Is this enough space?

[bunnnnnnie!]

Right now Zeus lives in the living room, and Hera lives in the kitchen.  But my boyfriend and I have come to the conclusion we need to move Hera out of the kitchen.  She really hates when we cook, I think it’s the scents.  We made chicken in the crockpot yesterday with ginger and garlic – and she WOULD NOT go back into the kitchen to go back into her cage.  We ended up having to corner her, pick her up, and physically put her in her cage.  We did crack open a window, turn the ceiling fan on, and turn the vent on the oven hood on.

I think she’ll be happier in the living room.  Our living room however, is quite small, and already has Zeus’s cage in it.

Right now in the kitchen she lives in a “jumbo” dog crate with a NIC cube run.  The crate is 48″ L X 30″ W X 33″ H.  The pen about doubles that space.

Would the dog crate alone be enough room for her?   I hate to take her pen away, but there’s just no room for it anywhere but the kitchen.  She really seems unhappy living in the kitchen.  Admittedly, she spends very little time in the pen.  She sleeps, hangs out in her litterbox, and eats hay in the dog crate.

[LongEaredLions]

The minimum space for a rabbit is 2×4, Hera’s dog crate is about 4×2.5. That is big enough to sleep, eat, and go to the litterbox in, but she does need to be let out for atleast 4 hours every day to exersise.

[bunnnnnnie!]

She does get out of cage time every day, not four hours but as much as I can. Her and Zeus have to alternate out of cage times since they don’t co-habitate. At least on the weekends they get to be out for almost the entire day.

[LongEaredLions]

About how much is she let out each day?

[tanlover14]

Is there any way you could just switch her and Zeus living arrangements if the smells and the kitchen don’t bother him? One of my bunnies is also literally terrified of us cooking. I’m not sure if it’s the sounds, the smells, or what but he goes absolutely nuts.

[Bam]

It could perhaps be the smell of meat. If you want to deterr wild rabbits from eating your plants you can put blood-meal on them (it’s also a high-nitrogen fertilizer). Then the rabbits don’t go near the plants.

It’s not to be recommended if you’ve a dog though. I lost a beautiful tarragon-plant because my dog dug it up to get to the blood-meal =/

It rather seems like it’s perfectly normal for a bunny to hate human cooking-places. This may be the reason why my otherwise very inquisitive and enterprising bunny Yohio never goes into the kitchen although he could if he wanted to. He comes up to the threshold if he hears a nut-bag crackle, but he stops there and waits for his treat. Funny little creatures they are =)

[bunnnnnnie!]

Each bunny gets I’d say around 2.5 hours per day out. On the weekends, it’s 4+ hours each. Since they’re not bonded, they have to have alternating out of cage times.

I wouldn’t feel right putting Zeus’s cage in the kitchen. If Hera doesn’t like the cooking smells, Zeus probably wouldn’t, either.

Thanks for the input, guys. My boyfriend and I are going to rearrange the living room a bit tomorrow. We’ll see how much space I can free up. We’ll probably start by moving just the dog crate into the living room, then if Hera seems unhappy, we’ll try to add a pen again to the crate.

[MoveDiagonally]

I wouldn’t feel right putting Zeus’s cage in the kitchen. If Hera doesn’t like the cooking smells, Zeus probably wouldn’t, either.

I would at least give switching them around a try before reducing space. The smells/noise might not bother him.

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