Moving to the great outdoors

Hi Everyone!

I have had my two rescue mini lops for just over a year now and just wanted some advice on housing.

Currently my buns are house rabbits, and while we have had a few hiccups with chewed cables and ruined fabrics, we have finally bunny proofed the house, the only problem we persistently have is that Coco, my female rabbit, loves digging!

Over the year I have tried everything to find an outlet for her desire to dig, dig boxes filled with shredded paper (she scoots her bum up to the edge and chucks all the paper out spreading it everywhere) patches of carpet for her to scratch at, cardboard boxes filled with digging material, she's even dug through my duvet and bed sheet, which we now have to cover with old towels to protect, she just has such a strong desire to dig at everything.

Their main room is my bedroom, where they sleep underneath my bed, which has little tunnels and hide boxes underneath to create a type of burrow for them, but with coco's insisent digging I've had to sleep with earplugs in for the past 6 months and it looks like a bomb has gone off in my room every evening with the amount of litter she chucks everywhere, it's gotten to the point where I've decided they'll need to be somewhere where they can have a space completely of their own, which unfortunately the only room we have free is the garden.

What I needed help with is deciding the best way to do this, clearly I wouldn't move them until the weather is a bit warmer (is spring time best?), but what I'm unsure of is the enclosure. We have a small brick garden which is surrounded by a high wooden fence, there's no chance of the rabbits digging out and I've never seen a cat/fox in our garden, so I was curious if they could have free range of the garden with a playhouse/shed as their safe house? Also, is it best practise to lock them in at night? I've never had an outdoor rabbit so unsure how to approach moving them from inside to outdoors, so any help would be appreciated!

Have you looked at the housing sticky?
A shed or playhouse with an permanently attached enclosed run would be best. Although you have not seen a predator, it doesn't mean that they aren't around

Horace the Bold said:

Have you looked at the housing sticky?
A shed or playhouse with an permanently attached enclosed run would be best. Although you have not seen a predator, it doesn't mean that they aren't around

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This

It's recommended that buns have at least 60sqft of space. (More if avialble).

A shed and aviary combo allows you to fully insulate the shed and spend time with them outside in the winter. They'd need constant access to their aviary, but when you're home and able to supervise they could be allowed to roam the garden.

I have a dig box for my girls that like digging, it's from Manor Pet Housing and has been designed to contain the mess. Sadly it's big and fairly expensive so might not be suitable.

If it helps, my house buns love the garden. I have trouble getting them in the house as it gets dark.

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Horace the Bold said:

Although you have not seen a predator, it doesn't mean that they aren't around

Click to expand...

This is very true! I was convinced we didn't have foxes where we live (we're on an island and I've been here for about 15 years without seeing one) and then 2 years ago our new neighbours installed CCTV when they moved in and within a month had spotted a fox in their garden and came to warn me because they knew I had rabbits! Then a few months after that, I went to take the bins out one night and there was a fox trotting down the road like he owned the place. I honestly think foxes are everywhere. And nothing stops a cat, either, when it wants to get somewhere.

I've gone with a shed/aviary setup for my mini lops and that gives them plenty of space and gives ME peace of mind.

With Coco's love of digging, if you had a large outdoor run/aviary, you could maybe give her some tubs filled with sand to dig. For now, while she's inside, you could maybe look at getting her an enclosed digging box where she couldn't make so much mess . . . like this:




(from http://www.manorpethousing.co.uk/digging-box )