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Wanting to get a mini lop, need advice

dwitkos

New Kit
Hello, I'm new to the forum, not sure if I'm posting in the right place, hopefully I am haha.

Me and my girlfriend have been thinking about getting a mini lop for a few months now. Recently, I realised that mini lops actually grow quite a lot bigger than we expected (after watching some videos on YouTube, since photos usually don't show scale too well), and now I'm worried he won't have enough space.. He would be staying inside all the time as we don't have a garden or anything. We would let him out of his cage a lot, but the biggest cage we could probably get is roughly around 150cm x 50cm (because it would be hard to fit a bigger cage anywhere in our house). Not sure if this is big enough for a mini lop? I don't mind their size, it's just that I'm worried that he won't have enough space. We are absolutely in love with the lop rabbits and definitely want one like that. I found out that holland lops are actually a lot smaller than mini lops but it seems like they're not very popular in the UK for some reason. Can anyone give me any advice? Am I overthinking it and he will be fine in a cage like that or should we not get one if we can't give him more space than that? Sorry if this is a stupid question but I want him to be happy with us and have enough space all the time.

Thanks in advance :).

(I keep saying "he" because we definitely want a buck)
 
Hi,

We have recently bought a mini-lop (in early November), and we had the same concerns. At the moment, he's only small, so there are no issues, however we've already moved him from his cage to a pen. We rent, so we were worried about having him free roam whilst we're out of the flat, as he does try to dig at the carpet occasionally or nibble the skirting boards. So, we went to B&M, bought some small carpet squares to lay out, and put the pen and his things on there. He now has a lot of space, and the pen we bought (£25 on Amazon) has the option to buy more squares if needed. If you're worried your flat isn't big enough, I don't think I'd worry about that. I'm by no means an expert, but our rabbit seems to enjoy sprinting around the sofa and jumping around in the open areas (our flat is probably a little bigger than the average city flat but not massive), and he lays out at various spots. We have 'safe spaces' set up around the flat (just somewhere dark he can hide) to give him variation away from his pen, although, his pen is so big and has all his things he spends most of his time in there.

Hope this helps.
 
Hello, I'm new to the forum, not sure if I'm posting in the right place, hopefully I am haha.

Me and my girlfriend have been thinking about getting a mini lop for a few months now. Recently, I realised that mini lops actually grow quite a lot bigger than we expected (after watching some videos on YouTube, since photos usually don't show scale too well), and now I'm worried he won't have enough space.. He would be staying inside all the time as we don't have a garden or anything. We would let him out of his cage a lot, but the biggest cage we could probably get is roughly around 150cm x 50cm (because it would be hard to fit a bigger cage anywhere in our house). Not sure if this is big enough for a mini lop? I don't mind their size, it's just that I'm worried that he won't have enough space. We are absolutely in love with the lop rabbits and definitely want one like that. I found out that holland lops are actually a lot smaller than mini lops but it seems like they're not very popular in the UK for some reason. Can anyone give me any advice? Am I overthinking it and he will be fine in a cage like that or should we not get one if we can't give him more space than that? Sorry if this is a stupid question but I want him to be happy with us and have enough space all the time.

Thanks in advance :).

(I keep saying "he" because we definitely want a buck)

A Rabbit cannot be shut in a tiny cage

https://rabbitwelfare.co.uk/rabbit-care-advice/rabbit-housing/space-recommendations/

Also, Rabbits are very social animals and to meet their welfare needs they should have a companion of their own kind

https://rabbitwelfare.co.uk/rabbit-care-advice/behaviour/rabbit-companionship/
 
Hi,

We have recently bought a mini-lop (in early November), and we had the same concerns. At the moment, he's only small, so there are no issues, however we've already moved him from his cage to a pen. We rent, so we were worried about having him free roam whilst we're out of the flat, as he does try to dig at the carpet occasionally or nibble the skirting boards. So, we went to B&M, bought some small carpet squares to lay out, and put the pen and his things on there. He now has a lot of space, and the pen we bought (£25 on Amazon) has the option to buy more squares if needed. If you're worried your flat isn't big enough, I don't think I'd worry about that. I'm by no means an expert, but our rabbit seems to enjoy sprinting around the sofa and jumping around in the open areas (our flat is probably a little bigger than the average city flat but not massive), and he lays out at various spots. We have 'safe spaces' set up around the flat (just somewhere dark he can hide) to give him variation away from his pen, although, his pen is so big and has all his things he spends most of his time in there.

Hope this helps.

That's great to hear. Would you be willing to share any photos of this pen? I'm curious how big it is and how it actually looks :D. Also, do you have a link to the pen you bought? Thanks for the reply, you've been very helpful :).
 
Sorry, I tried but no idea how to upload photos on here... We have ours as a square. When set up this way, the dimensions are 130 x 130cm (ish), and the B&M squares (we needed 9 squares, at £1.99 each) are 50 x 50cm, so there is a little bit of an overlap. It's a relatively big area, but at his current size (13 weeks old) he can run around in circles in it and jumps about quite happily, and we just open it up when we're home. The main issue is bunny-proofing the flat, which we managed, but things look a bit uglier now that we have barriers up and it takes some creativity to find inexpensive, suitable barriers.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07584TRXX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It says they're out of stock now, but really most of the cages will be the same. To be honest, if we knew we were going to do this we wouldn't have bought the cage, as now it's just in storage, was £50 from Pets at Home and isn't great, we felt guilty leaving him in there. But, I suppose we will need it if we ever go on holiday and leave him with someone else for a few days.
 
4VNevvv


No idea if the above has worked...

But essentially, the one with the black floor is how it is currently, and the one without is how it looked with the Pets at Home cage inside it (railings removed). We removed the cage base because it took up too much room.

The image didn't work, so here is the link to Imgur: https://imgur.com/a/4VNevvv
 
4VNevvv.jpg


No idea if the above has worked...

But essentially, the one with the black floor is how it is currently, and the one without is how it looked with the Pets at Home cage inside it (railings removed). We removed the cage base because it took up too much room.

The image didn't work, so here is the link to Imgur: https://imgur.com/a/4VNevvv



Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
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Hello and welcome to the forum 😀

To be honest I wouldn't bother with a cage as, unfortunately, they're never going to be big enough to give a rabbit the space they need.

I agree with FinleySkel that creating a large area with pen panels are the way to go as you'll be able to create a much larger area.

If you're feeling brave, the other option is complete free range with bunny proofing. I have two bunnies and they're completely free range in my flat. I used the panels from dismantled bookcase to put against any exposed skirting boards (as bunnies seem to like gnawing at them!) and have hidden all wires behind the panels. It's really important that bunnies can't access electric wires as they like to nibble them!

Bunnies can be destructive so if you have a thing you don't want bunny to dig or gnaw at then it's best to protect them as well.

Good luck with your bunny when he arrives.
 
4VNevvv


No idea if the above has worked...

But essentially, the one with the black floor is how it is currently, and the one without is how it looked with the Pets at Home cage inside it (railings removed). We removed the cage base because it took up too much room.

The image didn't work, so here is the link to Imgur: https://imgur.com/a/4VNevvv

Hello and welcome to the forum ��

To be honest I wouldn't bother with a cage as, unfortunately, they're never going to be big enough to give a rabbit the space they need.

I agree with FinleySkel that creating a large area with pen panels are the way to go as you'll be able to create a much larger area.

If you're feeling brave, the other option is complete free range with bunny proofing. I have two bunnies and they're completely free range in my flat. I used the panels from dismantled bookcase to put against any exposed skirting boards (as bunnies seem to like gnawing at them!) and have hidden all wires behind the panels. It's really important that bunnies can't access electric wires as they like to nibble them!

Bunnies can be destructive so if you have a thing you don't want bunny to dig or gnaw at then it's best to protect them as well.

Good luck with your bunny when he arrives.

Thank you so much for the help! I think we will go with the pen then as we want the rabbit to have as much space as possible and this seems like the best option! It would be very hard to bunny proof our house so I think that's gonna be a no, but we will obviously let him out whenever we're home and able to observe what he's doing :). Thanks again for all the help, it's been very useful!
 
Don't forget that he will still need vaccinating against myxomatosis, RHD1 and RHD2, which are all fatal (there's a new triple vaccination, so just one vet visit), and neutering when old enough to avoid unwanted behaviours (spraying, buzzing, etc)
 
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