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Rabbit unable to use hutch slope

L

Leftie

New Kit
Hello.
I recently got an adopted rabbit from Pets at Home, I know a little about Rabbits from an Animal Care course I did back when I was a teenager (roughly 9 years ago since I did it now).
A few days prior I bought this hutch and set it up ready before I chose which rabbit to get (for a while I was torn between getting a 'new' one, or a rescue/adopted one).
The rabbit seems unable to use the slope up to the top level, it has tried numerous times over the past 3 days since I got it. Is this purely a learning curve this specific rabbit is finding hard to grasp in a hurry, such as not understanding how much nails to use to grip or similar? or perhaps indicative of something else? Pets at Home were not entirely sure of its age, but the assistant after a quick look at its, ahem, boy bits, estimated its around 4-5 month old.
Should I for now occasionally place it on the higher tier when it tries and fails, or is it best to leave it be and hope it learns? I place food on both levels and there is a water bottle on each level too, so it isn't missing out on anything important. When I was doing my course, the rabbit area was concrete flatlands with lots of hay, straw and toys, so I never saw this problem whilst doing my course!

Incase anyone is wondering, I got a rather large cage as when this one is settled and neutered, I intend on introducing a female into the setting and figured this would be easy to seperate out into two entierely seperate cages during the initial bonding stages.

Cheers for reading, I look forward to your suggestions and replies.
 
Hello, welcome to the forum. Sounds like bunny is scared. Bunnies have very furry feet and don't like slipping. Also it takes them a while to learn to climb up ramps. Bunnies are fragile and if they fall they can damage themselves. Have you got some carpet that you could put on the ramp? Bunny needs to start from the bottom and slowly learn to climb up. Don't force bunny you don't want any falls. Be patient! Good luck.
 
Leftie said:
Hello.
I recently got an adopted rabbit from Pets at Home, I know a little about Rabbits from an Animal Care course I did back when I was a teenager (roughly 9 years ago since I did it now).
A few days prior I bought this hutch and set it up ready before I chose which rabbit to get (for a while I was torn between getting a 'new' one, or a rescue/adopted one).
The rabbit seems unable to use the slope up to the top level, it has tried numerous times over the past 3 days since I got it. Is this purely a learning curve this specific rabbit is finding hard to grasp in a hurry, such as not understanding how much nails to use to grip or similar? or perhaps indicative of something else? Pets at Home were not entirely sure of its age, but the assistant after a quick look at its, ahem, boy bits, estimated its around 4-5 month old.
Should I for now occasionally place it on the higher tier when it tries and fails, or is it best to leave it be and hope it learns? I place food on both levels and there is a water bottle on each level too, so it isn't missing out on anything important. When I was doing my course, the rabbit area was concrete flatlands with lots of hay, straw and toys, so I never saw this problem whilst doing my course!

Incase anyone is wondering, I got a rather large cage as when this one is settled and neutered, I intend on introducing a female into the setting and figured this would be easy to seperate out into two entierely seperate cages during the initial bonding stages.

Cheers for reading, I look forward to your suggestions and replies.
Click to expand...

Hello Leftie and welcome to the Forum :wave:

I usually find that rabbit hop right up the slope in one jump. Do you have a small rabbit?

You could try putting/sticking some of that gripper stuff onto the ramp. I got some in Tiger and it's for stopping rugs and mats from slipping around. It's a kind of rubbery thing with tiny holes in - do you know what I mean?

Just found this - http://www.amazon.co.uk/slip-safety-under-rubber-underlay/dp/B004K3G5B6 (very cheap)

I think it's a good idea to put food, water and hay on each level for the time being :thumb:
 
Your rabbit may find it easier to use steps rather than a slope. Try swapping the ramp for a pile of bricks or a wooden box that it can use as a halfway hopping point.
 
I bought a cheap doormat, cut out sections and glued them inbetween the rungs on the ramp. Also, to make the ramp less steep you could put some bricks under the end on the floor - this makes it less scary. It might be happy to jump off the end of the ramp then or you could add more bricks to help it step up on to the ramp. For guinea pigs you can attach a fleece tunnel around the ramp, which makes them less scared so they use the ramp. I don't know if you could do this for rabbits? Or maybe make the 'hand rails' at the side higher so they don't feel like they might fall off?
 
thanks for the welcomes.

This is him, named Chip. I'm not entirely sure what size you'd call him considering he's roughly 4-5 month old. I've come up with a bit of a cheat, and found some old bits of wood, sawed them into little cuboids, i've sanded the loose edges off so he doesn't get any splinters, and nailed him some little steps into the actual slope, and he's now happily bouncing up and down the slope, at first I had to tempt him and put a few greens from the garden onto each step but now he's got the hang of it, he seems to be going up and down purely for the sake of doing so now!

Cheers for the advice though, had I not found the bits of wood, i'd have definitely used the grippy stuff off amazon!
 
Doughnut is scared of jumping down anywhere and even going down her hidey hole ramp which is only small. I cut some bamboo poles up which I got from the garden centre and stuck them horizontally across the ramp so she doesn't slip down or up now and has some leverage
 
Hi again, Chip is lovely. Glad he got the hang of his ramp. They don't like slippy floors and he had probably never seen a ramp. Didn't take him long though, did it! Good luck with him, you'll find rabbit owning very rewarding.
 
Leftie said:
thanks for the welcomes.

This is him, named Chip. I'm not entirely sure what size you'd call him considering he's roughly 4-5 month old. I've come up with a bit of a cheat, and found some old bits of wood, sawed them into little cuboids, i've sanded the loose edges off so he doesn't get any splinters, and nailed him some little steps into the actual slope, and he's now happily bouncing up and down the slope, at first I had to tempt him and put a few greens from the garden onto each step but now he's got the hang of it, he seems to be going up and down purely for the sake of doing so now!

Cheers for the advice though, had I not found the bits of wood, i'd have definitely used the grippy stuff off amazon!
Click to expand...


Oooh young Chippie looks an agile sort of fellow ;)
 
Glad you got it sorted. My boys also weren't keen on the ramp when they moved into their shed so we covered it with ridged stable matting (they have the same stuff on their shed floor) and after that they raced up and down quite happily.
 
MightyMax said:
Oooh young Chippie looks an agile sort of fellow ;)
Click to expand...
Inside the hut he is infact very lethargic and spends most of his time laid out at full length. When you get him out of the cage, he'll be bounding around full of life. I mentioned it to the vet at his first check up and just suggested he may be a little bored, big cages don't fix boredom, find him some toys. I've got some ordered from a website, in the mean time i've cut up some thick cardboard rolls (the things you get circular objects posted in). He doesn't seem approving, he picks them up and chucks them down the ramp! if I put them at the bottom he just moves them to a corner. Ah well, will have to think of another toy whilst we wait for the post!
 
natna said:
We put some carpet on our with double sided tape and it has worked very well.
Click to expand...

This is our ramp as my mum has mentioned above :)

12009811_512621958893070_9005767650585481315_n.jpg
 
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