house rabbit dilema

I currently have a house rabbit and an outdoor rabbit who was a rescue rabbit. The problem is that now my house rabbit has become extremley noisey at nights. The problem is that at the moment at nights she has free run of our spare room which is next to our bedroom and my oh works shifts and is getting sick of being woken up by flopsey. For some reason she has started digging and chewing everything. The only option I can think of is putting her outside permantly. At the moment she goes outside into her run through the day then comes in at nights. I was thinking I could connect my excisting hucth/run combo with the run Ive got to give them a hutch of 5 foot by 3 foot (I know this is a little small, but it would only be temp untill I get some money saved up) and an adjoining run of 10 foot long. Then having the 2 of them live together. Just wondering if this sounds like a good solution or if anyone can think of anything else.

I definitely think bonding them together would be a good solution. They would have company. Perhaps your indoor bunny would be less destructive if it had company.

hurricanhoney said:

I definitely think bonding them together would be a good solution. They would have company. Perhaps your indoor bunny would be less destructive if it had company.

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I agree although would get them both neutered if they're not already.

Buns are more active at night and they tend to hop around also to get attention, you could try partially covering her up at nights to calm her?

There's loads more advise on bonding too - just make sure it's in a neutral zone and remember to stay calm

Is your housebun able to see anybody out and about or sleeping at night, or is she in her own area of the house? Typically they'll want to wake you and play if they can see you. Is she kept in a hutch or smaller area at night so that she can't be a holy terror? If so, I'd suggest covering that to make her feel more snug and "quiet" for the night. Also perhaps remove anything that might be causing excess noise. Perhaps laying a rug down to soften the digging noise.

Both buns have been neutered and the idea was to bond them when I got my rescue bun as my indoor bun had recently lost her companion. I was going to keep them both has house bunnies. But after a few months it was decided that my rescue bun is definately an outdoor bun. He hated being brought into the house and hes much happier now hes outdoors. My indoor bun isnt in a cage shes just free range so it makes it even harder to keep her quiet. The door to her room is shut at nights. I going to have to come up with something as my oh will go mad if this carries on. He is very understanding about all my pets but when his sleep is disturbed hes not as happy!!

Barley is a free range house bun from 5.30am to 11pm but i shut her away at night for the same reason ,as her room backs onto our neighbours bedroom.She seems quite happy with this arrangement,if im up, say at 3am ,she tends to sleep anyway after the initial sniff of me.I really dont see the harm in shutting them away over night if you have a cage.Seems a shame to put him outside just for this reason.

could you not get a cage just for over night?

milly100 said:

Both buns have been neutered and the idea was to bond them when I got my rescue bun as my indoor bun had recently lost her companion. I was going to keep them both has house bunnies. But after a few months it was decided that my rescue bun is definately an outdoor bun. He hated being brought into the house and hes much happier now hes outdoors. My indoor bun isnt in a cage shes just free range so it makes it even harder to keep her quiet. The door to her room is shut at nights. I going to have to come up with something as my oh will go mad if this carries on. He is very understanding about all my pets but when his sleep is disturbed hes not as happy!!

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Would try to bond them then hon, but you'll have to move both of them to a place neither have been before, and best not to give them too much room (around 3 ft squared is ok) as they might get overexcited. And try and do this for about an hour or so each time until you're happy they're happily getting along. You OH might have to wait for a week or so until they're happy living together and your indoor bun has adjusted to life outdoors

I hope it all works out :wave:

I would agree with trying to have a cage of some sort to at least contain her excitement over the evening.. She may even like having a little "place" of her own. From my experience with house buns, I'll just toss a bit of veg into their hutch before the nights over and they don't even make a fuss once they're put away. And they are so very happy to come out the next morning, doing binkies all about. I guess what I'm trying to say is they don't mind being shut away in a decent sized hutch over the evening, it quiets them and gives a little more structure to their bunny schedules.

I think you have tried having them together previously, and from what I can gather the issue wasn't between them, but it was because you didn't feel that your new bun was suited to indoors? Is that right??

I'm thinking perhaps her latest behaviour is stemming from a point of frustration as she is aware you have another bunny outside and she could actually want to be with him. Just a thought

charlie82 said:

I think you have tried having them together previously, and from what I can gather the issue wasn't between them, but it was because you didn't feel that your new bun was suited to indoors? Is that right??

I'm thinking perhaps her latest behaviour is stemming from a point of frustration as she is aware you have another bunny outside and she could actually want to be with him. Just a thought

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Yeah I tried them together. I think I mite bring my dog crate inside for her to be in at night. I was just concerned that she may start throwing things around the dog crate!!!

We sleep above b and dont hear a peep out of her all night when shes in her cage.

I know you lot must be sick of me going on :lol: but ive just had another idea for my situation. I was thinking that as I originally got my rescue bun as a friend for my house bun who unfortunately lost her friend, that maybe I could set up the dog crate with a run attached in my spare room for them at night than through the day they could both go outside into the hucth/run combo which I would add my other run to. What do people think??? My oh is sick of me going on about the bunnies!!! Im going to have to use my hutch/run as my oh very kindly bought it and assembled it for me. Any views would be greatly appreciated thankyou