Amount of time spent with rabbits

Ideally, I would spend all day every day with my future rabbits. However, some days I am not able to be at home for most of the day. Their daily needs will always be met, and I can always spend at least 20 minutes with the rabbits. Keep in mind, this is only 1-2 days out of a month. On an average day, I will be able to spend 1-4 hours with them. Is this sufficient? I don't want to be a neglectful rabbit owner. Obviously I will have to get two rabbits so they can play together when I'm not at home. They will have plenty of room-I plan to block off a good chunk of my bedroom so they can jump and run plenty.

On a side note, I keep my ball python in the same room that I plan to keep the rabbits in. He is much smaller than any rabbit and incredibly slow moving. He is in a terrarium that he cannot get out of. Someone on this forum told me that if a rabbit sees a snake, they can get so scared to the point of a heart attack.is this true?


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I'm sure you won't be alone in wishing you could spend longer with your (future rabbits) & I'd say 20 mins is enough time to change their litter trays. ensure they are eating & say hello. It sounds like most days you'll have longer to socialise with them. As you're planning on getting a pair they will have the perfect company all the time.

In all honesty I don't know the answer to how rabbits being kept in the same room as a snake would be but it doesn't feel right to me. I'll be interested in others points of view.

joey&boo said:

I'm sure you won't be alone in wishing you could spend longer with your (future rabbits) & I'd say 20 mins is enough time to change their litter trays. ensure they are eating & say hello. It sounds like most days you'll have longer to socialise with them. As you're planning on getting a pair they will have the perfect company all the time.

In all honesty I don't know the answer to how rabbits being kept in the same room as a snake would be but it doesn't feel right to me. I'll be interested in others points of view.

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I agree :thumb: I wouldn't keep a rabbit in the same room as a predator, what happens if the snake gets out :shock:

joey&boo said:

I'm sure you won't be alone in wishing you could spend longer with your (future rabbits) & I'd say 20 mins is enough time to change their litter trays. ensure they are eating & say hello. It sounds like most days you'll have longer to socialise with them. As you're planning on getting a pair they will have the perfect company all the time.

In all honesty I don't know the answer to how rabbits being kept in the same room as a snake would be but it doesn't feel right to me. I'll be interested in others points of view.

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I'd feel a bit iffy having the buns in a room with a snake. I'm not sure about the heart attack thing but I believe they'll sense him/smell him which would cause them stress.

I agree with others here. I think they would be able to sense it too and they would be very stressed out and frightened.

I used to have a Russian dwarf hamster and her cage was one top of not one but two snake vivariums and a tarantula terrarium. Never had a problem. The snakes ignored her, she ignored them. I would handle her and then handle the snakes and vice versa and there was never an issue even though they could clearly smell each other.
The vivariums were locked at all times and i obviously never had both snakes and hamster out together, that is just asking for it!
I would say it's a case of knowing your animals as much as possible. Yes they will always be animals and therefore unpredictable to a degree but once you know them it becomes easier. The hamster was more likely to bite me than a snake (which she frequently did) and one of my snakes is as daft as a brush (royal python) and sits on the dog! The other i know is a bit more grumpy and antisocial so i knew more care needed to be taken then.
You can tell usually when an animal is stressed, all you can do is try it.
Plus a rabbit is FAR too big for even the biggest royal python to eat and they put up such a fight that tbh ide have my money on the rabbit anyday!
If in doubt don't do it. Or try it but be prepared to have to change things if it doesn't work out.
Just my personal experience/opinion with a similar small animal, obviously a rabbit will be slightly different.

My snake isn't exactly a predator... He's as dumb as they come and if on the off chance he got out and went to explore the rabbits, they would have him dead in no time. He's on the other side of the room as well. I know the bigger pythons and boas eat rabbits, but as PoppyRabbit said even the largest of ball pythons cannot even begin to handle a rabbit!

Thank you joey&boo for answering my initial question.


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Sorry i forgot about your other question!
I spend about an hour a day and on my days of i spend most of the day with them. Now that Poppy has a partner she doesn't seem to be lonely so i think the two buns you plan on getting would be perfectly happy

I have the blessing of having an indoor bunny who acts like a puppy. I see her in the morning before i go to work for about an hour whilst i have breakfast and do my make up and hair then when i get home she's straight out of the cage until i go to bed. On weekends i keep her out of the cage and i make sure i spend a day with her x

My four live as a group in a shed with aviary run attached (no cages are big enough without a permanent run imo). They spend a lot of time cuddled together. I feed them two or three times a day and clean them out each morning. I also sit with them a bit but they are not cuddly types at all. I love watching them though.