House Rabbits

Hi everyone,
I'm new to the board and have a beautiful little lion head/lop eared cross bunny called lionel. I think Lionel would thrive on being a house rabbit but do not have the first clue where to start to make him one. Does anyone have any ideas on how allow him to free range. We dont want him to wreck the place (only just brought our house!!) but i would love for him to have the freedom to hop around all day. What problems am i likely to encounter? will he eat the carpets for example? Also we might be aquiring my friends 2 cats in a few weeks - will this make having a house rabbit a big no no?

Sorry for so many questions

Thanks

Sam

Hiya,

Usually its best to start small and work your way up. So bunny proofing one room or getting him a dog crate (or similar) as a home base. Then you can let him out whilst your there to supervise closely and spot any potential trouble.

Before he's let lose you need to bunny proof that means protecting anything that he could eat or squeeze on to/in/behind that might hurt him. So wires, telephone cords, plants, under sofas etc.

Tam

hi

It depends on the nature of the cats really - plus your rabbit might just be freaked out if they are around - my 2 won't come out of their shed if they can smell/hear next door's cats on the other side of the fence - it totally spooks them.

With house training, my 2 are litter trained already, but if you wanted to train yours you would be best keeping him in a smaller space and getting him neutered first - so he'd have less urge to mark territory.

And today my 2 chewed off some wallpaper - I put a box in front and they ate the box - I put a stool in front of the box and a litter tray on top - and that flumoxed them - not very ideal homes though!

If they chew a cupboard or the corners of their rugs, I put a brick or something heavy over the chewed bit and they forget about it - plus they have lots of chew sticks and toys and hay to chew instead.

I only give mine limited free range of the kitchen, hall and stairs for a couple of hours a day - we're all electric so there's electric wires all over in the other rooms - you can use baby gates to block off doorways, but need to put wire mesh over the bars or they could squeeze through.

I wouldn't leave Lionel unsupervised with any cat though - he's only tiny, and they might be tempted.

I'm sure you'll get loads of good advice from everyone here


Edana, Benji and Pepper

Cats & rabbits can live together quite well if supervised to begin with. Most of our rabbits have actually ruled the roost, Gilo actually turfs the poor Marbles (the cat) out of the lit tray if she needs to use it!!
Be aware also that rabbits jump up onto furniture. Gilo has watched what the cat does & where she sits & I've found her sitting on the sideboard looking out of the window, just like Marbles does.

She also goes to sleep on the setee alongside our Whippet & on one occasion I found them asleep together on our bed!!
But do make sure all the wires are out of the way.

Good Luck.
Rose

luggage16 said:

Also we might be aquiring my friends 2 cats in a few weeks - will this make having a house rabbit a big no no?

Click to expand...

I have (as you can see) 4 cats and a dog that live with 2 Lionhead rabbits and they all get on fine. Both dewi and daisy follow the cats around and cuddle up. They often chase Cerys round the garden and Cerys loves to play with them. Jackie loves to go in their hutch for a nose around. Its really fun to watch when pets get on so well!

to you Sam. You will get lots of great advice and help here from the experts so it will be very interesting to see how you get on

House rabbits

The RWF is an excellent site which has lots of information about lots of aspects of rabbit care, it does have some information about having a house rabbit and there are lots of ideas via downloadable leaflets on http://www.houserabbit.co.uk/rwf/information.htm if you look on the right hand side of the page half way down there are a number of leafles which might be useful particualry to do with having a house rabbit.

You will get lots of really excellent advice on this forum from what I have discovered are really caring people who will go out of their way to help people they don't even know.

thanks everyone
Lionel already comes in each day and hops around the kitchen - though he seems to prefer cuddles to running around bless him. I will check out the leaflets to get some ideas and keep you posted!
I'll try and remember to come on later and post some pics of him too - he's a little cutie!