When is the right time to let him roam free?

[Anita Stark]

Our bun has just reached the 12 week mark.  We have been keeping him confined to a play pen in the living room during the day and putting him back in his cage at night.  The confinement was to help keep the poopfest down and that has worked well.  He uses the litter box well and I can have him on the couch with me for almost half an hour and he doesn’t poop until I put him back in the play pen.  Then he goes straight to his litterbox.

I am anxious to let him run a bit more but my husband wants to keep him confined at least until after he’s neutered in another month or so.  I have to agree this is probably a good plan, just in case he starts spraying.

Wondering what experiences others have had with this?

Thanks!

[Deleted User]

I would say wait until he is neutered as well. Letting him roam now may instigate a whole new campaign of spray and poo everywhere. He’s got the hormones and thence the urge to mark everything. Too much freedom at once often causes another episode of monumental proportions.

[BinkyBunny]

Hi Anistark, because you posted this month, you are also entered into this month’s drawing.  Good Luck!

How large is his playpen right now?

I do agree that confinement is a good idea, especially since he may begin displaying territorial marking soon since he is reaching that age of sexual maturity, but depending on how big the play pen is, you could double it up with another play pen and expand it, or allow him strict supervised freedom.    I do know that one of my friend’s bunny did okay before he was neutered with limited freedom, but it really depends on the bunny and how territorial he is. 

If you find he is marking in your house, then you’ll need to prevent bad habits from cementing in and confine him back to his playpen.

Let us know what you decide and how it goes. 

If you decide that confining him is best, don’t worry, he’ll have plenty of time to be free, and you will be happy to have a completely litter trained bunny.

But also note, that it will take up to a month after surgery for his hormones to die down, and even after that you will still need to supervise and train him to go back to his litterbox if you see him lifting his tail to urinate, and or seeing him marking with poos.

[Anita Stark]

Thanks for the good advice.  His play pen is 3ft by 4ft and, since he’s only a small bunny he can run around in there quite a bit.  I’ve also made sure he has plenty of things to keep him busy.

I did try letting him out a few times by lifting the pen away so that the base of it was still there for him to return to.  At first I thought he would be okay as I kept herding him back into the living room when he ventured too far, but then the pooping started and he even started pooping all over his play pen area again once he was put back in.  So back to confinement it is.  He has returned to his normal litter trained self and I’m going to wait until after he is neutered to give him more freedom.    Then I think we’ll keep the pen there and install a door so he can come and go.

Today I had to put a lid on the pen because he has also started to learn how high he can jump and I want to be able to leave him in there while I’m out of the room some times.  He actually seems to be better with the lid since he’s spending more time playing with his toys than trying to escape.

Thanks again!

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