• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

I need help - new to house rabbits

Butterbear

New Kit
Hi,
Hi, I'm new here but been lurking unregistered for a couple of weeks reading your posts. I hope I'm posting in the right place, apologies if not.
I have 3 mini lop bucks who I bought 2 weeks ago. I have had many rabbits over the years since being a child but they have all lived outside. I want these boys to be house rabbits as I want the company and to share in their lives and general bunny-ness. They are about 3 1/2 months old. The first week was fine with getting to know them time, but this week it all seems like an uphill struggle. Litter training is not going well, I'm constantly poo picking the carpet, all they want to do is run-no quiet time and the cuddles of last week have been replaced with "you can't catch me" and scrabbling to get away when I try to pick them up. I've tried herding them back to bed when playtime is done but this is getting more like herding eels than rabbits. They seem to be eating less hay than I would expect and are appearing to be eating a lot of dry food despite constant hay-good hay too(I know good hay as I have horses too). I'm starting to feel as though I'm really floundering and don't have a clue what to do. I'm really fond of the little guys, they are all really lovely with individual personalities but if I can't sort something out I fear I'm not doing them any favours. Please don't berate me for being a newbie idiot and that I should have done research etc, I've never been over faced by rabbits before now. I'm hoping some lovely people can give me some pointers as to what I should be doing/recommend some good house rabbit books and general advice. I really want my new family to be happy and have it all work out but sitting here crying tonight as I'm scared I've really fluffed up.
Thanks in advance for any help x
 
Hello and welcome!

Your boys are approaching puberty fast and will need neutering at around 16 weeks, as long as their bits have dropped! Neautering can also help with littertraning and is a must to avoid fighting bucks.

I assume they freerange but are then put away in a cage? how big is the area they are caged in? Have you considered having them totally freeranging at all times?

Do they also get a range of herbs and veg everyday? How many pellets are they getting between them?

There is no shame in asking for help and support! we have all been there and are more than happy to help in anyway we can :)
 
Welcome to the Forum [emoji4]
Have your buns been neutered?
I think with house rabbits (particularly unneutered ones) the odd stray poo is a constant companion. They may get better as they get older, it also helps to have hay in the litter tray as they like to eat hay whilst going to their toilet.
They are rabbits, they are getting older, they are unlikely to be cuddly
We use the rattle of the pellets in a tin to get the buns back into their room
How are they eating a lot of dry food? This should be controlled by you, the more dry food you feed them the less hay they will eat. How much dry food are you feeding them?

Sent from my XT1032 using Tapatalk
 
Hi,
Hi, I'm new here but been lurking unregistered for a couple of weeks reading your posts. I hope I'm posting in the right place, apologies if not.
I have 3 mini lop bucks who I bought 2 weeks ago. I have had many rabbits over the years since being a child but they have all lived outside. I want these boys to be house rabbits as I want the company and to share in their lives and general bunny-ness. They are about 3 1/2 months old. The first week was fine with getting to know them time, but this week it all seems like an uphill struggle. Litter training is not going well, I'm constantly poo picking the carpet, all they want to do is run-no quiet time and the cuddles of last week have been replaced with "you can't catch me" and scrabbling to get away when I try to pick them up. I've tried herding them back to bed when playtime is done but this is getting more like herding eels than rabbits. They seem to be eating less hay than I would expect and are appearing to be eating a lot of dry food despite constant hay-good hay too(I know good hay as I have horses too). I'm starting to feel as though I'm really floundering and don't have a clue what to do. I'm really fond of the little guys, they are all really lovely with individual personalities but if I can't sort something out I fear I'm not doing them any favours. Please don't berate me for being a newbie idiot and that I should have done research etc, I've never been over faced by rabbits before now. I'm hoping some lovely people can give me some pointers as to what I should be doing/recommend some good house rabbit books and general advice. I really want my new family to be happy and have it all work out but sitting here crying tonight as I'm scared I've really fluffed up.
Thanks in advance for any help x
Hi Butterbear!

I don't post very often but is awful to read that people are struggling. My advice would be as follows. For litter training the best thing I found was to place all food and hay in or right next to the tray, that way they can graze when they are doing their business. It's a slow process but worth it. I found locking mine away for a couple of hours when they were learning really helped too.
As for bonding. I have 3 buns who all hate being picked up. My 2 dwarf rabbits have each other for company and spend very little time interacting with me. I fear that may be what happens with you also as they have their own play mates. My lop however is very much a mummy's girl and follows me around, jumps on the sofa beside me and will generally interact quite well with me, but she lives on her own. I spend a minimum of 5 hours with through the week in an evening and most of the weekend with her as I worry about her getting lonely. My only tips for bonding with the buns would be to maybe try spending time one on one with each of them, lie on the floor beside them and wait. Rabbits are naturally inquisitive and will usually hop over to have a sniff. Do not touch them right away, just wait and let them get used to you. After a while hold your hands out and try and stroke them. If all that fails, bribery is good with a healthy treat, mine love e fenugreek crunchies and nibblets but I limit these.
My pair of bunnies always have food in their dishes, they are also good hay eaters. The lop not so much and I found she was filling up on pellets. Up until 6 months when she was maturing she used to get 2 bowls of food per day, but her hay eating slowed, I reduced this down to only feeding her at bedtime. I have a hay net that is in her litter tray and she nibbles on that now that she doesn't have the option of anything else. I find lops to be very greedy, she knows when it's getting close to supper time and starts to jump in and out of the cage.
The lop is litter trained perfectly and I think I've found 1 poo on the floor today after around 3 weeks. She must've been desperate as it was just outside the cage haha. She is free range and has the whole of the living room all day. Of course bunny proofing is a must. Her cage is purely for food, her litter tray, hay and water. I used puppy pads to line it.
Don't lose faith, I think you may have made a hard job for yourself getting all 3 together but it means they will always have a lot of company, you may just need to spend a lot more time with them individually to get them used to you. There is a risk that they may just see you as the feeding hand as they do not need to interact with you, due to having each other. This is definitely the case with my pair, however it is still wonderful watching their little personalities and when they come for a cuddle I appreciate it all the more. Sometimes I'm even grateful of their ignorance after spending hours being following to every room and having a guest when I go for wee.
Stick with it!

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
 
You've already been given some great info but I'll just add it all again anyway ;)

So in terms of their behaviour and litter training. As already mentioned they're getting hormonal. Rabbits are fertile from a young age so I would be getting all three booked in at the vets together for neutering. A rabbit savvy vet will be needed for this as rabbits have different requirements to cats and dogs while under anaesthetic. If you post in "Rabbit Chat" with the title ' Rabbit Savvy vet needed in (your area)' members of the forum will be able to recommend rabbit savvy vets near you. Or you can check out this list Frances Harcourt-Brown made prior to retiring.

https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/ve...-rabbit-owners/copy_of_county-or-city/england

Neutering will help improve their behaviour after around 6 to 8 weeks as will it improve their litter training during that time.

I'm sorry to report that rabbits don't like to be cuddled much by humans and it sounds like the cuddle window has now passed. From now on, all interactions will take place with their feet firmly on the ground.

In terms of food - how much pellet are you giving them? Rabbits only actually need around 20g each per day. I'd suggest you very slowly begin to reduce the amount of pellets you give them. You'll likely find that their hay eating will gradually increase.
Are you providing them with any fresh veg at the moment?

Gaining their trust is a slow process. If they have an enclosure they stay in overnight ensure it is at least 60sqft or bigger and maybe temporarily have them stay in their while you bond. (It sounds like they have a bedroom which is great).

Always feed them in the room at set times (breakfast, lunch, dinner) as when they the start free roaming they'll know that bedroom is where they need to go for pellets and veg.
So while they're in there you can bond with them. Sit on the floor, with a book, reading aloud gently and ignore them. They'll soon come over to investigate. Just keep ignoring them.

They're a prey species and need time to trust us. Be patient and do everything on the ground at their level. Often laying on the floor face down so you're at their height makes you less intimidating and they'll come over and climb all over you.

Good luck x

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk
 
Everyone else has already said what I'd want to say, so this is mainly a good luck post :D Just a couple of thoughts:

With the poo, are they definitely going outside their tray, or is it possible it is just spreading from the tray? When ours hop out, they tend to carry hay/poo/fluff with them and you get a lovely little circle around the tray that peters out as it gets further away. They may be litter trained and this is just "spreading"?

Getting them to go home in the evenings - at the moment, I am making pellet time the time I shut them up for the night. The sound of the pellets falling in the hay is enough to get them scrambling to reach their litter tray, so no handling required, and they sit still for long enough for me to shut everything. Building a little routine like that may work for you, particularly if they learn it will happen at a certain time of day (about ten minutes before they usually get their pellets, my pair start hopping around, sidling up to you, with this real look of "...Pellet time now?" until you give in and fetch for them)

Feel free to PM me, as well, if I can be of use!
 
By cuddling I guess people mean picking them up and cuddling them to your chest? I think most rabbits like being petted and such - all my rabbits have certainly been very friendly - but most rabbits don't enjoy being picked up. You can spend time on the floor with them though, so it doesn't really matter.

Not only is puberty going to make them a bit 'crazier' but also at this point they've gotten used to you and their new home so they're more confident this week and less inclined to just let you do whatever you want with them (cuddling, putting back in their cage, etc).

I'm not sure if you've said what their accommodations are but I'm assuming a cage/playpen? If they don't have a lot of playtime and then are put up then they're going to try and make the most of their time while out and try and avoid being put up again. Like a kid that practically has to be dragged away from the playground because they know they won't be coming back for a whole day and they just want to keep having fun!

So improvements to help with that is neutering and making their living arrangements as big as possible.
 
Just to add a couple of things. Make sure they definitely are all boys! If they are, then keep a close eye on them at the puberty stage as they will probably start to fight with each other. Arrange to have them neutered as early as your vet is happy to do it.
 
Hi! Love your term herding eels not rabbits. Been there! Please be reassured things will get easier. Routines can be established that will make every day tasks like getting them to go to bed a much less stressful event. Neutering essential as per advice already given- you don't want them to start fighting on top of everything else.
Young rabbits are super energetic anyway and 3 young rabbits together will be a total handful. They will get easier to manage as you get used to them and they get used to you and their new environment. Good luck x

Sent from my SM-G361F using Tapatalk
 
Wow! Thank you all for such thorough advice. I have very little internet access so this is the first chance I've had to reply.
I have taken on board your advice as best I can so far. I have made them a 'proper' playpen using a dog pen attached to a dog crate as their main area when they can't have the run of the living room. That gives them just over 70 sqare feet to create merry havoc in a contained area when I can't be there to supervise them. I am making sure that they get a minimum of 6-8 hours free ranging time with the whole of the living room available to them which gives them lots of space-about 7metresx4metres.
I have reduced their pellet food to just feeding once a day rather than allowing free access and giving it to them at bedtime to encourage a natural end to playtime.
I am giving them free access to as much hay as they can eat and some spare to make a mess with!
They are getting fresh veg every day at 2/3 sittings, I'm mainly giving greens like cabbage, what other things are god, ie which herbs, how much salad and is there anything to really avoid?
I want to try to arrange neutering this week for in the next couple of weeks so will post for a recommendation locally in the other forum (Glastonbury for anyone on this thread).
I'm also finding that they are definitely getting friendlier and more curious, its all looking up- they joined in a movie night last night, sat on the floor eating junk food and climbing all over the place.
Is there anything else that I should be trying to do-or not do?!
Thanks again x
 
Back
Top