tips on encouraging a bun to explore outside of pen

[dnelle]

hello all! 🙂
I recently adopted a 6 month old harlequin mix, Monica. She is amazing and I love her to death. She seems really friendly, and has allowed us to sit with her and pet her since the day we adopted her. She is inquisitive, and will very cautiously sniff us and nudge us with her nose. She resides in a large NIC cube pen, with plenty of toys, her litter box, and a cardboard hide. We have left the door of her cage open all day every day since she came home, as we have every intention of letting her free roam the house once she is used to us and we are used to her, but she has not left once. She knows the door is open, as she will stick her head and the front of her body out, but she won’t walk all the way out into our bedroom. I have put toys around the room, sat on the floor outside her pen doing other activities for hours on end, and every once in a while I’ll put a raisin just outside the door. She’ll poke her head out and eat up the raisin but that’s it. I would really appreciate any tips at all on encouraging her to explore the rest of her home! Thank you in advance.

edit: I should add that we’ve only had her for a month now, so I’m not expecting her to be the world’s cuddliest bun anytime soon. But I would think that at this point she should have hopped out at least a little ways!

[kurottabun]

Keep doing what you’re doing There are buns who take months and months to actually leave their pen or cage, so 1 month still isn’t too bad!

Maybe gradually expand her pen until she’s used to the space?

[Bam]

I agree with Kurotta. My bunny Bam sat under a coffea table for a year before he went and explored. Now and then he’d emerge a yard or so, we used to say he was on a hike when he did because it was so rare. He was an adult bun of unknown origins, so a 6-month old who is enjoying pets from her new hoomins will most likely not need that long.

I think one day she’ll just hop out of the cage and start exploring. She’ll probably want her cage as a safe base camp, but many bunnies choose another spot for the daily lounging. Is she spayed?

[dnelle]

Thank you! Bam sounds adorable, it would kill me to see a bun poking out from beneath the coffee table. She is spayed. The shelter she spent most of her life at had playtime for the buns in a separate room, so I don’t think she’s used to being able to come out of her pen on her own. I plan on always keeping her pen as her ‘area’. I’m excited for the day she finally hops all the way out!

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