Home Ideas?

Hey all! I'm recieving a 6 week old lionhead bunny next week, and I'm going through the housing preparations now. I live in a smallish townhouse in the city, so I'm afraid I don't have a tonne of space for bunny play. I have a standard size cage for the baby bun... and am going to upgrade soon. Does anyone have any ideas how to create a play area in a smallish space? Thanks

get old pillows and put them in your front room for bun to climb over oh yeah try and put boards or plug protectors every where bunnies are sneaky with things like that 8)

hi there where are you getting this rabbit from? 6 weeks is too young for a bunny to be away from its mother!

The bunny needs to be at least 8 weeks

It is a little young to be away from mum, it won't be properly weaned and may suffer health problems later (I had a baby that was taken from mum at 7 weeks and only lived for 15 weeks )

To make a safe area you could buy a puppy playpen off the internet or use panels like you can buy here: http://www.rabbitrehome.org.uk/donate/rabbitrun.asp and set it up in your living room with newspaper/lino underneath until the rabbit is litter trained. Or someone on here has used fire guards to make a pen with too. You could also use an old children's playpen but may need to add some mesh if the bunny is skinny or it could get through the bars.

The just put a few tunnels/cardboard boxes/throw toys etc in there to keep bunny amused.

Caz

I'm concerned about the bun's age too!! Is this a breeder that's trying to hurry the litter out to breed again I wonder? :evil:

I've noticed that most of the pet shops around here have tiny babies for sale! I had Splodge at 6 weeks and fingers crossed she seems to be doing ok and is now 10 weeks! Did your baby bun die suddenly Caz or could you see that there were problems? One little rabbit care book I have 'All about your rabbit' by Bradley Viner even suggests selecting a young rabbit at around 6 weeks of age! :shock:

He had problems breathing and the vet we went to thought is was snuffles but he wasn't congested and had no discharge but we tried antibiotics anyway. Then he started to have problems eating and sneezed whenever he drank. He was really poorly and they couldn't find out what was wrong so reffered me to the specialist I use now for my other bunnies.

He did an x-ray and found an abcess at the base of his nasopharynx blocking his nose and throat and obstructing his breathing. He had never seen anything like it in a bunny so young and I think he was weaned too early and it caused him to have reduced immunity against bacteria. If he had better immunity I think he may not have developed an abcess as the vet could find no cause for it.

We had him for 8 weeks before he had to be pts.

Caz

The books may suggest selecting one at 6 weeks, but they should remain with their mum for a further 2 weeks. Too much stress at 6 weeks of age with moving them, separating them from their mum and sinblings and then a change of diet can be fatal for them. Some do not cope with all this at all well. Do ensure that you find out exactly what they have been fed on prior to you taking the rabbit and continue to feed it on it for a few months, this does help reduce the effect of stress on the rabbits gut. If you are not happy with the food that it was fed on after a few weeks start weaning it on to something better over a period of at least 10 days.

Janice

The PWS panels look really good and I only wish that I had seen them beforeI started buying wood/wire rolls etc to build our runs.


This not to put you off, but I'd recommend that any pet shop rabbit is checked over by a vet. Of our first two, one died within days (hadn't been weaned properly) and the second had a deformed jaw.

Knowing more now, I'd go for a rescue bun.

Cristian

I'm sorry to hear about that Caz, poor bun When I got splodge he was all bone and fluff and was not eating the food that the pet shop had supplied it was a musli mix and I think the pieces were too big I bought some russell junior as it is similar and luckily he seemed to like that! He had first check up at the vets today and everything seemed to be fine, except my little girl was actually a boy!!! :shock:

I may be getting a nine week old baby lionhead a rescue because his mother died just after he was born

I hope that he will be ok because he's not had his mother to rear him.......