we’re moving!

[Lani]

So I finally got a date to move out of my mom’s house, July 15th! I’m very excited about having my own place (well with my roommates) plus being closer to work so I don’t have to drive 2hrs each direction. Our plans for Oreo is to keep her condo in my room and she’ll primarily live there (free roam) but have access to the entire apartment when someone is home to watch her. That’s after the appropriate bun proofing and after my roommates have had time to get to know her and learn basic care for her.

So I could use suggestions for what to expect for sharing a room with a bunny. I’ve accepted the idea that it’s her room, I’ll just be living there But any suggestions for containing the mess, should I expect lots of noise while I’m trying to sleep, keeping her out from under the bed, etc.

Also, if anyone has some recommendations for how to introduce ‘caring for the bunny’ info to my roommates who have never had or handled buns. I don’t want to overwhelm them with tons of info but I know they need to know the basics if she’s going to be roaming around the apartment eventually.

[mia]

I live in a tiny studio with my buns so I hear and see everything.

Under the bed is a favorite hang out spot. I put NIC panels around my bed but one bun is smart enough to move it so I had to put objects in from of the panels so that it can’t be moved as easily. On the other side of the panel, I had to make sure all items are at least a few inches away from the panel. My bun can stick her nose/mouth into the panels a little and reach for things that are close.

A water bowl is better than a bottle as the bottle can be loud at night.

I get a wake up call around 4:30-6am when they race “down the hall.”

Sometimes I wake to *crunch crunch* and peer over to check that it’s from something appropriate vs my furniture.

I’ve also woken up to a bun on the nightstand, a bun on the desk, a bun staring at me from the floor, a bun staring at me on my bed (they are not “allowed” yet)

[Elrohwen]

I’ve spent the night with the bunnies a couple times and they wake up at precisely 5:30am and start throwing things around in boredom while waiting for their breakfast. Once we just got up and fed them and they shut up after that.

I would start your roommates out gradually. First just go over what they need to do while the bunny is out and about in the house. Then later you can go over feeding and things in case you’re out of town. I always use the BB info sheet for pet sitters to get all of the information down. One of my friends is so not an animal person, but he successfully fed and cleaned up after the bunnies for almost two weeks.

[Stickerbunny]

My male has access to our bedroom at night (he has his room, our room, bathroom and hallway at night, rest of the house the rest of the day). My experience is:

Do NOT use a water bottle if you want to sleep. Clickclickclick is the only thing that wakes me up and it’s in the other room.
Put the crunchier toys further away from your bed and the softer ones closer, you don’t want to wake up to a wooden stick being munched right by you.
Mine naps during the day so he runs around a lot at night. Around 6am he is doing bunny 500s, but I am not a light sleeper so I can go to sleep through it … I only know because bf gets up and goes to work so his alarm gets me up and I hear it.
My bun tends to jump onto the bed with me in the morning if he wants something. I feed his pellets and refresh his hay right before bed, along with changing his litter box, so he will leave me alone!
Mine sleeps under the bed, he doesn’t cause any problems. But if you don’t want yours under there, NIC panels or something along this lines around the edges.

Also remember to pick up after yourself really well – my boyfriend leaves his socks all over the floor and yesterday he was all annoyed because the heel is missing out of all of his socks… my response was “well, stop leaving them in the floor if you don’t want them chewed”

[Lani]

maieih and stickerbunny, you say your buns have jumped on the bed, have you had any issues with them using the bed as a potty? I love the idea of having Oreo on the bed with me sometimes but I’m worried about her doing her business up there. Any ideas how I can prevent that from happening? Also, do your buns jump on the bed from the floor or do you provide them something to climb on to get up there?

Elrohwen, I’ll have to check out that BB info sheet. I’ve been thinking about printing some basic info from the “Info” section for them for now. My roommates are definitely animal people, but only have experience with more “traditional” pets. But it should be a good chance to spread the joys of house bunnies

[mia]

My bed isn’t a high bed; I would guesstimate 24″ high + some extra fluffiness. So, my bun is easily able to jump from the ground to my bed. The one that has jumped up has great potty habits so he’s not a good comparison but that is the reason I don’t “let” either onto my bed; it was a sneak attack.

[LoveChaCha]

Chacha enjoys jumping onto my bed. I have a little one store circular cat condo that she jumps on and uses it to jump onto my bed She has never peed on my bed.

[Stickerbunny]

My male has good litter habits and he has never used my bed as a potty – he jumps up on his own from the floor, it isn’t that high. He does tend to run circles around me if I ignore him when he jumps up though lol and once he got annoyed with me not petting him and put his two front paws on my face like “hey, wake up, pay attention to me!” He’s allowed on the bed whenever he wants, he’s never even left so much as a dropping.

[Lani]

Brittany, that’s a great idea about about the cat condo thing. I’ll have to remember that since it will look a little with decor than a cardboard box.  Plus I don’t think Oreo will be able to reach my bed without something to jump on first.

I guess I’ll have to just watch her really carefully when she’s on my bed to make sure she doesn’t start a trend of using it as a potty. Thanks for the tips guys!

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