Successful Child-Rabbit Setup

[AU]

Hi all,

I’m new here and I don’t have bunnies… YET! I would love to, though. I’ve been doing research, and every resource I’ve found tells me that rabbits and young kids don’t mix well. I have three young children (all under seven), so on the face of it it would seem that we should wait at least a few years for rabbits. However, I’d really like to make this work, if possible. I have a porch that is more like a room open on one side – it’s got a roof and three walled sides (one of which opens to the house), and the last side is barred. We keep it locked and the kids never go there without supervision. It’s a pretty big space, and from what I’ve read it’s large enough to comfortably house two dwarf bunnies. When the door to the house is closed, it filters out most of the noise, so I don’t think we’d have problems with that bothering the rabbits, and they’d have each other for company whenever we’re not with them. I would of course closely supervise all interactions between the children and the rabbits and have clear rules for what we can and can’t do. Since the kids are young and go to bed pretty early, it would also mean that the rabbits would get plenty of time to come inside and interact with me and my husband in the evenings.

Does this sound like a workable setup to you experienced bunny folks?

(And please… if it’s a terrible idea, don’t attack me, just explain 😉 I’m not here to be evil to bunnies, I’m here to learn so that I can make a responsible choice. I won’t bring a bunny into the house if we can’t care for it properly.)

[Bam]

Children can be taught to handle rabbits with care and respect. In my opinion that’s a very good thing to teach children. It is true that rabbits shouldn’t be bought as “toys” for kids -rabbits need adults as primary caretakers and children do need to be taught how to handle and behave around rabbits. But that is true for practically all pets we bring into a household where there are children.

I have a porch where my rabbits spend a lot of time during summer. If the buns are to be housed on a porch all year round  they will need some sort of shelter for when it gets cold -if you live in a place that has cold winters, that is.

The barred side of the porch need to be predator-proofed. There are lots of wild and semi-wild animals that want to eat rabbits. I have mink netting (welded 11 mm netting) on my porch. Mice can still get in and out but mice dont pose much of a threat to rabbits. The roof protects against raptor birds.

If you are planning on hanging out with the buns after the kids have gone to bed it might become difficult to get the kids to go to bed 😄

 

 

[Em]

I think the “young kids and rabbits don’t mix well” is tailored more so to parents who get their kids rabbits and expect them to be solely responsible. Kids can also sometimes be pretty rough/heavy handed even petting animals and rabbits are pretty small to tolerate that kind of roughing. That, and most kids see “omg cute bunny, I want to hold them and snuggle!” when very few rabbits would tolerate this for more than a few minutes. And even if you get a rabbit who would tolerate being held, they will promptly let you know they’ve had enough typically by digging in your lap and they have VERY shape nails or even by nipping and then there goes bunny getting thrown across the room.

if you yourself want rabbits and are going to be fully responsible for their care, then you will have no problems so long as the kids understand they can pet the rabbits gently and not pick them up. They’re not super sensitive to noise for the most part, so they should be okay in that regard so long as no one is screaming. General household noises though does not bother many rabbits IME.

 

I got my first rabbit when I was 10. All kids are different. I think it can help teach responsibility, and helps teach kids that even the small animals matter too. If you have the space, time, and general resources to care for them and teach them how to interact with a rabbit properly I would not say it is a bad idea at all. It’s only a bad idea when parents expect their kids to be able to care for a rabbit for 10+ years (when most lose interest) and don’t teach them how to respect their rabbit and allow them to swing out of them. But for responsible parents? You should be fine 🙂

[DanaNM]

It’s awesome you are doing the research BEFORE getting buns! I think that sounds like a good space for them if you can include the considerations that Bam mentioned (climate control in the winter and summer, predators, pests, etc). I wouldn’t worry too much about breed… small buns and large buns both need space to run so you don’t need to restrict yourself to dwarf buns specifically (unless you love them and just want that breed).

If you decide the porch isn’t great (maybe too hard to keep them cool in the summer, etc), you can set up a pen for them in the house and they should still be OK. A little noise is ok and most buns will adapt, you just would want to make sure it’s not loud ALL the time and they have a safe space where they feel protected. Giving them a pen with hides for when they aren’t free-roaming helps rabbits feel safe and secure and is especially important if you have kids or other pets.

I agree with everyone else’s comments. I think it’s great to teach kids about how to gently interact with buns, that advice largely refers to people getting rabbits for their kids, rather than getting a rabbit as their own pet.

I def encourage looking for a rescue where you could adopt an already bonded pair to make things easier on yourself. It’s a common misconception that you can get babies of the same sex and keep them together, but this often ends badly because buns don’t recognize family bonds once they hit puberty. Plus, and it’s extremely common for baby rabbits to be mis-sexed, so you can end up with an “oops litter” without even knowing you had a M-F pair. Getting a rescue rather than a baby bun would also be good because the rescue can help you pick out a more confident bun(s) that will be less fearful of noises from kids. Not sure what you were planning but just figured I would put in my 2 cents on that!

 

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[mia]

I don’t know if this applies to your kids but since you mentioned dwarf buns, pay attention to the bun’s body type. I have a bun who even most adult men are afraid to handle because he is very small boned. Very easy for a small oops or non-delicate hand to harm him.

Also, spend enough time with the buns beforehand to understand their temperament. Some are just not for young kids and will show their hatred for being held/pet or held/pet the “wrong” way by biting, scratching, etc. Some buns may not show this initially when you meet as they’re scared.

[LBJ10]

I definitely agree with adopting an adult or bonded pair of adults. You will get a much better idea of their personality. Babies are like a box of chocolates.

Since the bunnies are for YOU, I think it would be OK to set them up so your kids can only have supervised interactions with them. An enclosed porch or sunroom is fine as long as it’s climate controlled. Keep in mind that small children tend to pet “hard”. I remember my dog being afraid of my niece when she was little because her “petting” was almost hitting… even though she didn’t mean it. So I agree that this can definitely be a teaching moment and, yes, kids can absolutely learn to be gentle with small animals.

[auntie]

I have a 7 year old and we have had our 2 bunnies for over a year now. My daughter for the most part does well with them as far as petting them gently. Sometimes she gets a little rough with them and they will let her know because they growl at her.

my daughter knows she can’t pick them up. She helps me sometimes with getting them in their cages at night.

My bunnies love the playroom as they zoom around and binky

 

The bunnies are used to my daughter and it’s gone really well 😊

ive done some research recently on what breeds are better for children- Lionheads, Chinchilla

 

[AU]

Thank you all, so encouraging to read your replies! It sounds like it is doable after all, and I’m so excited 🙂
To clarify, the barred side of the porch is only barred halfway to the roof. Is that a problem? I’ve never seen birds of prey in our area, and if there are some, would they come into a mostly-enclosed area after the rabbits? (It’s inaccessible to any land-based predators.)

I’m also more concerned about heat than cold where we live. I’ve read that over 25 degrees Celsius is too hot for rabbits. Is that accurate? Are their ways to keep them cool out there? For the really hot days I’d bring them inside, but we don’t have enough indoor space to do that the whole summer.

Thank you so much again! What a great community 🙂

[DanaNM]

My impression on first read was that the porch area was more indoors than outdoors, but now it’s sounding more like it’s mostly outside? In a lot of places it’s pretty common for people to convert a shed into a bunny house. I would not keep them in the sunroom unless it’s fully enclosed. Raccoons, foxes, coyotes, owls, hawks, possoms, bobcats, feral cats… you name it… will go for rabbits. If the roof is open then predators can get in. If it is just screened a predator will easily rip through the screen. There are predator proof hutches that you could build or buy to put within the sunroom, but even that is not 100% safe and they usually are not very large so they would need a safe place to run as well. When I was a kid I had rabbits outside in hutches (which I feel awful about now) and at one point a pack of stray dogs ripped my cages open and killed my rabbits, so you just never know what can happen even if you’ve never seen a predator.

There are also much higher risks for things like RHDV2 and Myxomatosis outdoors, depending on where you are in the world. In general is much safer for the rabbits to be kept indoors.

Anything over 25 C starts getting uncomfortable for buns, and over around 29 C they are at risk of heat stroke (85 F). There are ways to cool them down for short periods, but it’s hard to do that consistently if it’s very hot for prolonged periods of time.

There is some guidance on safe outdoor housing here: https://binkybunny.com/infocategory/house-rabbit-habitats/

Also just for some further consideration, it’s quite possible to build an indoor rabbit “condo” that doesn’t take up very much floor space. I used to live in a studio apartment and I built a NIC cube cage with 4 levels for my pair. They would get lots of run around time in the apartment as well, but they loved their condo. By building up instead of out it took up a lot less space.  This is maybe not the clearest picture but it should give you an idea:

 

 

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[auntie]

Mine lived on our enclosed porch with screen windows for the first year of their life. Where I live we have brutal winter and hot humid summers.

I brought them inside this past January and they live in part of my hallway and I have large dog crates for them which they love. They have full rein of the hallway which is really big from early morning until 7pm then they go in their cages.

im assuming by the picture that this is your new bunny? Adorable

[Author]

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