Moving indoors

Hi,

My wife and I have kept rabbits for the past three years. Biscuit and Noodle have always been outdoor bunnies, but we moved them inside for Bonfire Night and they took to it instantly! It was fantastic to see them bounding around the house, and we're seriously considering moving them indoors for good! We did come across a few issues though - our house was almost completely covered with sawdust and hay for starters. Does anybody have any advice about how to transition the bunnies indoors, the best way to house them indoors and any advice on keeping the house clean?!

Thanks in advance!

DanAboutTown said:

Hi,

My wife and I have kept rabbits for the past three years. Biscuit and Noodle have always been outdoor bunnies, but we moved them inside for Bonfire Night and they took to it instantly! It was fantastic to see them bounding around the house, and we're seriously considering moving them indoors for good! We did come across a few issues though - our house was almost completely covered with sawdust and hay for starters. Does anybody have any advice about how to transition the bunnies indoors, the best way to house them indoors and any advice on keeping the house clean?!

Thanks in advance!

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Hi there :wave:

I must say it sounds quite amusing to have a house covered in hay and sawdust, but actually it isn't

First off, I don't use sawdust or wood shavings. It's not really recommended, for the reasons here:

http://www.rabbit.org/care/shavings.html

What I do (and mine are 24/7 free range indoors) is have a soft bed, and a litter box. Both quite large and the litter tray with only newspaper and hay in it. You can position a hay rack above the litter tray to catch the debris.

One thing - I'm sure you already know this - if you bring them in and they spend time indoors with you, then it will be difficult to put them out again (if you wanted to) until the warmer weather again. Alternating temperatures are very debilitating for rabbits, and it lowers their immune system greatly.

I look forward to hearing about the further antics of Biscuit and Noodle :wave:

Any bunny can become a house bunny but house bunnies aren't for everyone! There are a few issues you will need to consider before deciding whether house bunnies are for you. The most important thing to consider is whether you could stick it out till Spring even if you encountered problems -if you bring them inside, even for a couple of days, they will start to shed their winter coat, and so they'll need to stay indoors till April at the earliest, as they won't have protection from the cold.

The other two main issues are mess and destruction. You will always have a messy house - hay just gets everywhere. And if they chew their hutch they will probably damage your furniture, not to mention electrical cables and carpets.

If you think that you can cope with the above and not get frustrated with the bunnies, then the first thing you will need to do is to consider the space that you can give them. Indoor rabbits need just as much space as outdoor rabbits, and most house-bunny owners achieve this by either bunny-proofing a room and having the bunny free-range 24/7 (cage-free) or by having a large cage/pen that their bunny comes out of for supervised play every day. There is a sticky thread on indoor housing that explains the different choices of housing, as the standard pet shop indoor cages don't meet welfare guidelines.

Sawdust isn't generally recommended anymore as it is linked to respiratory and organ health problems, plus it is also extremely messy! There are lots of alternatives available, I use rabbit-safe cat litter made from paper or wood (note - most other types of cat litter (clumping, clay, silica etc) are dangerous to rabbits), as this doesn't stick to fur or get kicked out often. This is what I use in litter trays, topped with hay of course, and for the remaining flooring they just have lino or carpet. Unfortunately you'll always have to put up with the mess from the hay, as they do need to eat lots of it, but you can help control it a little by using a fairly deep litter tray like an underbed storage box. I'd also recommend getting a powerful hoover that is easy to use and easy to unblock the hose, because you will need to use it a lot!

Unless you have a spare bedroom that you're willing to convert into the bunnies' room, you will need to redesign your living space around the bunnies, to both give them the space they need and protect your furniture & wires, so it will take over your life a bit, but personally, for me, it is worth it. I just enjoy having them around a lot more and you get to spend a lot more time with them than you do if they are outdoors.

Do lots of research, ask all the questions you can think of, and if you are 100% sure you want them inside, go for it! If you're not completely sure, don't worry, just wait till April to bring them in, then at least if you do find they're less trouble outside, you have till September to put them back out.

My Robin is a house rabbit and he's a delight to watch but he's naughty.
He's wrecked two lamps , eaten tops off of candles and sometimes he digs and pulls at the carpet.

He chewed a line of holes on my dogs bed while she sat and watched him :shock:

No cables bend in our house now after I have put covers on them

He has a chicken coop as a house in my conservatory which he's shut in it very rarely.
He has a litter try in it and hay and water and comes and goes as he pleases.

I do use sawdust in his litter tray which is covered with straw .
I'll change this soon but when I 1st got him I wanted to keep smells he was used to... as I lost my 1st bunny it made me super paranoid with Robin.

Cat litter is heavier so unless they deliberately dig it out it usually stays in the tray which is much less messy. With hay the trick is to have barriers between it and the rest of the house. So you might feed hay in a tray, inside a box or just have a 2" piece of piece in a 'circle' around the area they live/eat in. It all helps contain it

Hi there Dan, If you decide to keep your bunnies indoors make sure you invest in a rubber bristled broom, excellent for sweeping hay from your carpet. You can usually get them from any shop that sells household goods. JML do an excellent one.

This is all really great advice, thanks for your help everybody! We've got a conservatory that is pretty much full of bunny stuff anyway, so it would be pretty easy to convert, or we have a spare room that I'm sure they would be very happy in, as long as they can learn how to take the stairs!

So if we were to allocate an entire room to the rabbits, giving them a soft bed, toilet and somewhere to eat hay, they wouldn't need an indoor cage?

DanAboutTown said:

So if we were to allocate an entire room to the rabbits, giving them a soft bed, toilet and somewhere to eat hay, they wouldn't need an indoor cage?

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I think they ought to have access to a box or something similar to hide in.
You will probably have to bunny proof the room if they are free ranging

Yep, something to hide in is essential but it can just be a cardboard box - which feels more secure than a cage anyway. No need for a cage unless you need to confine them.

They may not want a soft bed as such, most rabbits tend to clear out bedding and sleep on the floor or a bit of hay. They don't usually use cushion style beds like cat might.

DanAboutTown said:

This is all really great advice, thanks for your help everybody! We've got a conservatory that is pretty much full of bunny stuff anyway, so it would be pretty easy to convert, or we have a spare room that I'm sure they would be very happy in, as long as they can learn how to take the stairs!

So if we were to allocate an entire room to the rabbits, giving them a soft bed, toilet and somewhere to eat hay, they wouldn't need an indoor cage?

Click to expand...

Stairs - I've never had a rabbit who found them a problem.

Indoor cage? I don't have any for my rabbits. Or pens.

I don't usually provide hidey holes as they are always in rooms with furniture to hide behind (sofas, chairs etc). My rabbits like a soft warm bed to sleep on whatever room they are in, but then they are just plain spoilt :lol:

Thanks for all your help! We took the plunge and moved them indoors this morning. We have an indoor cage which we bought a while back, which we bought so that we could move them indoors for bonfire night, etc. We've set that up in the kitchen with the cage door open so that they can jump in and out. They have a toilet filled with wood pellets, a wooden tunnel to hide in, and the cage is lined with a towel that they seem to enjoy sleeping on! We're going to invest in a hemp mat to put outside the cage, and a wooden ramp for them to get in and out easier, but they don't seem to be struggling anyway! So far they've enjoyed exploring the kitchen, conservatory and living room, but they're not daring enough for the stairs yet. Thanks for your help setting everything up.

I'll try and post some pics to show them settling in...

Excellent. I am sure you and they will benefit from them being inside.

Sounds great!

With them being in the kitchen, just make sure you keep them away from all chemicals just washing up liquid, cleaning spray etc and any harmful foods, like onion or chocolate.

A hay rack may also help you keep things tidy, as they do still need lots of it to eat, even though they don't need it as a warm bed indoors. IKEA actually do a plastic bag holder that works really well and holds a lot, and its only a couple of pounds. You can get them on eBay if you don't fancy a trip to IKEA!

You really won't regret it! Living with free range house bunnies is such a privilege, we often get woken up by them jumping on our bed and digging us for breakfast