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Indoors or outdoors for the winter?

capable

Mama Doe
Hi all, I've been going back and forth over this for a while, and could do with some advice/opinions.

My neutered male, William, is currently outside in a 4x4 playhouse with a 4x8 attached run. He lives alone, and I plan to attempt a bond with my young male, Roo, in the spring - Roo is currently unneutered, and living in half of my spare room, as I got him in September and he didn't have time to grow a winter coat.

In the meantime, I'm a bit concerned about William being outside by himself all winter, and debating moving him into the second half of the spare room. This is where I'm at at the moment -


Pros of moving indoors:
- it's impossible to keep the run area dry, and William frequently has a muddy, wet bottom. I'm concerned he's not getting chance to dry off properly.

- it'd be easier to keep an eye on him in case of illness.

- possible benefit of rabbit company from Roo, albeit from behind puppy panels.

- benefit of rabbit company for Roo, who is still rather jumpy and wary of humans. A confident rabbit would be a help to him.

Cons of moving indoors:
- less space inside - going from a 4x4 playhouse with 4x8 run, to an enclosure of 3.5x6. Although judging by poop output, he's spending the majority of his time in the 4x4 playhouse atm.

- potential to damage relations pre-bond, maybe, with Roo not being neutered yet?

- he does has a thick winter coat now, although the spare room is unheated and has the windows open.


I'm torn between William being bored, lonely, and soggy outside, and the reduction in space if I brought him in. Any thoughts?
 
Would the enclosure be all the space he had, or would he also be allowed out of there to run around the house a couple times a day?

I think putting them next to each other could easily lead to them becoming 'enemies' before they've even met. I don't think I would risk it if one is unneautered.
 
Iwould be inclined to agree with Stator. Being next to one another until Spring could upset the future bond.
 
hmmm.... i don't disagree with Stator & Tonibun, but cold soggy bottom all winter doesn't sound nice.

Can you not get Roo neutered asap then have them both indoors?
 
It is a bit of a dilemma, isn't it!

I think William being wet and muddy is a clincher really, unless there's something that could be done with the run to make it drier. I'm going to try and do this with one of our runs as we have three who are confined to a shed at the moment. No idea if it will work though.

We have a similar situation to what your describing for inside, but ours are outside. We have a divided shed, with two girls one side and a boy the other. He's only just been neutered, but the girls moved in prior to this. After some thumping from our boy in the early days, all is fine now. But I don't know if them sharing now will effect their future bond, as we plan to bond them in a few weeks, I guess I'll find out!

Also as Mike said, is bringing Roos neuter forward an option? x
 
Is the run on grass? Its relatively easy to lay a few cheap paving slabs down, sometimes you can even get some free to collector.

Corrugated plastic bunged on to the top can also help keep things dry and cheap clear pvc table cloth material from places like dunhelm or the range can be stapled on to the sides to keep rain from blowing in (just leave some space for ventilation).

Do you have any pics of your outdoor setup?
 
Roo is getting neutered asap, but it'd still be 6 weeks post-op before I'd try bonding them in neutral space. William's run is on concrete, but it was laid poorly so water tends to pool rather than run off. I think I'm leaning more towards bringing him inside :?
 
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