Opinions on bunny living area

[Ali925]

 I attached a picture of Oreo’s setup below.

 

 It’s a pet store cage attached to a bigger pen (the grids are attached securely to the pet store cage with zip ties)…  My question is, I have been putting her in her cage when I’m at work or if I’m gone for a long time because I’m afraid to leave her out in the pen without me around for long.  But I know she hates being confined and behaves well in her pen.  She’d likely end up lounging most of the day anyway, but would have more room in the pen.  Also, if I do decide to leave her in the pen, should I take out the cottontail cottage cardboard house so she doesn’t hurt herself?  She jumps out of the second floor…very cute but I would hate for her to get hurt while I’m gone. 

I know some of you probably have a similar setup…do you leave your bunny alone in this area or would you keep them in the cage?  I know she’d be so happy if I didn’t have to keep her in the small cage.

And in case anyone asks about litter training, she knows to use her cage for her “business” but she compulsively marks her whole pen area with single poop pellets.. She’s only 4 months so I haven’t had her spayed yet…  So I don’t think I’d worry about too much of a mess.

Thanks in advance. 

 

 

 

[Monkeybun]

I leave my 2 in their pens all day when I don’t have them in the rest of the house, they do great. I’d personally take the cottage out when not there, as my buns are escape artists, and would use it as a launch pad over the pen I’m not worried about my 2 hurting themselves, they jump off the couch all the time.

[Elrohwen]

I have a fairly similar setup:

I leave my bun out in the pen area while I’m gone and I leave his maze haven in with him. My only fear about leaving him out was him escaping, but he is the opposite of an escape artist, so I’m not worried. Jumping out of the second floor (or even off of the roof) of the cottontail cottage won’t hurt him – bunnies are able to jump much higher and land just fine.

I would let her have the run of the whole area while you’re gone and see how it goes. I’m sure she’ll be fine.

eta: I’m not home all day and can vouch that my bun sleeps from about 10am through 6pm. He’s definitely not out looking for trouble during the day.

[Ali925]

Thanks for your advice. I’m pretty sure she lounges around most of the day too…except on the weekend when we’re here and she gets excited to play.

Do you ever put her in her cage? I think I will still put her in her cage for night time, but it’s always fun trying to coax her back in…

Also, since you both have similar setups, what do you have down on the floor? Right now I have a bed sheet and two towels (the sheet doesn’t cover the whole space…) I did this for now, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep it this way. thanks!

[Monkeybun]

I have a little fleece blankie in moose’s pen, and a couple towels in Monkey’s. Moose had towels too, til he chewed holes in them. I never lock them up in the cage, they have full access to the pen at all times, they’re good buns.. except for the couple times Monkey escaped, but she hasn’t done so since I moved her in beside Moose. Moose’s cage doesn’t even HAVE a door to lock Once my 2 are bonded and they stop the marking wars, which is mainly Monkey marking, and Moose looking at her, I’ll stop putting the towels and blanket down. They like sitting on the carpet much better.

[Elrohwen]

I never close Otto in his cage – I do close him into the pen at night. I think he’d get mad if I closed the cage door! I haven’t done that since the first week we had him. I leave the pen open during the days now, even when I’m not home, because I know he just sleeps and doesn’t even leave the cage area (that would involve venturing onto the slippery wood floors and he only does that when he really wants to come out and play). I still don’t quite trust him at night, so I lock him into the pen. I consider the whole cage + pen area to be his “cage” now and the only reason I even keep the pet store cage is that it does a great job of keeping the hay confined to a small area.

On the floor, I use a vinyl table cloth thingy. It’s meant to go under a regular table cloth to protect the table, so it has kind of a felted backing on it. It’s very chewable, so it’s not good for destructo bunnies. Luckily Otto has only chewed it when he was extremely bored at the pet sitter’s house and hasn’t done it since. Inside the cage itself, I have a fleece blanket – I just buy bulk fabric from the store and cut it into pieces to fit the bottom of his cage. He really doesn’t like soft things or beds and I only have the fleece to provide traction in the slippery cage.

[corpathina]

this is the exact setup that i make for MJ when i visit the parents with him. i couldn’t see clearly from the picture, so i’ll suggest this even if you have already done so: remember is to attach a wall of NIC grids around the back of the cage. when i made this setup for the first time, i forgot to line the back side of the cage with grids and he very quickly figured out to hop on top of the cage and jump out. i had the cage backed against a wall, but he just pushed the cage away from the wall and hopped over.

so i bet you’ve already done this, but i thought i’d pass along my mistakes so no one else makes them! =)

oh and for the flooring i put down two very large beach towels.

good luck!

[Beka27]

To protect the carpet under our pen, we bought a large, neutral 8×10 foot rug  and we laid that down over the exisitng carpet.  This is an older pic b/c Max and Meadow were not fully bonded yet… since then we have cut the rug down so it only sticks out about 6 inches from the pen.  Our buns are very well-littertrained and don’t dig or chew at the rug, so this works well for them.  I like having the extra protection tho… just in case.

 

[MirBear]

beka27.. what did you use for their cages? it looks sorta like a big dog crate

[Elrohwen]

MirBear, she uses puppy exercise pens. She has two connected together. If you look at my pic above, I have the same xpen, but connected to a cage. They’re generally made with 2′ panels, so one xpen would be 4’x4′ if set up in a square. They come in different heights.

[MirBear]

cool !! im gunna get a play pen for hershey.. silly little bunn is connected to a leash at the moment.. she was being bad…

[Monkeybun]

A leash? What did she do to get tied up? 😮

[MirBear]

she ate my cat!
no but she did eat my sweater AND MY COMPUTER CORD….A and now her leash!

[Monkeybun]

I suspect she doesn’t like being tied up.. definitely get her a pen before she hurts herself on the leash.

[MirBear]

shes upset because she knows leash=outside… but shes not outside…

[boogercj]

Crumbs :S I thought leashes were for surfboards!

My buns both live in X-pens (one 2ft high and one 3ft high) and we’ve not had any problems with escaping (except once when I stupidly left Miranda’s sleeping box against the side, and it was obviously too tempting for her!). Floor wise, one has a bespoke floor made from wooden board covered in self adhesive vinyl tiles and the other just has mats in strategic positions. The bunnies love it because they can have a good run/hop around whilst were at work. They tend to re-arrange their furniture so it’s in the middle and they can run circuits around the pen!!

*patter patter patter patter patter crash*

[Deleted User]

Beka, I just love your set-up… so spacious… so neat. one of my favorites.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

she ate my cat!
no but she did eat my sweater AND MY COMPUTER CORD….A and now her leash!

I know this is OT but punishing a rabbit is not goign to make her stop what she is doing-it’s going to upset her and maybe ruin your bond with her.

She does not and CANNOT think “oh I’m on a leash because I was bad’
She thinks “mom put me on this leash and I am mad at mom”

Punishment almost NEVER works with animals-they do not think like us. Instead bunny proof your home (cords) and pick up your sweater. How is a rabbit supposed to know what they can and cannot chew? They cannot-so instead you need to make it easy for them by only allowing them to chew what they are allowed to have.

And she could freak out and break her back on a leash-it happens, even to professionals-I wouldn’t leash her at all.

[MirBear]

i wasnt pnishing her, she knows that a firm “no” is punishment lol i was containing her mostly..she was getting into things she usually ignors and i didnt want to put her back in her little cage.. lol and my sweater was on my lol i didnt know the little thing was even beside my untill i had a bunny licking my elbow! i love hershey for that.. she never freaks out she freaks the cats out tho

[KatnipCrzy]

I started off with a “pet store cage”- found Binky Bunny and added an NIC pen and used to “tuck her in at night”- get her in the cage with more pellets, treat, etc.  But she soon proved to me that she does not want to jump out- so we ditched the pet store cage to make a more deluxe pen.  At first a smaller area might be important for litterbox training.  And it depends on the individual bunny- Schroeder proved he could clear the NIC pen when we were handing out  “salads” and he was too excited to wait- of course I had to open the pen door to let him back in.    But he and Griff now share a split 4 foot x-pen- so no escaping for Schroeder now- Griff was another matter though- but he is a larger rabbit- an English Lop who unlike most lops are long and lean- he has long nose, long ears, long body, long tail and long legs- so he is way more athletic than my “bulldog” Mini Lops.

My husband said that Cotton also jumped out of her pen the other night over the same issue- food- she was last of 3 bunnies to get their nomes- so she jumped out- he put food in her cage and let her back in.

So it really depends on the rabbit.  I think in general Cotton and Schroeder are happy in their pens- they are safe, secure and know that is where they are supposed to be.  Griffin is a naughty teenager that gets into everything, climbs everything, explores everything, tries to eat things rabbits should not be interested in- raw potato and dill pickles, etc.  His personality tells him- lets go explore “I like my pen, but I like to have fun and they ALWAYS put me back anyway.”

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