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Size of rabbit rooms

Stator

Warren Veteran
How large do you think an indoor rabbit room has to be if it's to be their permanent home? ie no free ranging of the entire house, just the room they are in. Assuming the room is entirely devoted to them. If the room was the size of a double bedroom, would they still feel contained / desperate to get out?
 
Mine wants out of any room he's shut in. He likes all the doors to be open and is quite happy to tell me so!
 
My two have their own room as their main living area, they do ocassionally free-range downstairs but not as often as I'd like as mum isn't keen on them running around the house. They've always been happy in there as long as they get plenty of stimulation (toys etc.) :) Bella occasionally tries to escape but she certainly isn't desperate to get out. She usually only does it when she's bored (which is why I try my hardest to keep her occupied) :) I'm not sure how big it is but I could find out :wave: Obviously all buns are different though, what works well with mine might not work at all for others.
 
Ufric is happy in the bedroom he shares with me and when the MIL is out he follows me around on the landing, he is ok like this but you do have to give them alot of mental stimulation or they become destructive and bored, ;)
 
If they were outside and the garden wasn't secure, they'd live in a shed/hutch and run combo or aviary etc... so if the room is as big as an outdoor home that you'd be happy is big enough, then it's surely fine?
 
Well the room would be bigger than their existing hutch and run but it wouldn't be as big as the other space in the garden. They get to go out of their runs and have a wander around a few times every day. Indoors this wouldn't be possible, so I'm not sure how much permanent space they would need without access to the rest of the house :?
 
The minimum works out just under 50 sq ft. The lionheads room is a small one and meets this so I can't imagine many rooms not meeting that.
 
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Current room is i think 12ft x 8ft. Thats not all usable though as they share the office with me.

New house, the rabbit room is 18ft x 12ft, which is 216ft, but again, will be shared with me.

I'd say, a rabbit room should be at least the same floor space as the RWA/RSPCA recommendations of 6x2x2 + 8x6x2 (i think thats the current recommendation?). Nothing less.
 
I think it also depends on the rabbit and how much space they 'want' to use. I appreciate this a dangerous concept and I don't want anyone who is new to this forum interpreting this as it's ok to keep my rabbit in a small space as they wouldn't use a larger one even if it were provided/when it is provided - as very often this becomes habit and a behavioural reason not to go beyond what they are accustomed to. I say this because Poppy has a large hutch indoors (8ft x 2.5ft in a double storey) this is in a small utility room which is 'the bunny room' but shared with our washing machine and utility sink. There is probably only another usuable space of 8ft x 3ft again on floor space she can use in there (but doesn't) - neither does she use the fairly large kitchen/diner it is open to most of the day for her, she is shut in her hutch at night. She simply doesn't want to - she hops out on to the mat by the patio door out to the garden and often sits on the mat with us in the kitchen but that's it indoors. BUT she does go outside for supervised free range of the garden twice a day if not more every day, if we are out there all day, so is she. She is outdoors except in pouring rain or very cold weather for a good few hours a day, on the days that she can't go out, she doesn't, she just sits in her hutch, hops into the kitchen to sit on the mat and back again - nothing more - there is plenty of space for her to play in here if she wanted but she chooses not to. I appreciate this doesn't really answer your question at all re. actual minimum room size but it does illustrate that it is mostly about giving that space as an option - whether they choose to use it or not is up to them.

If you were looking at it mathematically you would say the minimum room size would be equivalent to min floor size of hutch space recommended. So 6x2 hutch plus 6x4 run at the very least would be 12 + 24 sq ft = 36 sq ft so bascially any room that meets that size I guess, but really the more you can give the better, I have never felt this was adequate without additional free range either in a house or garden.
 
Our living room is where Buckley lives. He has free range in there and it's a big room. He still wants more space though and isn't afraid to let us know he wants more space. Only time he hasn't wanted more space was last year when he lived in my bedroom in the old house... which was a whole floor of a big victorian town house...
 
I think it also depends on the rabbit and how much space they 'want' to use. I appreciate this a dangerous concept and I don't want anyone who is new to this forum interpreting this as it's ok to keep my rabbit in a small space as they wouldn't use a larger one even if it were provided/when it is provided - as very often this becomes habit and a behavioural reason not to go beyond what they are accustomed to. I say this because Poppy has a large hutch indoors (8ft x 2.5ft in a double storey) this is in a small utility room which is 'the bunny room' but shared with our washing machine and utility sink. There is probably only another usuable space of 8ft x 3ft again on floor space she can use in there (but doesn't) - neither does she use the fairly large kitchen/diner it is open to most of the day for her, she is shut in her hutch at night. She simply doesn't want to - she hops out on to the mat by the patio door out to the garden and often sits on the mat with us in the kitchen but that's it indoors. BUT she does go outside for supervised free range of the garden twice a day if not more every day, if we are out there all day, so is she. She is outdoors except in pouring rain or very cold weather for a good few hours a day, on the days that she can't go out, she doesn't, she just sits in her hutch, hops into the kitchen to sit on the mat and back again - nothing more - there is plenty of space for her to play in here if she wanted but she chooses not to. I appreciate this doesn't really answer your question at all re. actual minimum room size but it does illustrate that it is mostly about giving that space as an option - whether they choose to use it or not is up to them.

If you were looking at it mathematically you would say the minimum room size would be equivalent to min floor size of hutch space recommended. So 6x2 hutch plus 6x4 run at the very least would be 12 + 24 sq ft = 36 sq ft so bascially any room that meets that size I guess, but really the more you can give the better, I have never felt this was adequate without additional free range either in a house or garden.

Do you think that may be because she has everything she needs in one area? My lops used to spend all their time in the dog crate when I had it, even though the doors were always open, but now that their bed is in one area, their litter tray in another, water bowl somewhere else they use a lot more of the room. When I turn the light out at night Mischa often decides this is time to munch. So I hear, run, run, run on the lino; munch, munch, munch in the litter tray; a jump back out; run, run, run on the lino again; glug, glug, glug from the water bowl; then the process repeats! They will often do laps with their Fibafirst pellets at breakfast and dinner. Right now they are asleep under the chair (well actually Mischa is standing guard by the gate :lol: he's after something but I'm not sure what right now). The lionheads do something similar as well. It almost forces them to move around.

It's funny, my lops' room is bigger than the lionheads' but it's always them who try to sneak out of the gate. They aren't desperate for more room, they are simply extremely nosey. :lol:
 
Do you think that may be because she has everything she needs in one area? My lops used to spend all their time in the dog crate when I had it, even though the doors were always open, but now that their bed is in one area, their litter tray in another, water bowl somewhere else they use a lot more of the room. When I turn the light out at night Mischa often decides this is time to munch. So I hear, run, run, run on the lino; munch, munch, munch in the litter tray; a jump back out; run, run, run on the lino again; glug, glug, glug from the water bowl; then the process repeats! They will often do laps with their Fibafirst pellets at breakfast and dinner. Right now they are asleep under the chair (well actually Mischa is standing guard by the gate :lol: he's after something but I'm not sure what right now). The lionheads do something similar as well. It almost forces them to move around.

It's funny, my lops' room is bigger than the lionheads' but it's always them who try to sneak out of the gate. They aren't desperate for more room, they are simply extremely nosey. :lol:

No I don't think so. When she and Nino used to live in the hutch in the dining room at night but then come upstairs (3 storey townhouse) to the sitting room for the day where they had a litter tray and hay basket, water bowl etc... Poppy STILL spent the entire day under the bed in the spare room - would come out once at lunchtime for a munch and poo! :lol: then go back under the bed until early evening when she would finally come out and play, she would also have a quick play in the morning before the day's nap! But that was it. Her free range time outside is exactly the same time, breakfast time, lunchtime (if she is awake and asks to go out) and early evening - the rest of the time - back in her hutch asleep (just like she did under the bed in the spare room - despite the fact that in those days their stuff was spread out over 2 floors and 3 rooms!

Anne McBride - who met her! Described her as a typical burrow bunny - female. Apparently wild buns in wet weather rarely venture out of their burrows at all and stay underground, Poppy is like the epitomy of a wild doe who is very much burrow bound!

Nino, when he was alive bless him, was the total opposite and used the space he and Poppy shared to the max ALL day long.

Buns are just so very different in so many ways that's all.
 
I think my two have roughly 8x9ft floor space i.e the middle of the room not covered by furniture where their pen etc is. They are free-range 24/7 usually but I will put them in the pen if I need to. They can go behind stuff, on the bed etc as well if they choose.

Its fine, but its not ideal, and its never completely tidy, I wish they could get a proper run around out of it sometimes. They are nervous of lino/laminate though so I can leave the door open and they wont leave, although they will often look out and lean over the threshold of the door. All the other rooms are smaller, so no point taking them to another room, and none are bunnyproof anyway. I do occasionally put foam tiles down so they can go in the hall, but they spend the whole time trying to get in the lounge, which isnt bunnyproofed, and when Anna gets in there she's straight under the sofa and wont come out :roll:
 
No I don't think so. When she and Nino used to live in the hutch in the dining room at night but then come upstairs (3 storey townhouse) to the sitting room for the day where they had a litter tray and hay basket, water bowl etc... Poppy STILL spent the entire day under the bed in the spare room - would come out once at lunchtime for a munch and poo! :lol: then go back under the bed until early evening when she would finally come out and play, she would also have a quick play in the morning before the day's nap! But that was it. Her free range time outside is exactly the same time, breakfast time, lunchtime (if she is awake and asks to go out) and early evening - the rest of the time - back in her hutch asleep (just like she did under the bed in the spare room - despite the fact that in those days their stuff was spread out over 2 floors and 3 rooms!

Anne McBride - who met her! Described her as a typical burrow bunny - female. Apparently wild buns in wet weather rarely venture out of their burrows at all and stay underground, Poppy is like the epitomy of a wild doe who is very much burrow bound!

Nino, when he was alive bless him, was the total opposite and used the space he and Poppy shared to the max ALL day long.

Buns are just so very different in so many ways that's all.

Oh definitely, I can never get over how dfferent my two pairs are!
 
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