Do your rabbits have access to the stairs?

We sadly have just lost one of our bunnies at age 11.5 years and I’m looking to integrate our remaining bunny (also aged 11.5 years) into the household more so she isn’t lonely. Getting another bunny friend for her just isn’t something we are considering at the moment, plus it’s super difficult to find older rescue buns. We also aren’t sure if we will continue to keep rabbits in the future as it’s so heartbreaking and difficult when they are ill.

She has her own bedroom in our house with loads of toys and tunnels etc, and no cage or hutch so she has permanent access to the full room, but I can’t help but think she’ll be lacking in stimulation and company.

I was wondering if you had any advice on these options:

1. Leave her living arrangements as they are but pop in regularly to spend time with her. I am not 100% happy with this as even if I am popping in regularly then she is still spending most of her day alone.

2. I can open her bedroom door and allow her access to the other bedrooms in the house (when we are at home) but this would also mean access to a fairly steep staircase and I’m just not sure how safe this is as she could slip between the bars on the bannister very easily. Because of the layout of the house, this would be very difficult to configure with baby gates etc to block access.

3. On the days I am working at home (which is 5 days a week at the moment). I can bring her& her litter box down to the kitchen with me for the day. This would involve having to pick her up daily which she HATES, and I’d have to carry her back upstairs at night.

Any ideas?? I really can’t decide what would be best for her and would really appreciate some advic

Thinking through my bunnies over the years I think I'd play it different each time, depending on the bunny. I would suggest trying out your kitchen idea (maybe you could coax her in to a carrier to help with transportation (not that I think my bunnies would go with this before my patience ran out) - you'll soon know if its something she'd be happy to have in her routine. If she sleeps alot maybe making a big effort to visit her regularly would be enough - I take "jobs" up to the upstairs bunnies room or I find my visits can be too short.

My current stairs don't have any bannisters to fall through. In the past there have been & its not been an issue but I've never had a bunny reach that age. I think we often underestimate how amazing rabbits are at 'knowing' their environment but equally its hard to identify a possible risk & ignore it. Observing how she uses the space might help with your decision.

Good luck

Mini used to get down the stairs faster than us. :lol:

Ours don’t have access as downstairs isn’t proofed but the gate gets left open sometimes and, apart from Mini, none of them have really showed much interest. I think they find it a bit difficult to get down, going up is easy but going down seems like its a bit harder.

Sorry to hear about your loss. I’d be interested in what you find is the best option as I’ll be in a similar position soon.

Rups can manage the stairs and sits with his head through the bannister rails but he would not fit his body through. I dont feel that he would put himself at risk by going through them as he only tends to leap off the furniture in the lounge but no where else.
Susan can go upstairs but struggles to go down. I think thats a sight thing with her rather than a physical issue, although she has to go down sideways as she is as big as the tread on the step.

Rabbits generally cope very well with staircases, if they can see well.
If they are lop eared, you should supervise them to begin with. Tried to adopt a lop eared rabbit to partner one of the girls, he was very confident but did slip a bit when going down the stairs.
Up eared rabbits were fine, even when very old.

Orion uses the stairs as a racing track and tires himself out!

Luna being older (well, she's 5 but acts far older!) and blind, she struggles. but still manages well once she gets the hand of it. she has freaked however and allowed me to carry her down the stairs though.

I think its really rabbit dependant tbh & what feels comfortable for you!

I am so sorry you lost your other bunny. Instead of closing her door,can you put baby gate at her door so she can see you more? Perhaps add a chair to the bunny room so you can keep her company as you do other tasks.

I’m so sorry you lost your bunny I agree with the others, lots of good ideas. If you feed pellets inside a carrier it might be easier to get bunny to go in when you want to transport between floors.

Sorry for your loss xx On the transporting a bunny side of things, I've carried Lopsy in a litter tray before :lol: Not necessarily recommended though, sometimes he freaks out and will dive off the side :roll: Sometimes he seems to enjoy it though! I'd have no problems giving mine access to my stairs as there's walls both sides (they go up the middle of the house) and none of my bunnies since we've been living here have had problems jumping all over the place, up or down, except Aboleth who sometimes wouldn't jump down from the playhouse windowsill and crawled over the hayrack instead, but that's much higher than steps on household stairs.

We've had one bun that adored the stairs and wouldnt leave them alone.

And the other two have absolutely hated them.

I think it was a size thing as it was awkward for the bigger two to get up and down.

However we also have ours enclosed by walls all the way up,if we hadn't I think we would have cut off access as our girl was a daredevil.

Although possibly cable tie some cardboard barriers along it?

Sent from my SM-A705FN using Tapatalk

Thank you - I think I’ll give the kitchen a go on Monday and see how she finds it (if I am able to coax her into her box).

She sleeps lot during the day now but she is still super lively in the mornings and evenings...typical nethie temperament despite her ripe old age Usually she’s trying to escape or run out of her room looking for wherever I keep the treats!

I like to think she would know not to try and slip through the bannister but it’s one of those things that we won’t know until it’s too late.

Thank you for your messages..honestly it’s so hard losing a bunny...I’m not sure why but I had totally underestimated how difficult it would be for all of us.