Bringing buns inside

I need to move house soon, & it would definitely be a lot cheaper for me to move into a flat - I could then move to a much nicer area than the one I'm in now. This of course would mean bringing the buns inside. My OH is dead set against this, since the buns do seem to be very happy outside, they're not that good at sticking to one place litter-wise, and we will be renting so the landlord might not be too keen.

I know lots of buns live indoors, how do you cope with the dangers of incontinence? I might just let them have their own room & put something down on the floor. So what do you think? Put my foot down, or pay an extra £200 per month to live in a dodgy area (where I'm not that happy about them living outside anyway)?

Jo

Hmm tricky, landlords do not like house rabbits, im lucky in that after i moved in i asked my landlord if they could live in the utility and come out supervised and he agreed as we are good tenants. You'll have to spend the time to litter train them, they normally find litter trays with hay in more tempting to wee in than just anywhere in the house. But you have to tran them wth the poos lol saffy still poos everywhere joey usually is very clean, i pick the poos up and pop them in the litter tray and pop the bunny in the litter tray too just to reinforce its there i want them to go, dont mind the odd stray poo!

Are they neutered?

They are neutered, and quite we ll behaved apart from forgetting where the litter tray is! When I first got them they peed up the walls of their hutch, but now they just pick a corner & go there. I was tempted to keep them a secret from the landlord, but I suppose that's just storing up trouble.

Well it depends on the landlord, whether they check and if you have nice neighbours or not, they may have spys!! Peeing up the walls sounds like they were spraying, have they been neutered long? You will just have to encourage them to use the litter tray, they soon get the hang of it, the only danger is of course that for some reason they dont and then you're stuck :?

How big is your litter tray? Get the biggest one you can find, put newspaper in the bottom and lots of fresh hay inside and a few of their poos and they should use it. Don't have hay or straw anywhere else in the cage, just newspaper or vet bed will do, or they will get confused as to where the toilet is. Mine are sat in their trays for most of the day, they love them!

Amber and Dexter (behind) in their litter tray -

Yeh get a really good big one, i have a huge corner litter tray (cat one) in the lounge that they use well, i do have one rectangle one but saffy hasnt quite got the hang of making sure her bum is in the litter tray not over the edge!! haha :lol:

I have 2 big litter trays in their utiliy area too

litter training has been pretty easy for me... as the others have said hay only in the tray and not other places. its best to start off with a small area and put the tray in the corner your bun chooses until they get the idea, it can be slowely reposisitoned after that, a few litter trays in different areas also encourage good wee behaviour, alvin never sprayed so i have no idea how to stop that one :shock: poop does start in the tray but gets spread as fluffy Alvin jumps out of the tray (after sunday and lack of poop ill never moan at hoovering poops up again tho, such an amazing sight lol)...
i put a huge handful at one edge and just keep adding to it as they eat the hay... litter trays are too small for little miss dig alot so i now have an underbed storage box which is working brilliantly...

after litter training you only need to worry about wallpaper chewing and hay everywhere if you like a clean house lololololol

i love every second of keeping house bunnies but im not houseproud so i dont worry about the mess.... gotta replace all the missing patches of wallpaper before the next inspection tho

We have three house bunnies (a pair and a single). We use their cage as toilet and feeding place - the cage is quite large and we have taken the top off so it is more like a big cat litter box (we have wood pellets in it). Since we put their food and hay in the cage they come in it to eat and do toilet

Sometimes the buns drag out the hay from the cage and eat it on the carpet in frot of the cage - then sometimes they have a little poop accident but apart from that they are very clean.

We haven't really told our neighbors about the buns. We are lucky in the sense that we own the apartment and thus doesn't have to deal with a landlord but I think it is against house rules to have pets... But I know that many people in the building have animals (dogs, cats, birds etc.) but I still smuggle the buns out when I have to take them out:roll:.

Thanks guys. I'll definitely take the advice about only having hay in the litter trays, they love to poop where they eat! I'll probably try & find a sympathetic landlord, if I get a couple of good references from my last two (I was a model tenant!), that might help.

Cheers

I have almost the same problem, at the difference that my bunnies always have lived inside, and that I have no references here (the real estates agency refused the french one, even in english...)
So We have to do a really bad thing, as we haven't find any ads about letting accepting pets and no proposals to our ads...
I haven't had this problem in france as it is forbidden to the landlords to refuse pets in there lettings... even to ask it during viewings...
I'll firstly keep my bunnies upstairs, there are litter trained but firmin is a little rascal and sometimes prefere peeing on the carpet... We will buy some lino to protec the carpets in there room...
Anyway, if the carpets are in really bad shape the day we leave, we ll change it... We ever do everything I have to leave the rentals in the shape we moved in, so I have my counsciousness for me, but I am really afraid the landlord or agency discover it...
I hope you'll find a nice landlord, and with good reference,, they might trust you...
For the hay in the litter, it really depends on the rabbit... some do not pee-poo where they eat, others do. But I have to do it by the way, as shiro arrived... Her alias is "shirototo la grosse crado" which means: "Shirototo the great filthy bunny" (may be nasty is a bit exagerated... but I don't know other word...) as she pee-poo when she eat her hay!

I would venture to say that MOST buns in the states are house rabbits anymore. You can certainly go to rabbit.org for many idea on how to keep your place for an indoor bunny. I live in a very tiny house and have two LARGE bunnies inside with me now, and it works out very nicely.

I suggest having a pen/cage setup that is large enough for your buns to live in most of them time, and then letting them out for supervised play time. This seems to be the normal for most house rabbits I know.

http://www.michiganrabbitrescue.org/condo.htm

A setup like they have on this page is a great idea, and I would love to do this someday for my girls.

Some other suggestions are to keep a tarp or plastic shower curtain on the floor beneath their cage and out a few feet around it. This helps in cleaning time!!! Also, if you keep them in their cage for a bit before letting them have a lot of playtime out of it, they are bound to pick a spot for potty time. Use this as your litter box spot, or even just to put a lot more bedding there for them to go in.

Good luck! If my buns can transition into happy indoor buns, yours can too!

we housed our rabbits hutch in the cupboard under the stairs so when the landlord came round he didnt see it!! bunny had free range except for night time and went back to the hutch to wee.the poos you can hoover up.