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All Change - We're going to bring Caramel in for winter

Natalie

Warren Scout
After lots of discussions, and because of Caramel's age - for anyone who hasn't seen my multitude of threads about Caramel, we only adopted her about one month ago, we offered to take her on from a family who really weren't interested in her anymore, and we are completely new to all things bunny - we have decided to bring her indoors for the winter. I was just too worried about how to successfully keep her warm enough in the bothy, especially as we do now think she is 10 years old, if she's anything like me, staying warm in one's slightly more mature years is quite a challenge.

Anyhoo, we are dedicating the loft room to her and getting an indoor enclosure to keep her safe. We've only moved into this house about four months ago but the previous owners had just completed converting the loft, so it's a lovely open space, newly decorated and with carpet (we'll put lino down under her enclosure). We use it as a bedroom for our grown up children when they visit - which is a lot - but our youngest, Hayley, 24, is super excited to share a bedroom with Caramel - her partner possibly not quite so enthusiastic :lol: - but hey, us girls know best about these things right? :lol: Sharing a room with a rabbit has got to be so much nicer than not having a rabbit in your room!!! :lol:

Anyhoo it means that there will be a swing shut fire door which leads up to the loft room (so can't be accidentally left open), as the first line of defence between Caramel and our rescue dogs, and we are going to put a gate across the stairs at the top as the second line of defence, and she'll also be in her own enclosure which the dogs won't be able to access, which will be the third line of defence. She'll be able to run around the entire room whenever there is someone up there to sit with her and keep a watchful eye on her.

Sooooooooooooooo we have started the process of getting her used to the great indoors. First time Hayley and I took her up there, we were pretty sure she wasn't too pleased. We had taken up some of her stuff, her fave hideaway and tunnels and of course there was also the carrier for her that we left open and available. She had a good investigate, which was a good sign, but she also THUMPED quite loudly several times when she was in the tunnel, which concerned me in case she was upset or frightened. I was okay with it if she was just annoyed, but if she was frightened/upset that was much more of a worry for me.

She has lived outside for 10 years so I completely understand that indoors must feel very strange to her. But on the plus side, as she'd been rather neglected in her previous home and bored and lonely, I think it's quite nice that she has new things to check out.

Second go at getting her to spend time indoors, a little more successful I think. Again I took up all her favourite things, so she had somewhere to hide and play. She even allowed me to feed her the dandelions I'd taken up, but wasn't so okay with me taking her to such a strange place that she'd touch the basil, although the mint got a look in! :lol: She had another really good look and hop around and she also settled at one point and had a good ol' munch on her pellets. AND, no thumps this time.

The room hasn't had any heating on in it, but obviously as part of the house would be warmer than outside, but fortunately it's been amazingly warm these last few days, so she hasn't had to tolerate a big difference between the time spent indoors and going back outside.

As soon as I can get the indoor enclosure delivered, we'll start to bring her in over night and let her play outside in her run during the day if it's warm enough.

Does this all sound like an okay process to acclimatise Caramel to indoors? Could anyone please advise me how to do it better or what to be particularly mindful of in order to keep her safe and happy.

Thanks - Natalie :)

Photo of Caramel just becase :love:

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Please don't take this as criticism and it's just a different point of view. I know you are really trying to do the very best for Caramel and there are bound to be others, who do not share my view.

However, personally, I would have kept her outside and got a rabbit friend for her to snuggle up to for warmth, but that might not have been possible. I would also be a little concerned about how much time she would spend on her own. I know she has always been on her own outside, but even a single rabbit outside is able to see more of the world outside its accommodation with birds flying about etc. What inside enclosure have you got for her? Sometimes these are not very large and Caramel seems to be a very active rabbit, despite her age. I realise that she was previously in a small hutch.

It sounds as though the arrangements and safeguards you are putting in place will be fine to ensure that the dogs keep away from her. I think that the temperature issue is fine too.
 
I'm no expert on keeping rabbits indoors but my experience is that rabbits not just tolerate cold but actually prefer it, so an unheated room might even be preferable as long as you can keep it draft-free.

We always kept rabbits outdoors, with 24/7 access to grass and even though they had a well insulated hutch too, with nice clean straw bedding, they never-ever used it. Not just rarely - never. In the middle of winter whenever I checked on them, invariably I would find them sitting on the grass. So I doubt that temperature in itself would be a problem.
 
Please don't take this as criticism and it's just a different point of view. I know you are really trying to do the very best for Caramel and there are bound to be others, who do not share my view.

However, personally, I would have kept her outside and got a rabbit friend for her to snuggle up to for warmth, but that might not have been possible. I would also be a little concerned about how much time she would spend on her own. I know she has always been on her own outside, but even a single rabbit outside is able to see more of the world outside its accommodation with birds flying about etc. What inside enclosure have you got for her? Sometimes these are not very large and Caramel seems to be a very active rabbit, despite her age. I realise that she was previously in a small hutch.

It sounds as though the arrangements and safeguards you are putting in place will be fine to ensure that the dogs keep away from her. I think that the temperature issue is fine too.

No problem Omi, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I haven't managed to get all the details of Caramel's past. I know she did have a bunny companion at one point, a neutered male, but sadly he passed away some 3 or so years ago, so she's been on her own since then.

I have not given up on the idea of getting her a companion, I just needed all her vaccinations to kick in before we could even start to consider attempting to bond her with another rabbit. She's had them all now with the RVHD-2 being given last Friday. I was advised not to try and bond her by our vet because he felt she was too old and that if we did get a companion for her, all too soon he'd be left on his own and so it would go on. Also another vet said that it can be quite stressful bonding rabbits, but I don't know about that, I need to read up some more on it. Ideally I would still like to get her a companion despite what the vet said.

Apart from her age and the cold, that I was concerned about, I also worry a lot about her vulnerability to predators outside, our house backs on to fields you see. I've tried to make sure she is as safe as possible, she is safer than she was when she was with our neighbours as her hutch is inside the run, which the neighbours didn't have, they had a hutch with run attached, despite that she lived there for ten years without incident, but maybe I just worry a lot more than the neighbours do. I know she will be safer indoors.

I will be getting the biggest enclosure I can fit in the room which will also have to have a double bed in it, the enclosure will probably be about 1.4 meters by 4 meters and she'd have plenty of climbing things, tunnels, hideaways etc as well. I'm getting the enclosure from Manor Pet Housing. We were going to get the bothy from them but they have kindly allowed us to change our order to indoor housing. I am certain we will all be able to spend more time with her when she is indoors than if she were in a bothy outside. The bothy would have been 6' x 4', so smaller actually than the indoor enclosure will be.

Originally I'd hoped to have her indoors during the dark hours but if it was half way decent weather outside to let her (and hopefully a companion) spend the daylight hours in the run in the garden, but I was informed the the indoors/outdoors temperature difference might not be good for her and that I'd be better off having her indoors for the whole winter.

To be honest I have struggled to know what would be best for her and how to get it all organised, the bothy wasn't going to be ready until late November/early December and I had been so worried that that was too late to avoid some really cold weather.

And I think if I do have her indoors during winter, I'll make some changes to her current outdoor arrangement before she goes back out again next year, so that she's even safer.
 
Sorry I am of the opinion that I think indoors is preferable! Mainly as you say she hasn't got a companion and also I would worry about foxes and with old age arthritis, so keeping her warm. I guess because Doughnut is indoors that's why I prefer indoors. I feel I would have missed out a lot if Doughnut had been outdoors and I wouldn't have that bond that I have with her now. I also don't think a rabbit on their own should be outdoors. That's just my opinion and I'm sure I am very biased. I have lots of foxes around my way and they are always pretty determined and wouldn't want that worry.

A lot of people on here use panels to separate areas off. I'm just wondering if that may be better for you so that your bunny can have access to a large part of the room most of the time, but the opening to the loft end separated off!
 
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