outdoor set up advice...

Hi everyone,

I was just looking for a bit of advice please, after losing our beautiful old bun Matilda last summer we were finally ready to welcome another bun into our home and Nymphadora joined the family last week. She's a beautiful agouti dwarf lop girl and is about 9 weeks old at the moment (though our vet thought her size could mean that she's a little older) She's settling in really well, she's friendly and likes a cuddle but she's also got a lovely fiesty side to her and she hasn't been at all phased by our 2 cats (who have both grown up with a rabbit and are brilliant with them)

Anyway my questions really are about outdoor housing, ideally we'd like to move her outside as soon as it's not so cold over night, but it's been a long time since I had an outdoor bun... I'm going to order the chartwell 6ft double decker so that she has lots of room for a boyfriend at some point in the summer after she has been neutered, our old girl lived inside for the second half of her life but we let her free range in our secure garden for as many day light hours as we could fit around work, and in the winter she'd have free range time inside instead so that she still had lots of exercise even on weekdays when we're only home in the dark. We'll be planning the same free ranging for Nymphadora do you think it's ok to not add a run to the 6ft double hutch if she'll be out of it for 4-5 hours a day in the week and much longer at the weekend. The best spot for us to put the hutch (it's limited by having a very sunny garden) doesn't really have room for a run.

I'd be grateful if people could let me know what they think please

The RWAF and many rescues ask for between 36 (some RSPCA branches) to 60sqft minimum of permanently accessible space. 19 or 20 hours locked in a small hutch really isn't great. Rabbits are active animals that need physical and mental exercise.

Look at it differently. Rabbits and cats are similar sized animals. Would you be happy reversing the housing arrangements and letting the rabbits live free range in the house and putting the cats in the hutch?

I think it would be ok. But if you could attach a run that would be even better, but rabbits should have 3hours outside their hutch a day. If its not possible to get a run then it would be ok but no amount of space is too little. The more space you can give your bunny the better.

Rhian33 said:

The RWAF and many rescues ask for between 36 (some RSPCA branches) to 60sqft minimum of permanently accessible space. 19 or 20 hours locked in a small hutch really isn't great. Rabbits are active animals that need physical and mental exercise.

Look at it differently. Rabbits and cats are similar sized animals. Would you be happy reversing the housing arrangements and letting the rabbits live free range in the house and putting the cats in the hutch?

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This. :thumb:

Julia25 said:

I think it would be ok. But if you could attach a run that would be even better, but rabbits should have 3hours outside their hutch a day. If its not possible to get a run then it would be ok but no amount of space is too little. The more space you can give your bunny the better.

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3 hours isn't enough at all. Not sure where you got your information from!

Unfortunately, it's never okay for a rabbit to be confined to their hutch for any amount of time (it would be exactly like keeping a dog in a puppy crate for most of the day and only letting them out for a few hours exercise). They need to be able to exercise 24/7. Letting them out only during the day isn't really ideal either as rabbits are most active during evening/night/early mornings - the times when yours would be locked in their hutch. My rabbits sleep all day, even though they have a shed/run setup and at night, usually after dark, they turn into little nutcases, racing around like mad.

Please please try your best to place their hutch somewhere that allows attaching a permanent run so the rabbits can go out at a time that suits THEM instead of when is convenient for you. If the hutch placement is an issue, you could always put the run in a different part of the garden and attach them with runaround tubes (http://www.runaround.co.uk/).

Julia25 said:

I think it would be ok. But if you could attach a run that would be even better, but rabbits should have 3hours outside their hutch a day. If its not possible to get a run then it would be ok but no amount of space is too little. The more space you can give your bunny the better.

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3 hours is not even CLOSE to being enough time out of their hutch! We know much more about rabbit needs and welfare today than we did 40/50 years ago when that might have been considered "enough" exercise time.