Two questions!

[FiverRabbit]

Half of my room is devoted to my bunny, and he never really gets put in his cage unless I need to put away clothing or change the trash. He has been doing amazing with his litterbox, I have only seen a few droppings right infront of the box but those are easy to pickup so I’m definitely not complaining!

My first question is, even with the fact that his part of the room is completely bunny-proofed, should he still be caged when I am not around? Although he hasn’t gotten into any trouble without being caged, I still worry sometimes that it might not be such a good idea to give him so much freedom without supervision.

My next question is how do I get my room to not smell like rabbit?! I clean his litterbox anytime I notice he’s gone to the bathroom (one to two times a day) and the rest of his area is always clean. My floor is a rug, but I have a mini vaccum cleaner that I use almost every night to pick up any stray hay or litter material that may have fallen. I also take out the trash every week, and my windows are almost always open. Why won’t the smell go away?!

This is a picture of his part of the room, there is also a bunny condo and a litter box behind his bed. Sorry it looks so bad, I took the picture using my webcam.

[Monkeybun]

is he neutered yet? If not,t hat would be why you have the strong bunny smell. Male hormones especially can make them a bit stinky. Once he is neutered, he will smell much less

[Stickerbunny]

Also, when you clean his litter box do you just dump the litter and get new, or do you clean it with a water / vinegar solution every so often? Plastics will absorb the smell of urine, so a vinegar scrub every so often helps a lot. And what you use as litter can help too, I use newspaper for my boy because he will not accept anything else (he’s so picky!) and it doesn’t absorb smell at all … I use wood pellet litter (pellet, no shavings!) for my girl and her room doesn’t smell much at all because it absorbs the smell so well.

Any carpet/rugs can be cleaned with baking soda and then vacuumed, helps a TON to rid my carpet of any smells they may make. I just overnight leave baking soda on the carpet with the buns locked securely away in their night time rooms and vacuum it in the morning before I let them out.

My male is not altered yet (waiting for the vet to OK it) and sometimes he’ll go around chin rubbing / leaving a few droppings around and the smell is pretty strong because of his scenting. I use nature’s miracle to rid that smell, since vinegar doesn’t seem to do as good a job (bun can’t be around it though as it’s alcohol based).

For leaving him out while you’re not there… I have a bunny proofed area for my male when I am not around he stays in it (his bedroom, my bedroom and the bathroom) and I just make sure there is nothing he can chew or hurt himself with in them. My girl has the laundry room all to herself. I never put either of them into a cage.

[jerseygirl]

Have you checked for spots he might have peed somewhere?

Regarding free ranging, try letting him stay out for shorter stints at first. So if you know you’re only going to be away for a couple hours try it then so you get an idea of how it goes. Then try longer times if it’s working out. If he hasn’t been fixed yet, maybe wait at least til after that or when he’s a bit older and behaviour more predictable.
 

You might notice when you are home and he’s out that he sleeps a lot during the day, then his being caged while you’re away probably doesn’t bother him. Lots of rabbit just like a quiet spot to sleep during the day anyway.

On rabbit proofing: If you’re in a household with other pets, make sure the door is firmly shut, push against it to test when you leave. Also make sure people in the household are aware your rabbit is not caged.

Make sure things that can be used as a step aren’t near furniture you don’t want the rabbit on. Some will even move their cardboard boxes or whatever and use it as a step or launch base. Never underestimate them!

[Beka27]

I would definitely wait until after the neuter and then another month or so to truly evaluate how his behavior is. I’m assuming you live in the home with other people, so it’s important that he not be able to do any damage to the house or furnishings.

[Author]

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