get into any habits!
I don’t think your rabbit is abnormal….I find that my bunnies have short bursts where they run around and binky or get into trouble or explore followed by resting, flopping, dozing, followed by playing etc. They don’t sustain activity for a long period of time maybe ten to twenty minutes each burst.
If you want to increase her activity for excercise benefits, you could try playing tag! See if she prefers to chase you or be chased and that can get her moving! But I’d say you are doing a great job and she’ll play when she wants! SHe sounds happy to me!

[osprey]

Ours are out for mabe an hour in the morning before work/school, and then 2-3 hours in the evening.  They are usually out more on weekends when we are home more.  Mine are most definitely not free run, and I can’t really trust them to be out alone.

[MarkBun]

Unfortunately, my bun gets less than that and, I am ashamed to admit it, that there are some days where she gets no time out of the cage. I work with materials that would be very bad if the bun got near them (such as liquid latex – imagine that in the fur!) and often a full 24 hours is needed for molds to set. I have tried in the past to keep her out and safe while working but between a rubber coated front paw one day and bunny teeth marks in a $250 project I hadta scrap, I can’t afford for her out.

Oh, and if I x-pen her, all she does the entire time is push on the pen’s walls because she knows she can go elsewhere. She is actually less ‘frustrated’ if I just leave her in her cage. I try for at least 2-3 hours a night and make it about 70% of the time.

Sometimes I feel like a bad daddy.

[wabbitlove]

My two buns are free running all the time. We close our bedroom and bathroom doors and let them have the run of the kitchen, dining room, living room and hallway. Even with this, though, they are pretty lazy! I don’t know, I wouldn’t be too worried about them not getting enough excecise.. from what I’ve seen, even when they have the opportunity to run around, sometimes they just want to flop and cuddle. My bunnies love to sleep under the dining room table together for most of the day, hopping back and forth to get hay and food and such. When they do get excited though, it’s so funny to see them run up and down the hallway! Especially my lop.. watching his ears flop up and down is too funny

[babybunsmum]

Markusdark, i’m sure no expert but think your bun is lucky to have a parent that cares & looks after her best interests!

my situation is very accomodating to my bun’s schedule.  i am blessed with having a whole bedroom dedicated to her, so her cage is used for litter & for her water bottle & pellets only.  she comes & goes in her cage as needed.  her favorite ‘warren’ in under the dresser in her room and she also spends a lot of time in her dig box.  the only other non-bunny thing in the room is a small chest freezer. 

she has the choice to venture out of the room most of the day too but rarely does.  i actually bring her out into the living room to spend extra time with her.  she’ll stay about 15-30 mins as long as i’m petting her head & NOT holding her (shes very independant & needs to be on the floor to feel comfortable).  then she’ll hop back to her room.  shes a very mellow bun & is stingey with the binkys (at least infront of me) but i like to think she’s a happy gal.  when i spend time with her in her room on the floor she’ll hop over & sniff & lately is generous with the kisses.  she likes to come out & groom infront of me then too.

[Floppy]

I try for at least 3 hours a day, but whenever I am home, Floppy is out and about
sometimes during the daytime even if I am home and he can roam around he just hangs
out in his pen.

[Deleted User]

Connor only wanders for a few minutes, but I am not to worried because he can not run anyways. Coney on the other hand gets a least two hours during my daycare kids nap time and depending on which kids are here in the afternoon maybe an additional three more. I have some kids that I can not have around my bunnies. The other kids are great with them and know not to pick them up but they can pet them if they come close. Coney is a notorious foot sniffer so all the kids just love when he comes and sniffs their piggies. Coney only is running or active for maybe an hour out of all that time. The rest he just flops or lounges somewhere outside his cage. He is very good about not pooping and it has been maybe a year since I found a coney poop outside of his apartment. And trust me I can tell the difference between Connor and Coney’s poops. Connor’s are three times the size of Coney’s!
Wabbitlove I love that pic of your buns. Too cute.

[Gravehearted]

Since our bunnies can’t all come out at the same time, they usually have about 2 hours a day out. During the weekends if we’re home I’ll let them out – but often they’d rather just snooze in their houses.

[Beka27]

hmm.  cool.  so it seems like my situation is not all that different from other people here.  i guess it make sense.  i mean… even if you think about you and your own home… i’ll bet we all spend a huge chunk of time in the same locations of our home. 

markusdark… do you have a kitchen you can set the bun up in while you work?

[MarkBun]

I have a kithen ‘strip’ that I theoretically could block off after removing some of the kitchen items she might get into (aka – garbage). It is just the moment she sees a fence, she HAS to get onto the other side of it so she’d just end up pushing on the x-pen wall the entire time. maybe she’d learn but then again, I wouldn’t put it past her learning how to hop onto the counter, turn on the garbage disposal and then decide to investigate the ‘neat noise’…

[Beka27]

could you put the pen up where it’s out of the way and get 4 cinder blocks and put one against each side… she surely can’t push cinder blocks… it would at least keep the sides stationary…

[MarkBun]

Oh, I have no issues ‘penning’ her – I can make it so the pen won’t go anywhere. The thing is that ALL she does is chew on the bars and push them. She ignores all toys, treats and other such things in favor of futile attempts for escape. It makes me feel bad watching her chew non-stop trying to get out. But, for some reason, in her cage, she’s content.

I should note that this ‘escape’ behavior happens even if her cage is included in the x-pen. She’s just wierd – and that’s why I love her.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

My dog is soo like that too…She can be perfectly happy anywhere as long as SHE decided to be there and YOU aren’t making her go there! Stubborn huskies though

[dmh426]

OK, ideally, Soph gets 2-3 hours out, but sometimes life gets in the way and it’s more like a 1/2 hour. I know, that’s horrible, right? She zooms around and lays down under the dining room table, then i know she’s good to go back in the house and then off I go to bed or run the vacuum, or who am i kidding, to bed early. I try to let her out for at least 4 hours and Saturday and Sunday. 30 hours is the ideal, right? Hmm… need to work on that.

[xnovalentine]

lullabelle gets most of the day outside of her cage — she gets to run around for an hour or so while i get ready for school and then i come home periodically throughout the day and let her run around, which she usually just hops around to make sure nobody messed up her stuff and then goes back to her shelf — she decided to move the things off the bottom shelf of one of the bookshelves and its where she naps when i’m home. then after i get home from work she gets until about 12 (she goes crazy about 11 so i make sure she has until 12 to burn it off) and then she goes back into the cage. She has her own room and I’m trying to get her to the point where she can just have the entire room all day but she loves to chew the carpet and since our house is technically owned by my boyfriend’s mom — i dont want to have to replace it! I’ve already rearranged some things so some nice torn edges can’t be seen! She always makes me feel really bad when i lock her up in her cage because she looks up at me with big bunny eyes and is like but what did i do to deserve this? and chews on the bars like she’s a prisoner that doesnt have ANY toys or ANY food/hay/veggies or her stuffed carrot she sleeps on. she’s so neglected, i swear. *eye roll*

[BinkyBunny]

Since I have to divide the time up between my buns and I have to make sure to vacuum between each other otherwise they are more apt to mark . So I divide up their time up by days. Bailey gets 24 hours out freetime, and then the next day, Rucy and Jack are out for 24 hours. But even when the one is in their pen for 24 hours while the other is out, their pen is still big – about 5 feet by 5 feet. And the whoever is staying in their pen usually gets a tunnel or box to play with.. And during their time out, they still hang out in there in the afternoon, but they run around in the am, in the evenings, and in the middle of the night. We are lucky that they only mark in their pens, and maybe just few territorial in the room in general, but they are very good in the rest of the house.

I have encouraged them to play and hang out in the living room by putting cardboard boxes and toys out there. So they usually then lay around after they are done playing, and I sit with them on the ground and pet them while I watch television, read or on the laptop.

Bailey needs more encouragement to come out. She is always being picked up by me so I can give her meds, give her her meds (for e.cuniculi) and to clean her ears (since she can’t do it due to her illness) , so because of that she’s more cautious to come out with the humans that bug her all the time with meds and cleaning. I have been more diligent about doing the unpleasant things at the same time so that she knows when it is for sure over. That has helped.

[Deleted User]

Markusdark, I have the same issue with Shadow, he loves a challenge and pens and gates are things to overcome. His new thing is to run full tilt at the baby gate leap up and push off with is back legs. I am convinced that is how he got over the gate that one time.

So even thought he has a room to run around in, I can’t trust him when we are not home. He gets an hour or two in the morning, and when we get home another hour or so until we can supervise him going through the house. He tends to push his luck and aggravate my geriatric dog and cats. They are use to rabbits, but Shadow can really work their nerves.

[Steve Parker]

Hi,

We have a rabbit named Buddy who is a little less than a year old. We screened-in our deck so that he can run around on it and get some fresh air. He happily goes out mid-morning and stays out for at least 5 hours. He scratches at the back door to let us know that he wants out.

There are plenty of places for him to hide on the deck and a lot of toys to play with. He explores a bit when he first goes out. But mainly, he eats and sleeps a lot while outside. We have a litter box there also.

He runs around and plays when we join him on the deck, which we do often (at least 15 minutes per hour when he’s outside.) We clean the litter everytime we go out. After our play time, he wants a nap.

We let him back inside mid-afternoon, depending on the heat. (We live in the south and it gets pretty warm here.) He lets us know when he wants to come in by, again, scratching on the door.

Buddy then runs around inside the house until about 7:00 PM. His cage is open, but he doesn’t go in. He loves to run up and down our stairs. He has a path from our upstairs hallway through our bonus room that he treats as a race track. He runs as fast as he can on this same path each evening. He goes lap after lap until he’s tired.

After his run, we sit on the floor and he will curl up with us. He needs a bunny massage from all his exercise. When he’s had enough petting, he hops away to stretch out on the carpet. He will usually nap a bit. Next he goes back to his cage for dinner. Sometime he goes on his own, but most of the time we have to put him in. We have a carrier that he will hop in when he wants us to put him to bed for the evening.

Buddy’s a pretty happy bunny. He gets a lot of time out of his cage. Our only problem is keeping weight on him. He runs so much, that he’s a bit skinny. He eats a lot, but is so active that he burns all his food off.

[Beka27]

wow.  it sounds like Buddy has  busy days… makes me need a nap just reading about it… lol.

[Steve Parker]

He has VERY busy days.

He has been a joy for my family. Can’t imagine life without him.

We are lucky that we’re retired and can stay home with him.

[Gravehearted]

welcome to BinkyBunny Parkers57!
I am thinking my bunnies would like me to retire too, so they can enjoy days like your Buddy does 🙂 It sounds like he’s a very happy bunny!
Does your deck have a roof or walls? I always worry about bunnies outside.

[Vinnie D.]

I usually let Nel out, when i come home, usually half an hour before midnight, and she stays out until I go to bed, somewhere between 4 and 5am. I work the evening shift, and thankfully she’s as nocturnal as I am.

[Martie]

I’m still learning house rabbit behavior, but Mosimba is not out but about 2 hours a day so far anyway, he’s still so new here. He uses his cage as his litter box maybe that’s it, but I let him out to hop around and by his choice he goes back in his cage after about an hour or less. He seems to really like his cage. I do reward him with a treat for going back in on his own, maybe that’s it. Speaking of out time, if he’ll wake up from his deep sleep/twitching/nose sniffing lol..(maybe dreaming of running through a meadow ) he can hop around early today.

[babybunsmum]

Mosimba… what a cute name!  sounds like he loves his home as much as my bun does.  she’s not nearly so active as some of the others buns are.

[LittlePuffyTail]

My buns get pretty limited time out but usually no less than an hour in the evening. I feel bad they can’t be out all the time but they are not bonded and have to take turns and I have to watch them constantly even in a bunny proofed room. Stormy likes to dig at the carpet   Bindi usually hops for 1/2 hour and then takes a snooze by the heater. Once Bindi is fixed I will try to bond them which will mean more outside time.

[Spacehopper]

Posted By wabbitlove on 11/20/2007 10:38 AM
My two buns are free running all the time. We close our bedroom and bathroom doors and let them have the run of the kitchen, dining room, living room and hallway. Even with this, though, they are pretty lazy! I don’t know, I wouldn’t be too worried about them not getting enough excecise.. from what I’ve seen, even when they have the opportunity to run around, sometimes they just want to flop and cuddle. My bunnies love to sleep under the dining room table together for most of the day, hopping back and forth to get hay and food and such. When they do get excited though, it’s so funny to see them run up and down the hallway! Especially my lop.. watching his ears flop up and down is too funny

Same here, although mine have the bedroom door shut on them when we are out, as they spend most of their time snuggled under the bed, but all other times have free run of the place, (i got home the other day and 1st thing I do is open the door and say hello to my gorgeouses, but I couldn’t find Sweaty Bettie Beanage, then i saw a great lump over in the curtain, i called, i got under the bed, called again..no movement, nothing…Brian went over and had a sniff, still nothing…. my heart went and i scrabbled under and poked the lump…still nothing, so i lifted the hem of the curtain, and out plopped the Bean all sleepy eyed & most annoyed that i had dared to disturb her snuggled up with the radiator.  

I feel so guilty thinking about the lack of time i spent with my lop eared Saffy when i was young, i think i try to make up for that in a way now with Mr Buggers & Sweaty, and try to ensure they have the comfort that such precious little things deserve – A friend’s dad had loads of rescued rabbits from this that and the other, and the only time they ever seemed to come out was to have a few minutes hold and then be put away again, to sit all cooped up in their hutch  upon hutch upon hutch, come sun come snow.  🙂

[BinkyBunny]

Welcome Parker! Wow, what a great schedule. I want to come live at your house.

[Alibear]

I wish I could let my Honey Bunny out for longer, but she went so ferrall before her op I couldn’t have her out very much, and now she is not toilet trained, she digs at the carpet etc and hates going back in her pen.

Once she is in there she LOVES it ane flops out and jumps around and runs up and down her levels I seem to think she would MUCH prefer to be in there? Could that be right?

She used to flop out next to me and lick me etc and now I’m sure she hates me – although she is getting SLIGHTLY better!

[Author]

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