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HELP! house rabbit sleeping issues

rex'smummy

New Kit
Hi everyone, I brought home my baby rabbit 4 weeks ago and we have him as a house rabbit. He is in a large indoor cage in our bedroom. What the problem I'm having is that Rex wakes up every morning between 5&6am and bites and pulls on the metal bars of his cage causing myself and partner to wake up and be extremely disruptive and loud. this will continue up until me and my partner get up to get ready for work.. (about 7.30).. When he starts doing this about 5am I fill up his hay feeder which will keep him quiet for literally 5 minutes until he starts again. My only guess to why he does it is because he wants to be let out which i cant simply do at that time in the morning.. so my question is.. what can i do ? taking him out of the bedroom isn't an option due to being in a house share and not wanting him to disrupt anyone else. does anyone else suffer or had experience with this in the past with house rabbits? lack of sleep is driving me insane :cry:
 
Sadly, for you in this case, Rabbits are most active at dawn & dusk. So at 5am he will be wanting to get up & play!

Is there anyway you can maybe build an enclosure around his cage so that you can let him have more than a cage for those times?
 
Hello

We've had this problem. Is there any way you can rabbit proof your room and let him out of his cage? We found that our buns were happy to be let out, and then hide under our bed (the under-bed eventually became their "bedroom" for a while, but that's another matter!).
 
The usual problem is that the rabbit does not have enough space to run around.

I know you said he is in a large indoor cage but he really needs a run attached to it as no cage is large enough for a rabbit to be shut in. (Just as outdoor rabbits should not be confined to a hutch, indoor rabbits should not be confined to a cage.). The RWAF website gives minimum size for accommodation.

If you have a look at the indoor housing section here you will see some excellent examples.

Rabbits are at their most active at dawn and dusk.
 
Is there any way you could rabbit proof your bedroom? It's likely that he is unhappy shut in his cage and is doing this out of boredom/frustration. More space is key :)
 
Hi, I'm sorry to hear.

We have an indoor girlie and basically she has a large dog crate which is open all day and night as she likes to go there to feel secure every so often but at night she has the hall and bathroom to her hearts content - it's bunny proof, lots of space, got warm and cooler areas and hide spots and also means that she is isn't going to disturb us - I don't know if there's any way if you can't bunny proof your room that there are other area(s) in the house which can combined make a better sleep space?

It is unfortunate but I find that cages/crates really do little when it's indoor without additional attachments be it DIY or bought because as everyone mentioned, he will get active very early and it's frustrating and boring for him and also extremely disruptive for you both.

There's loads of ideas which help make it more spacious and entertaining for him, bunnyproofing etc on the forums. Even if it means just attaching tunnels which run under the bed and around to the cage, so he has places to burrow and move around in.
 
I'd say it was probably down to frustration. Indoor cages really aren't big enough - I have one that is only used as a litter tray, he is never shut in it.

Giving him more space is probably the best thing you can do - you can attach a large puppy pen to the cage to make a nice area for him if he has to be shut in. Ideally having him free range would be best but I know that this probably isn't possible. I would love mine to be free range 24 hours a day but he uses my head as a spring board so he has to be put in a puppy pen at bedtime (size of a double bed roughly!), but he does free range from about 7am-11pm. If you give him a nice big area you can put things like tunnels and boxes in too which make it more fun for him.

How often is he let out of the cage? He needs lots of time to exercise.

Unfortunately though even with extra space 5am is prime activity time for bunnies... Fergie wakes me up EVERY day at this time. He gets his breakfast then and is quiet for an hour before getting let out. It's just something you have to deal with unfortunately sometimes!

I just noticed that you said you fill his hay feeder when he makes a racket - not sure if you're already doing this but tabbies need constant access to hay, it's good for their teeth and gives them something to do (eat). :)
 
My rabbits have been doing this for seven years. If I let them out of their cage, they rattle the bars from the outside instead. :roll: Good luck!
 
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