Advice!!!

[blizzardbunny24]

Hello! I’m Kehla and I’m fairly new to having my rabbit. He is about one years old and I had adopted him from a local pet store that was going out of business about 2 weeks ago. I wanted some advice on housing, daily routines, specific brands to avoid / use, and all sorts of those things.

1. My rabbit’s name is Blizzard and he’s currently in a 48″ W x 19″ L x 33.6″ H cage (which I know isn’t an ideal size for a cage but he is being let out for about 10 hours a day outside of his cage). I usually let him roam around my room but I find it hard to not worry about whether my room is fully bunny-proofed. I was thinking that I would buy a play pen type thing to keep him within the play pen. Is that okay or is that wrong? The playpen would extend 48″ W x 48″ L around his cage or more say connect with his cage or should I just buy wire cubes to block off certain areas of my room?

2. I find it hard to keep a daily routine for I am not home from about 10am – 7pm. Usually from 7am – 9:30am, I clean his cage, change his litter, water, and food. I usually let him out his cage from when I start cleaning till I get home and spend time with him for the two hours before work (also about 1 – 2 hours after so I can make sure he’s happy). Is there a specific time I should do things (like change his litter, water and food and time I should feed him veggies or treats or his pellets?) I just do not want to make my rabbit unhappy and not see him hopping and whatnot.

3. For Blizzard, I use Oxbow adult pellets and Carefresh bedding. Are those brands that are highly recommended? (Also want to know good brands for treats and toys please!) I also want to know what toys your buns loves because mine has quite a few but doesn’t necessarily loves them all.

4. Dealing with digging. Blizzard likes to dig especially when I lay his blanket nicely, by morning, it’s all messed up and not the way I want it to. Is there a way to stop this or is this normal?

5. Blizzard is very loud around 4am – 5am in the morning. This has become a big problem lately and it’s usually him running up and down his cage (for it is two stories). Maybe him being in a cage that small is a problem? Or is there other reasons?

Sorry this is a lot but I want to make sure my rabbit is living happily. I might have more to say but for now, this is it and I hope some of you guys can help! Thank you!

[Shadow13]

1. That cage is very small for a rabbit so please try to upgrade. If you let your rabbit out for 10 hours a day that still leaves 14 hours in his cage everyday. And to spend 14 hours in a small cage probably wouldn’t be fun. My rabbits cage is 48w x 48l so if you decided to buy that play pen you could use it for his cage instead. I think he would be very happy. If you get that cage you could just let him keep running around your room or buy another playpen to keep him in , but it would have to be bigger then his cage.

2.i don’t have an exact time schedule I just clean his litter box fill his hay up and give him pellets and water in the morning. And then let him out….at night I give him more hay and let him out agian. I’ve read some websites that say you should have a schedule but I’ve also read some where they say you don’t need one…maybe someone else can answer this question

3. Yes those are very good brands. I also have used Kaytee clean and cosy because it is a couple dollars cheaper then carefresh. If your rabbit ever Gets sore hocks I recommended useing Kaytee because it is softer then carefresh. But I think carefresh ubsorbs better. The best brand of treats is oxbow. I use woot of different brand of toys for my rabbit but he seams to like balls,tunnels,willow , hanging toys and those lava block things.

4.my rabbit always does this. Digging is a natural thing for at almost all rabbits do. Your rabbits probably try to move the blanket we’re he wants it. I haven’t found a way to stop my rabbit but if your rabbit digs in the corners you can put a ceramic tile down which also helps keep your rabbit cool in the summer.

5. Rabbits are most active at Dawn and dusk so around 5 or 6 am your rabbit is probably in its active time and so that’s why he’s running around a lot. My rabbit does this at 6 am. I’m not sure what you could do about this sorry.

I hope I answered your questions and hopefully they made sense. Feel free to message me if you need anything else.

[joea64]

I know I say this a lot, but you might also look into building something out of office-storage cube grids. You could build a very big cage/habitat for Blizzard out of those, and hook it up to the playpen/exercise pen to create a nice big space for him. I use Oxbow pellets and Carefresh bedding for my buns (I recently found out that Carefresh is sold for cheaper at Walmart under another brand – check the package, the bunny on it is exactly the same one and the company is the same). I don’t have an opinion on Kaytee bedding but I’d strongly recommend to stay away from Kaytee prepared food, it has a bad reputation for having a lot of stuff mixed into it that really isn’t good for rabbits. You might look into setting up a “digging box” for him with some suitable material that is rabbit-safe but different from his bedding so he doesn’t confuse it with his litterbox. As for the dawn/dusk things, that’s just how buns roll; fortunately I get up quite early in the morning so I can deal with it!

[blizzardbunny24]

Posted By Shadow13 on 9/17/2017 9:11 AM
1. That cage is very small for a rabbit so please try to upgrade. If you let your rabbit out for 10 hours a day that still leaves 14 hours in his cage everyday. And to spend 14 hours in a small cage probably wouldn’t be fun. My rabbits cage is 48w x 48l so if you decided to buy that play pen you could use it for his cage instead. I think he would be very happy. If you get that cage you could just let him keep running around your room or buy another playpen to keep him in , but it would have to be bigger then his cage.

2.i don’t have an exact time schedule I just clean his litter box fill his hay up and give him pellets and water in the morning. And then let him out….at night I give him more hay and let him out agian. I’ve read some websites that say you should have a schedule but I’ve also read some where they say you don’t need one…maybe someone else can answer this question

3. Yes those are very good brands. I also have used Kaytee clean and cosy because it is a couple dollars cheaper then carefresh. If your rabbit ever Gets sore hocks I recommended useing Kaytee because it is softer then carefresh. But I think carefresh ubsorbs better. The best brand of treats is oxbow. I use woot of different brand of toys for my rabbit but he seams to like balls,tunnels,willow , hanging toys and those lava block things.

4.my rabbit always does this. Digging is a natural thing for at almost all rabbits do. Your rabbits probably try to move the blanket we’re he wants it. I haven’t found a way to stop my rabbit but if your rabbit digs in the corners you can put a ceramic tile down which also helps keep your rabbit cool in the summer.

5. Rabbits are most active at Dawn and dusk so around 5 or 6 am your rabbit is probably in its active time and so that’s why he’s running around a lot. My rabbit does this at 6 am. I’m not sure what you could do about this sorry.

I hope I answered your questions and hopefully they made sense. Feel free to message me if you need anything else.

1. If I buy the playpen and connect to his cage, to make it about twice the size of his cage, is that okay? I might just leave the playpen so for the 14 hours he’s out, he has more running space and whatnot, if that makes sense. I do feel extremely bad that he’s stuck in such a small cage but my dad had purchased it without my permission (for I wanted to build the cage instead to be bigger). I feel as if I buy the playpen, it can act as just an extender so I’m not wasting money on a brand new cage I had just gotten a week after I got Blizzard.

2. I was always told to have him on a schedule but I guess I can go with what I did before and not have a specific schedule for everything.

3. I was told to avoid Kaytee because of its bad reputation and I do quite like the bedding more for it but I fear that it’s bad reputation is going to cause a bias. But maybe I could mix the bedding??
I also think I might buy more toys. Do you have any places that sell cheap boxes to make castles out of??

4. My bunny’s cage never came with a flooring, weird I know. So I placed blankets but ceramic tiles sound like a good idea.

5. Okay so I’m not just overreacting. I tend to get annoyed by it when I’ve had a bad night but I’m sure I’ll just get used to it!

Thank you so much!!

[ThorBunny]

Hi, Welcome to bun-life

1) The solution of putting a playpen around his cage is a great idea. Many members on here do a similar thing. If you buy metal x-pens these are pretty cheap on Amazon. Make sure to get a pen at least 3ft high as rabbits sure can jump! Another option is free roaming if you can bunny proof an entire room. This depends on the rabbit, chewing and your living situation. Thor is free range in our apartment, and it works out great for us.

2) I also wouldn’t stress about a strict schedule. Your away time is actually great since rabbits usually sleep during the day. Thor is always knocked out between 11am and 7pm whether I am home or not. Just make sure he has hay and water available at all times and he should be fine!

3) I also use Oxbow pellets. I don’t use carefresh in my litter box (does he have a litter box or is the entire cage covered in litter?) since it got too expensive. I use wood stove pellets. You can buy these at the hardware or farm supply store for $5-$7 for 40lbs! It’s a great deal and they are really good at controlling odor and soaking up pee. Carefresh is good too though I get a lot of treats and toys from the BB store here, my buns love dried willow! Toys I buy from the dollar store mostly, baby toys, stacking cups, slinkies, Thor loves things she can toss and that make noise but every bun is different!

4) Digging is normal! I know you see it as all messed up, but that’s probably the way he prefers it, lol. He thinks you’re messing it up when you come in to clean.

5) Yes concur that rabbits love to wake up and make a racket at dawn! Extra space from an x-pen will hopefully help lessen the noise…

[Shadow13]

Posted By ThorBunny on 9/18/2017 6:57 AM
Hi, Welcome to bun-life

1) The solution of putting a playpen around his cage is a great idea. Many members on here do a similar thing. If you buy metal x-pens these are pretty cheap on Amazon. Make sure to get a pen at least 3ft high as rabbits sure can jump! Another option is free roaming if you can bunny proof an entire room. This depends on the rabbit, chewing and your living situation. Thor is free range in our apartment, and it works out great for us.

2) I also wouldn’t stress about a strict schedule. Your away time is actually great since rabbits usually sleep during the day. Thor is always knocked out between 11am and 7pm whether I am home or not. Just make sure he has hay and water available at all times and he should be fine!

3) I also use Oxbow pellets. I don’t use carefresh in my litter box (does he have a litter box or is the entire cage covered in litter?) since it got too expensive. I use wood stove pellets. You can buy these at the hardware or farm supply store for $5-$7 for 40lbs! It’s a great deal and they are really good at controlling odor and soaking up pee. Carefresh is good too though I get a lot of treats and toys from the BB store here, my buns love dried willow! Toys I buy from the dollar store mostly, baby toys, stacking cups, slinkies, Thor loves things she can toss and that make noise but every bun is different!

4) Digging is normal! I know you see it as all messed up, but that’s probably the way he prefers it, lol. He thinks you’re messing it up when you come in to clean.

5) Yes concur that rabbits love to wake up and make a racket at dawn! Extra space from an x-pen will hopefully help lessen the noise…

Sorry I haven’t replied but ThorBuuny did a great job at explaining more!

As for the Kaytee I’ve heard a couple things like, it can cause cancer and it causes heart problems but it’s the brand most people use for hamsters so I didn’t see why it’s not safe for rabbits. I prefer carefresh to but I still use Kaytee. It up to you what you want to use but in my opinion they both seem like good brands.

I get lots of cat toys from the dollar store like cat tunnels and cat jingle balls and my rabbit loves them. Most of the time I buy petstore toys but he destroys them so fast it seems like I’m spending tons of money week on toys.

[kirstyol]

I’m quite similar to you in the time that my two need to spend in their Homebase, depends on the day exactly how long but I work a lot of nightshifts when they get less time out so I have them in an XL dog crate with the biggest pen I could get attached to it which basically gives them half of our living room to themselves.

I very deliberately don’t have a set schedule for our two because we don’t have a strict schedule for when we are able to feed them and believe me bunnies can tell the time! My last bun used to get fed at 10 every day and if you were five minutes late she would thump and throw things like a nutter! so from the day we first brought Bramble home we have deliberately not had a set feeding time that way he never got used to a set time.

[blizzardbunny24]

Posted By ThorBunny on 9/18/2017 6:57 AM

Hi, Welcome to bun-life

1) The solution of putting a playpen around his cage is a great idea. Many members on here do a similar thing. If you buy metal x-pens these are pretty cheap on Amazon. Make sure to get a pen at least 3ft high as rabbits sure can jump! Another option is free roaming if you can bunny proof an entire room. This depends on the rabbit, chewing and your living situation. Thor is free range in our apartment, and it works out great for us.

2) I also wouldn’t stress about a strict schedule. Your away time is actually great since rabbits usually sleep during the day. Thor is always knocked out between 11am and 7pm whether I am home or not. Just make sure he has hay and water available at all times and he should be fine!

3) I also use Oxbow pellets. I don’t use carefresh in my litter box (does he have a litter box or is the entire cage covered in litter?) since it got too expensive. I use wood stove pellets. You can buy these at the hardware or farm supply store for $5-$7 for 40lbs! It’s a great deal and they are really good at controlling odor and soaking up pee. Carefresh is good too though I get a lot of treats and toys from the BB store here, my buns love dried willow! Toys I buy from the dollar store mostly, baby toys, stacking cups, slinkies, Thor loves things she can toss and that make noise but every bun is different!

4) Digging is normal! I know you see it as all messed up, but that’s probably the way he prefers it, lol. He thinks you’re messing it up when you come in to clean.

5) Yes concur that rabbits love to wake up and make a racket at dawn! Extra space from an x-pen will hopefully help lessen the noise…

I was thinking of maybe getting the wood stove pellets and they’re about $5.19 for 40 lbs at Lowe’s. I want to try it but I’m unsure if I’ll like it and I don’t want to be stuck with 40 lbs of it  

[Author]

Messages