Convincing my mum to let me keep my bun inside..

[juliet.xo]

At the moment my bunny Pancake lives in a big hutch on my back porch. He's pretty well litter trained, and the cage is always really clean with no smell or anything. Despite all this, my mum refuses to let me keep his cage inside. She has no problem with him being inside (she lets him run around the living room etc if the dogs are out) but she doesn't want his hutch inside. Personally I think it's ridiculous - this is a woman who sleeps with two dogs on the bed and they poop and pee on the carpet on a pretty regular basis, and she won't let me have a perfectly clean, litter trained bunny inside the house. She says cages are meant to be outside, and that most people have their rabbits outside :confused2:. I've tried to make her see sense with no success. My dad is fine with it, so I just need to convince my mum since it's their house and I have to live by their rules ssd: I haven't really tried to convince her yet, since I just got my bun today, but we had a little conversation about it and she was pretty against it, even though she seems to like him a lot and lets him run about in the house.

I'm thinking of waiting a month or two until I take him to get neutered and then convince her to let me have his cage inside while he recovers from the surgery so I can keep a constant eye on him. Maybe once the week or two is over she'll see that there's nothing wrong with having bunnies inside.

Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions on what to say to convince her? I'd really love to have him inside, even though he gets excellent care outside - I spend a lot of time with him, and take him out during the day to run around, so it's not like he's being neglected or anything. But we get some pretty extreme weather here in Australia (really hot in summer and really cold in winter), and even though she said I can have his cage inside on hot or cold days, I think it'd be a lot more convenient if he was inside permanently. So yeah, any suggestions?

 

[Bonnie Lee]

does your cage have flyscreen on it?
if not you can tell her how dangerous mozzies are...
apparently it's been going around australia pretty bad the past 2 years...

Good Luck!

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Try to get them together as much as possible. Pancake can probably be his own best solicitor if he's a well behaved, socialized bunny.

 

[LakeCondo]

Actually, most rabbit owners today keep their pets inside. but it shouldn't really matter if "everyone is doing it" or not. But your thought of having Pancake inside after neutering sounds like a great plan.

Do the dogs & Pancake have any interaction so far? If they are likely to look at rabbits as prey, that would be a problem. But he could stay in your room or elsewhere the dogs don't go.

 

[juliet.xo]

The dogs don't mind having Pancake around, neither does the cat. They just sniffed each other for a while when we brought him home, but now the dogs are pretty indifferent. Thanks for the suggestions guys

 

[juliet.xo]

Good news everyone! Since it was rather hot today, mum said I could bring Pancake's hutch up to my room. After bunny-proofing then letting him out to run around, she saw how happy he was (he was binkying nonstop for like 10 minutes!) she said I can keep him in my room until school starts, which is in about a month. I think by then she'll agree to let him stay there permanently I'm so happy, and so is Pancake

 

[LakeCondo]

Wonderful news. :highfive:

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:yahoo:

 

[patches2593]

try saying its healthy and better for rabbits to live inside and their life span will be longer if they are inside. also they're vet bill could be lower since its very easy for them to get worms, maggots, parasites etc from the outdoors and he'd be a lot safer insside. since u just got him, i'd wait a little bit since it would probably be a little overwhelming for ur mom to instiantly put him inside. hope this helps! let me know if it does!!!!ray: :highfive: