Michelle_y_ell_y
New Kit
Hi all,
First time posting here and I don’t know if I can add a photo, but it’s been years since I kept rabbits and some of the care and treatment of rabbits has changed. This is a huge long post, I know, but I wanted to accurately paint a picture of what she has and ask my questions.
For example, when I had my first rabbit as a child, 30 years ago (man I feel old! lol) we were advised to pick up rabbits by their scruff, which of course, I would never do now.
In any case, I also lived in Canada most of my life and I’ve been in the U.K. since I married a Brit for 10 years now. We finally got a house with a garden after the last 5 years of living in a flat and I got a bunny! She’s a mini-lop and 6 months old and I absolutely adore her. I’ve had her since she was old enough to safely leave her mum.
The breeder had a series of hutches she kept her rabbits in, and whilst they were well-cared for, I felt the space was too small. Her and her two litter mates and mum shared a smallish one story hutch and I knew I wanted more for my bunny. My yard itself has a very high, almost 7 foot tall solid wooden fence, and goes down to the absolute ground. We blocked off a small space near the gate, the only space a bunny or neighbourhood cat could squeeze through (albeit a small cat and small rabbit) and I have chicken wire we’re using to reinforce the entire thing.
Inside the grass was only about 45% covering it, I raked and aerated and planted seed and now I have lush grass I keep mowed and I’ve planted seed for the small areas that were missing grass. I dug s garden that follows the fence line on one side and along part of the back, and we’re finishing the garden on the other side this weekend, only part of it is done and was home to my carrots (which were harvested and fed to my grateful rabbit) and the tomatoes are still growing.
Along the back we have put paving stones down and put her hutch on top of it. Her hutch is very large, probably 5 feet long by 2 1/2 feet deep and has two stories…there is a ramp to the top story which covers half the size as the downstairs and has a large pull out tray and two roosting/nesting boxes that kind of stick out. My husband built a thin wooden cover, so we can open the door to the hutch and it fits in place and has a couple of tabs to secure it. The top half of this cover has hinges, so I can open the top half of the door and access inside her hutch without having to remove the whole door piece, because at the bottom of it he cut a perfect hole and ordered a long tunnel! The tunnel gives access to the lawn, where she has an octagonal pen, that has a hard fabric cover that secures at 8 points with tabs, so I can remove part or all of it, and we don’t have to worry about predators, like birds, swooping down.
In her pen she has a second tunnel she loves to push and drag around and run through when she gets rabbit “zoomies” and sometimes when it is raining and she wants to be outside, she can lie in the tunnel to stay dry or she lies in the grass underneath a small wooden table my husband built for her. She loves that thing, and can be found often on top of it stretched out or underneath it in the shade. She also loves “chewing” on it and has a water bottle inside her hutch and in her pen.
She has a variety of toys she throws and carries around, bunny safe sticks to carry, toys with sticks and mineral blocks attached to the side of her outdoor pen and indoor hutch, a couple of Himalayan salt licks and she has free access to her age specific bunny kibble and clean dishes where she gets regular produce of veggies, fruit and I dehydrated a variety of these as well, I mix with her dry salad - a bunny safe mix of flowers and the produce I dehydrate for her. She gets daily handfuls of her absolute favourite of dandelion leaves and because we have horses, the yard lets us take good quality hay, which she seems to be more interested in making beds out of than eating. She also has lots of grass, which I don’t mow or cut inside her pen and we move the pen around the yard before I mow the yard again.
She has a heavy duty wire basket on its side inside her hutch where she drags her hay to, to make a nest, and she drags the whole basket around to different spots and she also has a soft covered bed (it’s like a little cave for her) that I used to keep in the roosting boxes, but she never used it up there, so it’s down on the ground level and she spends a couple of hours a day curled up in it, or stretched out hanging out if it!
she doesn’t spend a lot of time upstairs in her hutch. It’s changed once or twice a week; I line it with a couple of puppy pads for easy changing and line it in a few inches of quality shavings. She has litter trained herself. She will only go to the bathroom on this tray of shavings, so we’ve also put shavings in the roosting boxes in hopes she will go in there too, so eventually I will put a two layered mat where the tray is, she has one downstairs so she isn’t always on the paving stones, and anything on her feet or food or whatever, goes through the top layer of the pad and I can take it out, shake out the pad and hose it if I need to, so if she eventually only goes in the roosting pads, it will save shavings, time and she might use the big tray lined with the mat I plan on putting there to sit or sleep in inclement or cold weather, but it looks like she isn’t interested in spending time there (except to hide from the mower when I do the lawn) since that’s essentially her toilet and the ground floor has plenty of shelter wheh it’s raining.
I know this was long, but I wanted to accurately describe it. Does this sound like enough room for her? She runs and leaps and hops about and loves to zoom through her tunnels. She has plenty of access to high sun and shade and she’s warming up to me. If I pet her and stop and move my hand, she hops to my hand and presses her face and chin, hard against it and lies down under my hand and closes her eyes, waiting to be pet again. She comes inside when I watch tv and will sit on my lap for over an hour, eyes closed, laying against my chest whilst I scratch and pet her and will dig violently against me if I stop and she still wants pets or if she wants to still be in my lap and not hop down to explore.
I guess I just want reassurance that she’s got space, I’ve given her a bunny palace (especially compared to where she came from), that I’m feeding her correctly and also that she likes me…..the fact that she follows my hand and today I tapped on the side of her pen and called her and she came out of her hutch and through the tunnel at top speed and I opened the top of her pen and she stood up and pressed her head into my hand when it came into reach….and that she sits in my lap with her eyes closed, relaxed and asking for pets, I’m assuming she likes it AND likes me? I think she does, but I’m hoping other more experienced bunny owners will confirm this and her actions are showing me she’s happy with me and loves me?
First time posting here and I don’t know if I can add a photo, but it’s been years since I kept rabbits and some of the care and treatment of rabbits has changed. This is a huge long post, I know, but I wanted to accurately paint a picture of what she has and ask my questions.
For example, when I had my first rabbit as a child, 30 years ago (man I feel old! lol) we were advised to pick up rabbits by their scruff, which of course, I would never do now.
In any case, I also lived in Canada most of my life and I’ve been in the U.K. since I married a Brit for 10 years now. We finally got a house with a garden after the last 5 years of living in a flat and I got a bunny! She’s a mini-lop and 6 months old and I absolutely adore her. I’ve had her since she was old enough to safely leave her mum.
The breeder had a series of hutches she kept her rabbits in, and whilst they were well-cared for, I felt the space was too small. Her and her two litter mates and mum shared a smallish one story hutch and I knew I wanted more for my bunny. My yard itself has a very high, almost 7 foot tall solid wooden fence, and goes down to the absolute ground. We blocked off a small space near the gate, the only space a bunny or neighbourhood cat could squeeze through (albeit a small cat and small rabbit) and I have chicken wire we’re using to reinforce the entire thing.
Inside the grass was only about 45% covering it, I raked and aerated and planted seed and now I have lush grass I keep mowed and I’ve planted seed for the small areas that were missing grass. I dug s garden that follows the fence line on one side and along part of the back, and we’re finishing the garden on the other side this weekend, only part of it is done and was home to my carrots (which were harvested and fed to my grateful rabbit) and the tomatoes are still growing.
Along the back we have put paving stones down and put her hutch on top of it. Her hutch is very large, probably 5 feet long by 2 1/2 feet deep and has two stories…there is a ramp to the top story which covers half the size as the downstairs and has a large pull out tray and two roosting/nesting boxes that kind of stick out. My husband built a thin wooden cover, so we can open the door to the hutch and it fits in place and has a couple of tabs to secure it. The top half of this cover has hinges, so I can open the top half of the door and access inside her hutch without having to remove the whole door piece, because at the bottom of it he cut a perfect hole and ordered a long tunnel! The tunnel gives access to the lawn, where she has an octagonal pen, that has a hard fabric cover that secures at 8 points with tabs, so I can remove part or all of it, and we don’t have to worry about predators, like birds, swooping down.
In her pen she has a second tunnel she loves to push and drag around and run through when she gets rabbit “zoomies” and sometimes when it is raining and she wants to be outside, she can lie in the tunnel to stay dry or she lies in the grass underneath a small wooden table my husband built for her. She loves that thing, and can be found often on top of it stretched out or underneath it in the shade. She also loves “chewing” on it and has a water bottle inside her hutch and in her pen.
She has a variety of toys she throws and carries around, bunny safe sticks to carry, toys with sticks and mineral blocks attached to the side of her outdoor pen and indoor hutch, a couple of Himalayan salt licks and she has free access to her age specific bunny kibble and clean dishes where she gets regular produce of veggies, fruit and I dehydrated a variety of these as well, I mix with her dry salad - a bunny safe mix of flowers and the produce I dehydrate for her. She gets daily handfuls of her absolute favourite of dandelion leaves and because we have horses, the yard lets us take good quality hay, which she seems to be more interested in making beds out of than eating. She also has lots of grass, which I don’t mow or cut inside her pen and we move the pen around the yard before I mow the yard again.
She has a heavy duty wire basket on its side inside her hutch where she drags her hay to, to make a nest, and she drags the whole basket around to different spots and she also has a soft covered bed (it’s like a little cave for her) that I used to keep in the roosting boxes, but she never used it up there, so it’s down on the ground level and she spends a couple of hours a day curled up in it, or stretched out hanging out if it!
she doesn’t spend a lot of time upstairs in her hutch. It’s changed once or twice a week; I line it with a couple of puppy pads for easy changing and line it in a few inches of quality shavings. She has litter trained herself. She will only go to the bathroom on this tray of shavings, so we’ve also put shavings in the roosting boxes in hopes she will go in there too, so eventually I will put a two layered mat where the tray is, she has one downstairs so she isn’t always on the paving stones, and anything on her feet or food or whatever, goes through the top layer of the pad and I can take it out, shake out the pad and hose it if I need to, so if she eventually only goes in the roosting pads, it will save shavings, time and she might use the big tray lined with the mat I plan on putting there to sit or sleep in inclement or cold weather, but it looks like she isn’t interested in spending time there (except to hide from the mower when I do the lawn) since that’s essentially her toilet and the ground floor has plenty of shelter wheh it’s raining. I know this was long, but I wanted to accurately describe it. Does this sound like enough room for her? She runs and leaps and hops about and loves to zoom through her tunnels. She has plenty of access to high sun and shade and she’s warming up to me. If I pet her and stop and move my hand, she hops to my hand and presses her face and chin, hard against it and lies down under my hand and closes her eyes, waiting to be pet again. She comes inside when I watch tv and will sit on my lap for over an hour, eyes closed, laying against my chest whilst I scratch and pet her and will dig violently against me if I stop and she still wants pets or if she wants to still be in my lap and not hop down to explore.
I guess I just want reassurance that she’s got space, I’ve given her a bunny palace (especially compared to where she came from), that I’m feeding her correctly and also that she likes me…..the fact that she follows my hand and today I tapped on the side of her pen and called her and she came out of her hutch and through the tunnel at top speed and I opened the top of her pen and she stood up and pressed her head into my hand when it came into reach….and that she sits in my lap with her eyes closed, relaxed and asking for pets, I’m assuming she likes it AND likes me? I think she does, but I’m hoping other more experienced bunny owners will confirm this and her actions are showing me she’s happy with me and loves me?
