Preparing for a new bunny in London!

[Tessie]

 Hi everyone, my name is Tessie – I’m new!

I’ve had rabbits since I was about 13 but they have always been outdoor bunnies. Now I am moving out I can have one in the house (which I’ve always wanted to do). So I have a few questions!

I’d like to have a slightly larger bun than I’ve had before (always had mini lops) and I’m thinking about a dwarf lop or a french lop.
I was wondering what size these bunnies grow to be? Online all I can find is weights (and that doesnt really help me visualising size). So this might sound strange, but if someone could tell me the measurements of the average french or dwarf lop, or maybe suggest something they are roughly the same size of that would be great! 

Also, having never had a house bunny I have a few general questions: 

I’m planning on keeping the bunny in his cage when I’m out and lettng him roam while I’m in the house, – is this what most people do? What about when you’re alseep?

Do you have a second litter box out in the room that your bunnies explore or do you just let them use their cage as their litter box? 

Do you put bedding in an indoor cage the same way you would with a hutch or do you leave the bun with just like.. the floor?

Finally, anyone know a good vet in central London?

Thank you in advance for all your help! 
 

[Enh98]

Our bun lives in an xpen (exercise pen) when we’re away and asleep. We let him out to play for several hours each day. In our situation, we have to carry the bunny upstairs to play (thankfully he tolerates that!) so we have a separate litter box we set up in the living room. In his pen, we do not have bedding on the floor. He has a vinyl floor (which is very easy to clean!) and some grass mats and a fleece blanket for something soft. We only have bedding (wood pellets) in his litter box. I am not familiar with many breeds of rabbits so I can’t help with a size comparison, sorry! Ours is a holland lop so he’s pretty small. Good luck to you!!

[Valkyrie]

My bunnies stay in their cage when I am not home and at night. Bromley’s cage is about 2 feet by 3 feet long, which I sometimes feel guilty about but it is bigger than most cages. Plus he is only in it while I am at work and he sleeps most of that time anyways. Since I am getting a second rabbit tonight I am building a two level bunny condo (each level 2 feet by 5 feet) for them to live in together once they are bonded. That way they have lots of room even on those nights I have a volunteer shift after work and don’t get home til 11 pm.

They have a litterbox in their cage with specialized litter and the rest of the floor has a tiny bit of Carefresh paper pulp bedding. My rabbits jump back into their cage to use the litterbox, but if you have a lot of square footage you might want to put an extra one near the farther end as well. My old rabbit Merlin preferred the bare plastic floor, but Bromley likes a little bit of bedding to dig around in. A lot of it depends on your rabbit.

I have rexes and lionheads so I can’t help you with lop sizes.

[Sarita]

Well a French Lop is very large and once full grown you really will want him/her to have plenty of room and ideally once full grown and litter trained free roam 24/7 would be best for a large rabbit. They need ALOT of space. Initially you could keep him/her contained in a dog exercise pen until he is altered and litter trained and you can probably use that as his/her “home” base. Any of my free roam rabbits have and are free roam 24/7 but that depends on how well behaved they are and how well they are litter trained.

You don’t want to do bedding in my opinion, just a litter box otherwise they seem to get confused. You do need a large cage though for any size rabbit and the majority (if not all) of the cages they sell in pet stores are not adequate.

For a vet in London you can contact the Rabbit Welfare Assn which is located in the UK – just google it and their website will come up.

[MoveDiagonally]

The minimum recommended cage size for a small – medium bunny is 122 cm x 61cm (4′ X 2′). Larger bunnies need more space. For example I have a few 4.5kg (10lb) English Lop and I couldn’t imagine keeping them in anything smaller then 122cm X 122cm (4′ X 4′). As long as your cage is large enough for a rabbits size and get time out to play then putting them up in their habitat while you’re out or sleeping should be fine. This is pretty normal I think. 

I think French Lops are 4.9kg + (11 lbs +) and would need a lot more space as Sarita said. If you don’t have a lot of space I would probably go with a Dwarf Lop which would be medium sized rabbit. 

 

On a side note, and maybe this is common knowledge, I just learned something. According to Wikipedia, UK Mini Lops are similar to US Holland Lops and UK Dwarf Lops are similar to US Mini Lops (in size). 

 

Bedding in the bottom of the cage can confuse a rabbit during litter training so I would only put it in the litter box. I put fleece down on the floor for my rabbits but this can also confuse some bunnies during litter training and I might wait until after they are litter trained to do it. 

 

[Tessie]

Thanks everyone for your help!

[Author]

Messages