Bun won’t explore new cage AT ALL!

[Kassy]

After placing her in a new enclosure that is double the size of her last, she refuses to leave the bottom level. She hides at the bottom and won’t budge. I gave up on trying to get her to use a ramp to go up. My husband thought maybe the “hole” for her to go up might be too narrow so he went out and got industrial strength bolt cutters and modified the hole and it is definitely big enough. She knows how to use ramps because she uses one to come out of this enclosure to the rest of the house and also knows how to jump up because the 1st level she easily goes up it and in her old cage she had a bigger hop to the second floor. What can I do to encourage her? I’m worried I spent so much on this grand home only for her to stay on the bottom which defeats the purpose!!

[The Law Bun]

First off, beautiful cage! I love the idea and the execution haha.

I will say, give her some time. When I first put my bunny in her new cage with multiple levels it literally took about a month for her to get around to fully exploring it. Some bunnies just have trouble acclimating to new surroundings, so he may just be getting used to the new cage. I am sure before long he will jump up and explore it . How could he not with how awesome it is!

[Paradigm]

As the poster above said, some buns just take a while.

If he’s not exploring it in about a month then you could put your bun on a higher level. We do this sometimes when introducing Mr Roger (obviously if your bun seems very distressed take them down again) but after a couple of tries Mr Roger generally takes quite well to things he might not have otherwise tried.

[Paradigm]

It’s as though he won’t go up to things if he can’t see/isn’t familiar with what’s above him, but once he knows he tends to gain his confidence.

[Bam]

Patience is key when dealing with bunnies. They have their own way of doing things and they can be very slow to adapt to new circumstances. This has been my experience with my own bunnies.
I think Paradigm’s suggestion about putting her on another level after a month sounds good.

[BunsAndDolls]

I agree with just giving it time…my boys were skittish when I first put them in their multi-level cage, but after a while, curiosity got the better of them and they started exploring. The top floor soon became the fave place to nap

[Kassy]

So I placed a pillow for her to use to jump up,and to my amazement this morning she was on the third level! I don’t think she knows how to come down tho

[Author]

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