Smallest Pen

[Bwbedard]

How big would a pen have to be in order to house a bonded pair (lionhead and lop) without ever having to let them out for exercise? My pen now is roughly 8*6 feet and they can get running around in there pretty good but Max seems to crave more room to let those huge binkies fly! I am moving soon and I probably won’t have as much freedom with letting the rabbits have roam so I am needing a condo type setup that fits all their needs.

[MoveDiagonally]

HRS guidelines say that the MINIMUM for 1-2 rabbits is 8 sq ft living quarters with at least 5 hours with an additional 24 sq ft exercise area. That would be a 4 X 2 confined area with an additional 4 X 6 area. Total of 32 sq ft at play time. 

 

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/housing.html

 

I personally feel like 8 sq feet (4 X 2) is too small for two rabbits to be housed in for most of the day. I find 8 sq ft PER rabbit to be more realistic since they are being confined in there most of the day. So  in my opinion the minimum would be at least 16 sq feet (4 X 4)  for at most 19 hours a day and at least a 24 sq ft (4 X 6) additional exercise area for at least 5 hours a day. Total that’s an available 40 sq ft at play time. .

 

Your pen is 8 X 6 (48 sq ft) so it would meet the requirements. 

 

Bigger is always better but I would not go smaller than the HRS guidelines if it can be helped. 

[Beka27]

A condo will not fit all of their needs for exercise without having to be let out. If you can keep their 8×6 pen as is, I would think that is pretty good. If you can supervise their exercise in that room as well, at least for a little bit, that would be even better.

Vertical levels should not be taken into consideration when adding up exercise space, only the “footprint”. So in a 4×2 condo with 2 additional levels, the “living space” is 24 square feet (8 feet for each level) but the “exercise space” is STILL only 8 square feet because only the floor space counts. People with tall condos definitely have to allow for a lot of out of cage time.

[Bwbedard]

Hmm I guess I will just turn my whole bedroom into a rabbit proof room to let them have exercise time in. I’m moving back in with my parents who aren’t rabbit fans so I won’t have the freedom to build a large pen in the middle of the living room

[Eucalyptus]

You shouldn’t be thinking in terms of “what’s the smallest I can get” …. it should be “what’s the biggest I can afford or fit in my house” really.

These are your pets and family members after all.

[MoveDiagonally]

Definitely do the best with what you have available to you. I would aim for the closest to the minimum as you realistically can and if your parents are open to them frolicking around your room I think that’s a wonderful play area solution.

[Bwbedard]

Oh if it were up to me they’d have free run of a totally rabbit proof house but that isn’t feasible ATM. My bedroom is a possibility though.

[Emmie]

Both of my buns spend all day out in my sitting room and at night, Thane goes into his pen/cage and Siha has the run of the hallway and closet.

Why are your parents not fond of the buns? Are they litter trained? Your folks might warm up to them when they see how sweet they are! I know when my sister got a bun, my folks weren’t too keen on keeping them in the house, but when they realised he was perfectly litter trained and spent most of his day lying around, they gave him the run of the house!

Bunny proofing your room is an option, but personally I’m never comfortable leaving my buns free-roam without any kind of supervision.

[Bwbedard]

My buns are probably 99% litter trained. But my dad is a little bit of a freak and he has zero tolerance to a territorial poop or two. I’ve had the rabbits there short term before and he will stomach it for only so long it seems. What I am planning on doing now is turning the closet into a rabbit condo for them to stay in when I’m not around with exercise time in my room and possibly the hallway.

Right now I am working hard at the last 1% of the litter training (I have never really had a problem with vacuuming up their mess every night) and it seems to be going well so that is probably going to help.

The second problem is my dad has a dog that the rabbits do not get along with at all. He has actually caught killed wild rabbits before that he catches in the yard so I would never ever want them to be together alone. Even still the rabbits know that he is dangerous and want nothing to do with him. Even if they did have free run of the house they would hide in their cages anyway. Keeping them in my room gives them a free space away from the dog and takes a load off my mind.

No matter how big I build their pen, room, condo, or whatever they always want more room. They explore, claim the space, and start trying to escape. I’m starting to get the feeling that escaping the pen is a game rather than a craving for more space. As I type this they are trying to get out of a pen with close to 100 square feet available to them to play in. Ha ha.

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