Caged or not?

[Big bad rabbits]

Does anyone like me not cage their buns?My buns have the run of the house when we are in, adog flap on the backdoor and the run of the garden and kitchen during the day when we are at work. They sleep on a patch of carpet in the kitchen when we go to bed. NO CAGE AT ALL!! If my older bunny gets the chance she will tryto hide under the bed and when I try to chase her she gives me the "sleepy eyes"!

 

[Michaela]

I'm moving this to the Rabbits Online forum as it's not Breeder related.

Wow lucky buns! My Madison is not caged, she has free roam of my room, but she's been a bit destructive so mum wants me to get a cage for her. Pebble and Ebony have a spacious wooden playhouse outside, and a big run, but in the future when it's my choice my rabbits will be free roaming in my home.

Don't you worry about them being outdoors when you are not there though? I'd worry about foxes and big stray cats... :?

 

[golfdiva]

Hershey doesn't actually have a cage. He has his own room with a walk out onto a fenced in porch and sandbox.

 

[Penna]

Well, Belle is out of her cage from around six until midnight each day if that counts, but during the night she's in her cage and when there's no one in my house for over an hour (which is very very rare). My parents just don't like her being out at night, even though everything's bunproof. Maggie's in her NIC cage though except during her play time each day.

 

[Johncdn]

Smokey went what we call "free range house rabbit" about 12-14 weeks ago and it is workingvery well.

He is about 15 mo old and after his neutering last Christmas, has been such a good boy about not chewing or digging at things, especially carpet, that we thought about letting him out 24/7. His toilet habbits are also pretty good. He gets a little of what we call "shotgun butt" but he always pees in the litterbox a leaves 90% of his poop there.

As it was he was only in hiscondo from about 2am to 8am - see the nic cage only thread for a pic. From about 10am to 6pm he spent all of his time sacked out under one of the beds. This was so predictable that we felt comfortable enough to leave him alone in the house for a couple of hours through the afternoon.

Since the whole place was bunny proofed all we had to do was get a gate for one of the bedrooms that has an electric tilting bed. Were he to get inside that bed when it was tilted, with it's gears motors and wires, the result could be very tragic. Oh, this bed when laid flat is favorite place to afternoon sleep.

Now he has come to accept the fact that he is not allowed in the one bedroom after dark, but knows that he will be let in the next morning. He has full access to the rest of the house - except the bathroom - but he mostly stays in the living room as the other bedroom and kitchen have hardwood floors.

We leave a low light on a timer set to go off about 4am so gets some light then a bit of darkness after we go to bed. We leave a small radio on a "music of your life" station to give him a little background noise..

The whole thing has worked well for all of us. The humans don't have to chase the rabbit that won't go to bed Smokey is very content because he he can live on his "rabbit clock" and run around in the pre-dawn hours.

The only thing we have to look out for is if you sleep on the living room sofa, you will get pounced on at 5am

 

[Big bad rabbits]

There is always one bunny who spoils it for the others by chewing or something equally untoward!!

I have 3 angels and one baddy!

You still have some very lucky bunswho are free.

 

[f_j]

Mine have free run of one bedroom in our house. Their cages are there, but are always open. They used to be caged when we were in our apartment, but they seem so much happier now that they have lots of room all of the time. I know some members have bunnies that have free run of the entire house, but I don't know how they manage to do that - mine would be into everything! And I don't know how we'd ever find Penelope! I think bunny-proofing our whole house would be impossible unfortunately, but they seem happy with their one room.

 

[Big bad rabbits]

I must say he sounds like quite a character and good looking too!

 

[girlzilla]

no cage. my ludo used to have a big dog crate to sleep in at night but now he is free 24/7 and i think caging him up again at night would be too upsetting for him. he would keep me awake all night banging on the bars!

 

[Big bad rabbits]

I do not think ant bunny who has had a taste of the open would go back to the bars whithout a protest, I used to put mine back into a cage when they were naughtly butthey took it badly, so i just got rid of the cage.

 

[YukonDaisy]

Ookpik is pretty much free range also. She has her litter box, food and water in her cage, but I never close the door. She spends a lot of time snoozing by the hedgehog cage or in the living room, attacking me for raisins.

~Diana

 

[MsBinky]

Unfortunately, with my fiance in a wheelchair, I fear that having a bunny roaming around all the time would be a hazard. By having them in a cage and having scheduled roam, Mario can reduce his movements. The buns love to run under his chair and so he would most likely run them over :?I can't wait until we have a bigger house so that we could give them more room.

 

[Big bad rabbits]

Diana,

How cool to have a hedgehog!! Are they normal pets over there?

 

[okiron]

I bought a cage before I got my bunnies with the intent of giving them my bedroom while I was home and caging while I was gone to work. I only planned on getting one rabbit so the cage ended up being too tiny for 2. My guilt along with their smart ability to litter-box train themselves decided upon itself to give them my whole room 24/7 with the cage just sitting there with the door open at all times if they felt like getting in. My cats are using the cage more than the bunnies are lol.

 

[YukonDaisy]

:threadhijacked:

Big bad rabbits wrote:

Diana,

How cool to have a hedgehog!! Are they normal pets over there?

I wouldn't say they're a common pet, they've only been domesticated for about 10 years, but quite a few people have them. I'm this poor girls third owner and she wasn't even a year old when I got her. There's a thread in Let Your Hare Down about hedgies if you're interested.

~Diana

end:threadhijacked:

 

[iluvmybuns]

Pepsi and Ozzy have a cage, and they like it, so I wouldn't get rid of it. But they never get shut in. They have my room all day and the rest of the apartment when I get home. (Too many cords out here) And there are 2-3 days a week I don't work at all so they are out here a LOT.

I love to thinkabout howOzzy was at the shelter for so long and before that the guy wasn't really taking the right care of him (I'm sure as he gave him up without even helping to pay the neutering cost) And now how happy he is here, running free and binkying around all day.:biggrin2: