Half indoor, Half out door housing/ grass or no grass

I havent got any Bunny Rabbits yet and i wont be having any for a while (I have my hands full with 6 troublesome ratties <3) but i figured its never too early to start planning.

My main question is can a rabbit be kept half in doors and half out doors? As in in the day while im at work (7:30am - 7:30pm) be outside in a fully kitted out hutch/shed and run. Then in the evening and over night in the house with me? Im pretty sure this would be fine in the summer but what about the winter, would half and half mess up the growth of their winter coats and result in them getting too cold him its wet/snowing?

Also when i do have Rabbits they will be rescues and most likely middle aged would this make a difference to what they could adapt too?

Also should the outdoor area be on the patio or grass? The grass would be good for grazing but could also get soggy and muddy over the winter and i could also do a grass area on the patio. which is best?

Thanks

Amy

When adopting rabbits, rescues will quite often say whether the particular rabbits would be best indoors or outdoors, or whether they would be OK to live in either place. Some rabbits are unable to cope living indoors as they get stressed easily from human interaction and noises, whereas some thrive best indoors whilst also getting time outside during the day. It really does all depend on the rabbits personalities and if that is how you want to keep them then you will have to look specifically for bunnies that will be OK with that arrangement.

As for having a run outdoors, I personally prefer having my outdoor bunnies run on the grass, however I also have 10ftx3ft of concrete slabs inside for the hutch to sit on and I have found that this works really well. I also have a large cover on the run that is sloped so that when it rains the water runs off the cover and only gets the edge of the run very wet. The middle of the run stays dry all of the time this way apart from occasional condensation.

You also have to think about how you will transport them from indoors to outdoors and vice versa each day as most rabbits won't be OK with just being picked up and carried from one place to the other. I found that if I have to move two of my three rabbits from one place to another for some reason (ie the vets) it works best to carry them in their carrier, however even then it can be a massive struggle to get them in there. My other rabbit adores human interaction and will happily be put into the carrier or even picked up and carried however this is very rare and I'm very lucky to be able to do this haha.

Unfortunately I don't know the answers to the rest of your questions but I hope this helps answer a few of them

In reply to your main question - No: rabbits need to be kept indoors or outdoors, not a mixture of both because of the difference in temperatures.

Babsie said:

In reply to your main question - No: rabbits need to be kept indoors or outdoors, not a mixture of both because of the difference in temperatures.

Click to expand...

This :thumb:

Babsie said:

In reply to your main question - No: rabbits need to be kept indoors or outdoors, not a mixture of both because of the difference in temperatures.

Click to expand...

I agree with this also, but they are able to go outside during the day though for a few hours, hence my previous suggestion. I thought I'd said about the temperature difference in my last comment but after re-reading my response I realize that I didn't haha.

Ahhhh right thats what i was worried about. I think its going to be a while until i can have Bunny Rabbits . Ive always said that when i have Rabbits i would either have them as house bunnys or have them in a "natural" style enclosure, they used to have rabbits at my local park years ago and they had burrows, hills, tunnels etc it looked so cool!.

I work long hours to have them cooped up in the house all day with no fresh air, and to have them as full time house Rabbits i would have to turn the "rat room" into a bunny room which would limit the amount of free range time the rats could have. It would also be impractical to have full time outdoor Bunnys when for 6 months of the year it would be dark when i left for work and dark when i got home, and even if i added lights or something i wouldnt be able to bring myself to spent time sitting outside with the bunnys each evening, due to the fear of spiders and being outside, alone, at night would scare me!

One day i have no doubt that bunnys will hop there way into my life, but until then i think ill stick to planning my perfect enclosure

it is really good that you have thought about a possible rabbits future with you before you get them instead of impulse buying and not caring or having a clue. we should be able to take this for granted really but its not always so.

I will never understand how these days people can care of animals so inappropriately. Fair enough 10 years ago before the internet was popular and the only source of information was pet shops and, what are usually major outdated, books. But these days a 2 minute google search tells you 1. rabbits need company 2. minimum of 44 sqft 3. 80% of there diet should be hay. There is no excuse for anyone to these days to not know how to care for them properly apart from sheer lazyness and lack of caring.

Its not just rabbits all animals, hamsters, guinea-pigs, mice, rats etc and i dont believe that anyone can use "pet shop advised x" or "pet shops wouldnt sell it if it wasnt ok" when there is a whole web of information out there that takes such little effort to access. People will use the internet to benefit themselves yet when it comes to their animals they plead ignorance and did know better. I will never understand them people :L xxx