How high is too high?

Zicheri · Oct 28, 2010

Winston loves to climb. He would hop on top of the fridge if he could. Seems like he wants to get as high as he can and will find a way to get on top of things I didn't think he could get to.

So... how high is too high?

For the most part the highest he's gotten is the back of a sofa. That's about 30" off of the ground. He's never tried to jump down from that height (yet), but would he hurt himself if he did?

Winston is a flemish giant so he's about 14 pounds and bigger than most cats and some dogs. I just worry that he'll make his way up there and then decide to take the faster route down and hurt himself.

Anyone have a good idea of how far a bunny can jump down without breaking a leg or, even worse, a back/neck?

Thanks,
Emily

P.S. - Wouldn't a prey animal want to stay close to the ground and under things? Is this an unusual bunny trait?

AquaticRex · Oct 28, 2010

my bunny has a nickname of monkey cause he does the same thing. he's jumped off of the back of the couch to the floor and has no problem with it. but he wont jump from the freezer top to the floor. Dante is a rex rabbit, and is smaller built then a felmmy, i dunno but i'd think that a flemmy would have thicker and stronger bones. a Belgian hare on the other hand has delicate legs and would prolly hurt it's self.

Flash Gordon · Oct 28, 2010

thats a hard one to answer...they can land wrong at any height..im thinkin if they werent startled and had time to prepare and landed on a non slippery surface ..the back of the sofa is fine..but its not a perfect world..they get startled so easy over nothing..bunnies arent the smoothest when it comes to getting around..i laugh all the time at their clumsiness...compared to my cats these guys are like drunk little monkeys...hehe..
id be a little nervous seeing one of my buns at the top of my sofa ...."Look ma No hands"!

tamsin · Oct 29, 2010

Yep, I agree, there is isn't really a safe height because they can land funny from something quite low and removing all risk just leaves you with a barren pen that's no good at all. Scamp is a climber too, he jumps off the back of the sofa which I guess is around 3.5' all the time but will go higher, the top of our fish tanks is around 4.5' and he's jumped off there a time or two.

He is small and agile though. I would think a Flemish would be slightly less able to deal with big jumps. I don't think 30" is too bad if it's onto a surface with grip (eg carpet) so he's not going to slide limbs everywhere on landing. They do tend to take the easy route down if there is one so adding a small table next to it (cover the top in something non slip) might stop him jumping the full height.

Zicheri · Nov 2, 2010

Well... he jumped. But he didn't hurt himself (this time). He loves to hop around on TOP of his cage, which sits just behind the sofa. I put a box next to it so that he now has a step down, but since doing that I've only seen him use the sofa as a staircase up and down.

I think I'll put a barrier up of some sort (maybe a big bowl of water?) so that he avoids the edge. I nearly had a heart attack when he decided to take the long way down. Yikes!

Flash Gordon · Nov 2, 2010

i can relate to the heartattack .

i have a holland lop with a front splay leg...well i moved the bunny room around and let her out to play and left the room ..walked back in and she was sitting on the window sill ...singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow...altho this is stinkin cute...my heart stopped she cant land on that front splay leg from that kinda height..so i had to slowly pretend that i wasnt coming near her..and SNATCH HER off it!!..she was like what ma ..i can do this ..with my eyes closed...silly girl