Preparing to move bun outside with a new lady friend... Just a few Qs ;)

Hi all, I'll be ordering Riki's outdoor hutch / run next week and hopefully bonding him with a rescue lady bun in the following weeks in their new home but there's just a few things I'm not too sure about so any advice / reassurance will be very appreciated! So here goes...

Given that the weather is still pretty mild a the moment but wont be long before it starts to turns, is there anything I can do (or should be doing now) to ease my rabbit into outdoor living (rescue bun will be an outdoor bun) I've made a point of not having the heating on in the room he is in most of the time.

My bun is litter trained and is very good but will he just use his tray where ever I put it or will I have to wait to see where he chooses to go in his new home? Also, I'm pretty sure the rescue bun wont be litter trained, so hows the best way to go about getting her to go in the same place lol, please tell me I'm not going to end up with two litter trays:S

My bun will only drink from a bowl at the moment, I'm thinking of getting him used to a bottle before he goes out, what's the best way to go about this?

What should I use for bedding and in the main living area of the hutch, I'm thinking lino should go down first but not too sure about the bedding, I've used straw before and Riki decided to use that as his toilet and sleep in his litter tray:shock::roll: I've been wondering about the paper litter/ bedding stuff you can get from P@h with maybe some fleece underneath?

And lastly (I think) I love the idea of having a dig pit in the run but is the space it will take up worth it (run will be 6x6)? Can I use play sand instead of soil and how big should it be for two small/ med buns?

Thank you for reading!:wave:

This may be of use to you, its all about insulating hutches:
http://www.therabbithouse.com/outdoor/insulating-rabbit-hutch.asp

This also has some very useful ideas for keeping bunnies warm in winter:
http://www.therabbithouse.com/outdoor/rabbitwinter.asp

They are both written by our admin Tamsin :wave:

I don't think theres a lot you can do other than seeing how it goes and ensuring that the hutch is as warm as it can be. You can buy ''hugger'' covers for hutches but it depends on what your hutch is like. Any idea what hutch and run you are buying? My bunnies are indoors so I don't need to insulate but I would be spending the max that I could on a good sturdy warm hutch. I hate the idea of my bunnies being cold. Hope it all goes well for you :wave: xx

Sarah1991 said:

This may be of use to you, its all about insulating hutches:
http://www.therabbithouse.com/outdoor/insulating-rabbit-hutch.asp

This also has some very useful ideas for keeping bunnies warm in winter:
http://www.therabbithouse.com/outdoor/rabbitwinter.asp

They are both written by our admin Tamsin :wave:

I don't think theres a lot you can do other than seeing how it goes and ensuring that the hutch is as warm as it can be. You can buy ''hugger'' covers for hutches but it depends on what your hutch is like. Any idea what hutch and run you are buying? My bunnies are indoors so I don't need to insulate but I would be spending the max that I could on a good sturdy warm hutch. I hate the idea of my bunnies being cold. Hope it all goes well for you :wave: xx

Click to expand...

Thank you, I'll definitely make sure they are kept warm in winter! I've decided on the Skyes hutch from the happy hutch company, the size and materials used seem the best for the price but my partner is an engineer and will be able to make moderations to ensure they are kept warm and dry I'll check the links out too, thanks

Hi there. As regards litter trays, if your bunny is good at using his then he will carry on, or should do, when he moves into his new hutch. A lot of us use the underbed storage boxes with newspaper on the bottom topped up with hay. I find this encourages them to be litter trained as bunnies like to sit chewing the hay while pooping. Hopefully when your new rabbit sees your boy doing this, she will follow suit.

I would try and keep the room where he lives as cool as possible now so he can grow a good winter coast, some of mine are still moulting so it's perhaps not too late. Can you keep his window open, this will help.

We all tend to use heavy dog bowls for water, but it's up to you really. Rabbits cope very well in the winter months, it's the rain that's the problem, trying to keep everything dry is important.

Hope everything goes well with your new rabbit.

I use newspaper on the hutch floors as blankets etc tend to become toilets! Some use lino but I find some rabbits nibble it.

tonibun said:

Hi there. As regards litter trays, if your bunny is good at using his then he will carry on, or should do, when he moves into his new hutch. A lot of us use the underbed storage boxes with newspaper on the bottom topped up with hay. I find this encourages them to be litter trained as bunnies like to sit chewing the hay while pooping. Hopefully when your new rabbit sees your boy doing this, she will follow suit.

I would try and keep the room where he lives as cool as possible now so he can grow a good winter coast, some of mine are still moulting so it's perhaps not too late. Can you keep his window open, this will help.

We all tend to use heavy dog bowls for water, but it's up to you really. Rabbits cope very well in the winter months, it's the rain that's the problem, trying to keep everything dry is important.

Hope everything goes well with your new rabbit.

I use newspaper on the hutch floors as blankets etc tend to become toilets! Some use lino but I find some rabbits nibble it.

Click to expand...

Thats great thank you, I normally put his hay in a rack above the tray so he'll poop in one place (or actually in the tray if the hay is shredded:roll so I'm not too worried about new girl pooing everywhere, I just hope she happens to decide to wee in there too He has a large cat litter tray but I may need to upgrade with two buns sitting in there... At the moment he has a heavy ceramic earthen wear bowl that is impossible to tip over, maybe I'll just stick to that then, for some reason I thought I'd need to switch to a bottle when he went out, not sure why:? So is newspaper fine to go straight down on the wooden floor? I'm worried about the lino being chewed, I might try newspaper first and see how that goes... Thank you

Give them lots of hidey holes and smaller spaces created from boxes so they have somewhere to hide and also this helps them keep warm as they can huddle together and warm up small spaces.