Putting a bunny in my room?

[bunnynovice]

Hello!

I’m getting my first house bunny this weekend (Hopefully!) and I’m not sure where to put it. My room has a LOT of cords, including those leading to my expensive computer. D: But, I want my bunny to be near me where I am the most, but I wouldn’t be able to let him/her out to play. (I am still in school so I am gone for most of the day.) However, I can also put her in my basement, which has two huge empty rooms, and two smaller ones. Two of the rooms, one big and one small, are finished. However, I don’t want him/her to feel lonely down there when I am not spending time with him/her. :/ The main reason it is difficult for me to decide is because I have both a dog and a cat, and my dog is notorious for chasing bunnies, so I don’t know how she is going to react with my new friend. However, my dog is not allowed downstairs, so the bunny would be safer down there. She/he will be in an enclosed cage with wire bars.

Where should I put him/her? 

[Rachel D.]

I’m not a bunny expert, but we have two bunnies and have tried multiple housing situations. I would recommend getting a large plastic-bottomed cage for your bunny. She can stay in the cage when you are not able to be in the room with her and watch her. Bunnies can be very destructive and can chew on things (e.g. cords, etc.) which can harm them. We started out with an outdoor two-story condo, then built an A-frame outdoor hutch, then converted an unused room in our house into the Bunny Nook. Our bunnies are both litter-boxed trained but they do like to leave a few poop pellets on the outside of their litter boxes as a way of marking their territory. We also have a North State Play Yard, a heavy-duty plastic baby or pet play yard which opens into a 2′ x 4′ pen. One bunny stays inside this pen within the Bunny Nook and the other has free roam of the rest of the Bunny Nook (the two bunnies do not get along). If you buy a rabbit cage, be sure to get a large one that does not have a wire mesh bottom. Bunnies need a lot of room to move around. You can place a litter box inside the cage or you can line the bottom of the cage with litter. Then, when you are home and in your room, you can let the bunny out of her cage and interact with her. Be very careful about your dog and cat around the bunny. Even if the dog or cat cannot physically touch the bunny, they can frighten her to death (literally). Rabbits are prey animals and can have a heart attack if they are frightened. Good luck!

[Stickerbunny]

Given your dogs prey instinct, probably the basement would be a better option. Wires can be covered up (can buy wire protectors, or NIC grids) but the dog trying to get in, would be scary and potentially give a bunny a heart attack. Not to mention the dog might break in. Just provide lots of toys, a LARGE cage / xpen setup and spend a few hours down there with it.

[bunnyfriend]

If there was a way that you could be 100% sure your dog wouldn’t be able to get into your room and scare the bunny I would say your room would be best. Wire protecters are sold at hardware stores in large quantities at low costs. My buns have run of most of the house but while I’m gone and at night I block them off into my room with a baby gate (my dog doesn’t have a prey drive though), I don’t know if that’s something that might work for you. If not, the basement sounds like a better option.

If you do chose to keep your bunny in a cage for the majority of the day the cage should be at least 8 square feet (pet store cages are too small) and tall enough that the bunny can stand up completely on its hind legs, but even that size seems small to me. And then of course provide your bunny with a couple hours of exercise time outside the cage every day

Welcome to BinkyBunny btw

[Elrohwen]

Once you start bunny proofing, it won’t be all that hard to hide the cords (you can use NIC grids to block off areas, or just put the cords in cord protecting tubes). Still, I personally wouldn’t have a bunny in my room. First, lots of people are allergic to the hay (much more than the bunny itself) so if you’re sleeping around hay 8 hours a day a minor allergy could become much worse. I have minor allergies to the hay which don’t bother me at all since I’m not around it for so many hours.

Second, bunnies are really loud at night. They tend to be up and moving until well after midnight, then they’re up again and playing at 5am. The few times the buns have slept in my room I didn’t get much sleep. A super sound sleeper might be fine with it though.

I think either place would be good if the dog really wouldn’t be able to get in with the bunny. Even if your plan is for the dog to never see the bunny, I would do some training with him just in case. You can work on teaching “leave it” and getting him calm when he sees the bunny (keep the dog on leash and bunny in a cage). The dog doesn’t need to be friends with the bun, but a basic understanding of “There’s the bunny, I need to be calm now” would be a huge help if they accidentally got together.

Do you spend time in the basement? If it’s a common family hangout area, it sounds like a good fit. If nobody ever goes down there, then the bedroom would probably be better. Like the others said, a huge cage is absolutely necessary (the pet store ones aren’t worth it unless you’re going to attach an exercise pen to the outside).

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