Free roaming entire house?

[Smile414]

Hi there!

I was wondering, Is it a good idea to freeroam a bunny for a whole house. How many people normally do it? I feel like I would, however my house is large and im afraid that the bunny might get lost, or not find her food or litter bo.

 

[Preitler]

I do it, house and garden, they have to be inside when it's dark. Intact male, and spayed girl. There's no way a bunny can get lost if you let them explore on their own, and not carry them anywhere. You might need a couple of litterboxes if your rabbit decides that another spot is more convienient than home base.

 

[Catlyn]

If you bunny proof every nook and cranny it should be fine. Also if she is litter trained you can leave her hay there. She will most likely find her way back when she needs to. Another thing would be having multiple litter boxes if she goes into more spaces than one. As for letting her run loose, just make sure to introduce the house slowly, room by room and know that she doesn't have to get access to each and every room. Good luck!

 

[Catlyn]

Speaking of which, i was planning on moving my bun inside in the summers as well when normally he has a secure base off ground in a shed. The base is frankly going to be small for him as he should gain another two kilos while he's growing. Mum was dubious about it and dad asked to wait until bun would completely settle in and/or go trough puberty so the eordt phases would be over. I'm still planning on getting him neutered though (when he's old enough) so when we move to the apartment in fall he can be a free roamer without a bulky base but rather a hidy hole litter box and other essentials in the corner.

 

[Smile414]

Thanks! I’ll keep that in mind, however it would be really hard to bunny proof our whole house. And expensive too. I guess I’ll just have to free roam in my room, and maybe another room too,

 

[samoth]

I do this, but started small: xpen in bedroom -> entire bedroom -> most of floor -> entire floor + stairs & landing -> entire house.

The transition took around a year due to the doe being munchy with carpet and needing lots of watching during expansion phases, and the buck not braving the stairs for nearly a year (doe took right to them).

Just be aware that you're going to experience damage to stuff in your house (maybe your carpet, maybe your wall corners, maybe your couch, maybe your bed). Make sure you and everyone living in the house is okay with the potential financial repercussions of this!

And as mentioned above, you gotta rabbit-proof. Everything. And even after you've rabbit-proofed everything, they wil show you just how wiley they are and you'll need to do more rabbit-proofing

 

[Smile414]

I do this, but started small: xpen in bedroom -> entire bedroom -> most of floor -> entire floor + stairs & landing -> entire house.

The transition took around a year due to the doe being munchy with carpet and needing lots of watching during expansion phases, and the buck not braving the stairs for nearly a year (doe took right to them).

Just be aware that you're going to experience damage to stuff in your house (maybe your carpet, maybe your wall corners, maybe your couch, maybe your bed). Make sure you and everyone living in the house is okay with the potential financial repercussions of this!

And as mentioned above, you gotta rabbit-proof. Everything. And even after you've rabbit-proofed everything, they wil show you just how wiley they are and you'll need to do more rabbit-proofing

Did you get them to stop munching on your carpet?

 

[Blue eyes]

Here's a how-to on free-roaming:
https://rabbitsindoors.weebly.com/free-roaming-how-to.html

 

[samoth]

Did you get them to stop munching on your carpet?

Only the doe did it; she was a 3.5yo rescue, just neutered, and no history as a house rabbit. I spend an entire winter (plus some) basically sitting with her every evening in the room she liked to be in at night, reading magazines, and sending her on time-outs (back into the open xpen in another room that she didn't like to be in) when she started pulling on carpet.

She got much, much better with chewing carpet, but not before a few corners got pretty tore up. She still pulls up a few strands now and then, but seems to understand that she shouldn't do it. She's been free-range on both floors 24/7 since, but I still have tiles in a few open corners of rooms just to make sure she doesn't chew them.

Like rabbits in the wild eating the grass under their feet, it's totally natural for a pet rabbit to do this. We can't get mad at them for behaving naturally... only try to positively influence their behavior in ways that makes everyones' lives better

 

[Jas]

Mine are roaming the whole house since day one. They only go out during house cleaning and at night.

 

[Catlyn]

Mine are roaming the whole house since day one. They only go out during house cleaning and at night.

Why would they go out for the night? In the nigjt it is the most beneficial for them to stay inside, warm and away from predators, close to you. Why would you send them outside?

 

[Oceanie]

When we got Chamomile, we didn't have an xpen for her, we just kind of plopped her stuff down in the living room. We were planning on her roaming the entire house, but she thinks our area rug is comfortable so she barely gets off lol. It could also be that she's not used to so much space and is scared to venture further.

 

[Jas]

Why would they go out for the night? In the nigjt it is the most beneficial for them to stay inside, warm and away from predators, close to you. Why would you send them outside?

Sorry go in not out.

 

[Catlyn]

Hey, no worries, it happens every so often that we type the wrong word. It's actually sort of funny but i'm glad to hear that they won't be out during the night!

 

[ichabodny]

I started mine in a cage in the middle of our living room with some free time outside and out of the cage for a couple hours-new bunny parent. Within a week, Gomez decided he liked to be under the large table in the corner that holds our tv so I took apart the c&c grids that were his cage and just wrapped them around the outer legs of the table then added his stuff there. That was week one lol. By week 2, I had gotten him an ikea bed with another hut that I added to the side of the living room next to our large guinea pig cages corner. From there it just became free roam. However, I have three chihuahuas and a rescue cat as well so we started out with a child gate on the stairs and at the dining room/kitchen entrance and we have a very large, low board behind our couch with a curtain to separate the dining room from the living room; these were borders before he even arrived. We have an area carpet in the living room with hardwood floors then the stairs.

He does follow us upstairs when we move the gate to go up and use the bathroom, etc but otherwise, he seems to think the carpet is his border and doesn't like the hardwood floors. We have an enclosed front porch and use the front yard for the chihuahuas and he's learned to follow the group outside to play as well. He sleeps in his corner cage though. We've had him a couple of months now and we have very little problems except for him jumping up to drag his food out of the shelf we have it lol but no problem for me. Oh and he steals the guinea pigs' food lol.