House Buns

A question or two to those of you who have house buns

- What size of accomodation would you recommend?

- How long do your bunnies get out for(all day/few hours)?

- What is too long to be kept locked in hutch/cage?

- Any tips for preventing damage to wood/cables/furniture?

- Are your house buns single/bonded?

I've had Buster outside since I got him, but I bring him in when I finish work or at the weekends as I enjoy seeing him running about the house. The problem is I know I can't do this once the cold weather comes. I'll miss not having him in.

So here's my dilema, do I leave him out(in the freezing cold without his mummy), with a lady bun(so he'd probably forget mummy anyway). Or bring him in and see if he'd be a house bun?:?

Damn forgot which 'Chat' I was in how do I move this to Rabbit Chat?

:roll: Can only tell you about my set up which is this:
Flynn has his own 'bunny proofed' room which has his cage in. We are lucky in that someone is here everyday, so Flynn has the run of his room all day. Most evenings when all the family are here, we open up the lounge so he gets the run of downstairs ( he doesn't usually go beyond his room and the lounge however). He puts himself to bed and we simply shut the cage door then until morning. If we are out he's in his cage for safety.
On the cables wire thing, his room has no cables or hanging wires. Nothing is plugged in and all sockets are off. I use carpet squares over the door edges and in the corners, so he doesn't wreck the carpets ( lesson learned a bit too late:shock: ) Fortunately he doesn't chew the wood. He loves digging so old yellow pages and cardboard boxes sorts that. Hope that helps

Thanks Maizy, any 'bunny proofing' tip:wave:

I can recommend 'The Complete House Rabbit' by Caroline James as a good source. I've not done it myself, but from the wires and cables point of view, plastic tubing sliced length ways to house wires, gives you/your bun a chance should he/she accidently reach a cable that is plugged in. They bite the plastic casing and not the wire that inside it. Furniture chewing could be prevented with a chew stopper spray maybe?

I have two house rabbits and hope to have them bonded soon.
Ivor has an indoor cage which is left open in the kitchen where he runs around all day. Anna is in a cage in anothe room, she can' be free because of the carpet! Both of them have their own time to run around in the lounge but only when someone is with them. The only problem is the carpet chewing!
Wires aren't too much of a problem, there aren't any in the kitchen that Ivor can reach and when they are in the living room I block off the bit behind the tv with cushions and any other wires are hiden behind the sofas which are pushed right up to the wall.

we have 5 single house bunnies (and actually moved house because we ran out of room :lol: )

Gus was our first. We started off with a dog cage and run attached but eventually just gave him his own room as there wasnt enough room for toys. He chewed skirting boards etc so we used bitter apple and that stopped him. The rest have never bothered with skirting boards but Bracken, Frida & Zeb all dig the carpet up so i put yellow pages or litter trays or other heavy things in the corners. I use cable covering for cables, and block off little gaps with trainers etc or tins (very glam :lol: ). We still have the inevitable accidents though for instance the new ps2 lasted about a week before we had to get another cable (the phone was also destroyed in the same incident - lola to blame). Peeing on carpets has also occured although i think we ours it mainly territorial towards each other in the "communal" areas - have to use the carpet cleaner on occasion.

Both our spare rooms have been divided by pen panels so they all have a half room each (plus Lola the frenchie has full run of the landing and lobby). Zeb has a large pen & the understairs cupboard in the living room).

You could get him a wifey and divide a room with pen panels until you've bonded them.

For me its great having a housebunny. I have to hoover everyday and hay finids it way into everything but I love it.

I have bunny rooms now. The bonded 9 live in one room. There is board around the lower 3 foot of wall, to prevent them chewing plaster. The room has wooden panels to split it into sections, but all are open at present as they have the full room. There is one 3.5ft single tier hutch & one 4.5ft two tier hutch. there are also 2 shelves & 2 ramps to give them an extra level in 2 of the areas. All hutches are permanently open, except when someone locked Cracker in the single hutch by dropping the catch - it's been fixed now :roll: :lol: There are a couple of tubes, & a covered cat litter tray for buns to hide in (with there being so many, i prefer them to be able to "escape" from each other). The floor is laminate & has been destroyed:lol:
There are a couple of carpet bits & towels down etc for them to lay on, but I have to change them regularly as apparently they look like litter trays:roll:
they live in here permanently, but come out of the room for at least 2 hours every evening - usually more, & have free run of the living room & kitchen. At weekends I get them out in the garden for a couple of hours, but all supervised as too many to go in a run:lol:

The bonded pairs & foster babies live in smaller versions of the above. They get run of a couple of other rooms in the house every evening, & weekend garden time

My foster buns live in cages, but alternate time in the shared run space - 1 room so they are out in 6/8 hour shifts. They also get the bun rooms when the bonded buns are in the rest of the house, to try to reduce cage time to a minimum. But it's a mass juggle & I always forget who's having what:lol:

Having had single rabbits and now I have two bonded pairs, I can only recommend getting a friend for Buster whether he's indoors or outside. There is nothing like watching a rabbit snuggled up to his mate and grooming each other - mine are so happy together

Mine are all outside, so can't advise on house bunnies

Audrey has a 36inch dog crate and attached pen, about 6x4ft total space. That size crate would be too small if you locked the bunns in it though.

During the evenings she is out for about 5 hours, and weekends all day.

She is single, but not through my choice as her partner died at christmas I do think they need a friend...I think Audrey is quite happy but she often tries to cosy up to the cat and I know she'd be even happier if she had another bunfriend.

You need to be prepared for a certain amount of chewing! :? :lol:

Muppet's a house rabbit. He has a 100cm indoor cage as his base (vet bed one end, litter tray the other, with food/water close to hand) in the dining room. He spends quite a lot of time in the cage out of choice cos it's his 'home' - I often glance over and see him doing a little bunny wriggle/roll, soooooo cute.

The cage is never shut now though and, in theory at least, he has the (small) dining room and kitchen to spread out in when I'm out or at night. In practise he doesnt go in the kitchen cos he doesnt like lino. He's also not keen on the laminate flooring in the dining room either so he tends to bounce between cage, rug, pet carrier and door mat :lol:, tho he does scurry around the edges when he's in the mood for a wander.

He comes into the lounge when I'm home to keep an eye on him - yet more laminate though so again he bounces from rug to various mats and the sofa he thinks is HIS.

I'm very lucky in that he's not much of a chewer. I dont think he's even nibbled the dining table legs (oak). He does have a liking for soft furnishings - my sofa cushions are gradually becoming crochet :roll: - and wires. The advantage of him not liking laminate is that it keeps him away from where most of the wired appliances are so I've not had to worry about bunny proofing really. I gather some bunnies are quite happy on laminate but Muppet's never got the hang of sprinting on it so he prefers to scurry or jump to somewhere with more grip.

He's also completely litter trained which is lovely!

He's a single bun and I work full-time so this way he gets LOTS of my company. If I'm home and awake then I'm downstairs with him I know I wouldnt spend the same amount of time with him if he were outside (so obviously he'd have to have a bunny friend then). It is untidy though - not so much the hay but the rugs (that I wouldnt have if it werent for him) and the bunny toys every where...!

mines in a 4m by 2m room with lino floor for easy sweeping so has lots of room to run around in. He has a baby gate so he can look into the kitchen and we can check where he is before entering. In the room is a large cardboard house, litter tray, tunnel and his pet carrier plus loads of toys. He doesn't chew skirting boards or wires but will dig/eat go carpet given half the chance. We give him 2-4 hours running around time in the day, closing off any doors where we don't want him to go. He has great fun running up and downstairs, but we have to close off the bedrooms as he thinks our raised beds are great tunnels and wont come out.

Chew stopper seemed to work on the loose bit of wallpaper sooty seemed to take a fancy to.

You can get small plastic hollow cables from B&Q to cover any wires but even though sooty doesn't seem to like them too much I wouldn't leave him unsupervised anywhere where there are live cables.

as for carpet digging/chewing. I generally say a very loud "no" and put his digging box in front of him and "dig" in it to show him what to do. He doesn't use the digging box still but the carpet eating is getting less and it provides the OH endless amusement.

I've tried telling the O/H we need to move so I can have a Bunny room, but I cannot repeat what he said:shock:

I think Buster Bunny will have to stay outside, he'll be ok to get a wifey in 3 weeks now anyway. I guess I'm a bit selfish cause I love having him in the house at night with me, but I think it would be better for him to be outside where I'm not stuck for space:? I just don't have the space he would need inside. Plus me being at work all day would mean him being bored. I just worry our bond will be lessened over the winter when I can't keep bringing him inside while I'm home

I had an indoor cage for Rupert and he had the full run of my room during the day and was only shut in when we went to sleep, he was as good as gold and didnt chew a thing......
.....then we got Bailey and she rips carpet, chews skirting boards and wee's on our bed!! She has also taught Rupert all her naughty habbits!!! At the moment they sleep loose in the kichen at night and have the run of our bedroom during the day!

im glad someone has posted this thread because i was going to ask thevery same, my bun has a very large cage but up until today he has been staying in until i get back from work, i was guilt ridden so i went shopping today to sort it out, i have bought 4 pieces of specially designed coated mesh and some cabel ties (and floor covering) so that he can now have some time out in the day! i have cabled tied the sides so that its sturdy but collapsable for when not in use, its not practicle for me to let bun roam unsupervised when im not present as there are loads of places to escape and chew! when i let him out supervised i put cushions/anything that covers escape roots up when im present theres not much that can go wrong, i want bun to be 100% happy and not be bored/lonely, how does my idea sound? is this a usual thing to do in my situation? im so cluless when it comes to this house rabbitt stuff help please!:wave: