Bun hates bedtime!

[steph]

So I may be a bad bunny slave but I do not trust my boy home alone so of a night or on the rare occasions no one is home he has a cage to be in. It’s not as big as many of the pens iv seen here but he is only a very small bunny. Its big enough two of him could lie down one way and three to four of him the other and it has a small second level he normally sleeps on. He doesn’t seem to mind it and goes in there regularly throughout the day for his litter box, food or a drink or to play with a particular toy or rearrange his blanket. (Lots of toys in there). When I open the door of a morning he doesn’t seem to rush out. But then comes bedtime. Bedtime is not an easy routine lately. He hides under the couch and I bribe him out. Tonight the bribing didn’t even work for quite a while I had to leave the food on the floor and walk away before he would emerge. Then I pick him up and all good till he sees the cage then he starts trying to get free. I’m hoping someone might have an idea of how to make bedtime a bit easier for the both of us. . Thanks. (Sorry for any mistakes in on my phone)

[The Law Bun]

Hey Steph, so I had this same issue the first few weeks with Lilith, and I have a few general tips.

1) Don’t pick your bunny up to go in the cage. I did this with Lilith a few times, and I found it really hurt our bond early on (and I am slightly paying for it now). You do not want her associating being picked up or handled with being caged. Same for treats, you dont want her to learn treats mean cage time, because she likely will wisen up haha.
2) Plan for bedtime early. This is what I now do. Instead of a firm bedtime like say 11:00PM, I now start viewing bedtime as 1030-1130 or 10:00-11:00. What this allows me to do is wait for Lilith to go into her cage on her own. After she goes in I merely walk up and close it, simple as that. This does require all of his/her food to be in the cage, so the bunny needs to go in. This way you arent forcing them in, and Lilith now is fine with it. I will say after you lock it, quickly give your bunny a treat haha. Can’t have him/her mad now can we .
3) Instead of bribing with treats to get OUT of the bed, put the treats in the cage before hand to encourage her to go in there. Many forum users when I was researching this issue suggesting finding one treat that the bunny likes that is ONLY given at bedtime in the cage. For many users it seems to work. When my rabbit gets older and is allowed to have more treats, I plan to associate bananas with bed time. So when its bed time, she runs to the cage for her night time banana piece. Make take a while for the association but it seems to work.
4) The cage may be big enough, but another suggestion many people said worked is getting a bigger cage. Bunnies love space, and the more the better. So eventually you could look at building a solid NIC cage (you could easily do it for 70-100 bucks). I know its expensive for younger people, but considering how expensive some of those normal bought cages are, its not bad.
5) If you dont want a new cage, try buying a dog exercise pen! This is a great idea for not locking your bunny up, but your still ensuring he cant get out. Get the taller one 36 inches plus, but it works so well. You can then attach the pen to the front of the cage and give the bunny a front yard. I cant trust lilith yet, but she has like a 4×4 enclosure outside her NIC cage she is free to run around in at night that has no access to chewing floors or what not. But at night you close the pen but keep the cage door open, and bunny is happy and your happy. Then in the day time you simply open the dog pen up for her to have her full run time. This would also ensure your bunny is getting all the exercise and helps you see how the bunny handles being out of her cage for extended periods (litter box habits, etc.).

Hope this helped, good luck!

[kirstyol]

I also put Bramble in his cage at night because he cant be trusted out on his own and if I leave him in his pen he rattles it and no one can sleep. What I have found works is I have a bridge for him to use to get in/out of the cage, I put the bridge in place then go get his salad. He sort of associates the bridge with dinner time now and dinner is in the cage so he needs to go in. Don’t get me wrong he still sometimes looks at me like I have just committed a terrible crime when I lock the door but its a lot less stressful than chasing him around the room to grab him like I used to do. Very rarely he wont go in himself, but I would say at least 90% of the time he goes in no problem the rest of the time I have to encourage him, usually by waving a bit of salad at him and pointing out that he can have this lovely bit of salad – but only if he goes in the cage.

[Giggles]

I use a specific treat (his favorite) for when I want him to go back into his cage. He knows the routine. I shake the bag, take out a treat, and place it in his cage. He happily jumps back into his cage for the treat. I simply close the door, and after he’s done munching on his treat, he knows it’s time to settle back into his cage. Also, I reserve this treat specifically for this purpose. He receives other treats on a daily basis, but this treat is his absolute favorite.

[steph]

Thanks everyone for the treats, I really didn’t like our current bedtime routine, and was very worried that he would start to associate getting picked up with bad things. Looks like the plan will be dinner in the cage and waiting for him, seems like it should work, don’t know why i didn’t think of it myself really!
Oh, and Law Bun, i really wanted a NIC cage but was unable to get the cubes here, so ended up settling with this cage which was $100 anyway. Im still keeping my eyes open for NIC cubes, but so far no luck!

[LBJ10]

How old is your bunny? If he is at the age where his pellets are limited, I would make bedtime and dinnertime the same thing. This is what I’ve done with my boys and it works very well. They get their dinnertime pellets at bedtime. They will see me getting the bag out and they will literally fly into their cage. It’s funny because they are actually very excited to get in their cage.

[steph]

last few days dinner time and bed time have been one and the same and now, no issues, he is hoping right inside! thank you all so much, dont know why i didn’t think of it myself! thanks again!

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