Is this right for my rabbit?

[stahn]

Hi all!

I will like to ask regarding my rabbit’s daily activities

Actually, the main story is that my mum’s staying with me at home and she is terrified of rabbits. Didn’t know that as I want to surprise her with a cute rabbit to ease her depression but BengBit’s with me in my own room 24/7.

So his daily activities are during at night (after 11 pm) I will try to release him in my living room and he runs around there for around 1-2 hrs before doing back to his pen in the room. And he spends most of his time there.

So I wanna ask is it healthy? My rabbit’s harness trained but he doesn’t like to go down to the parks

Appreciate any advise and I really love my BengBit

Thank you

[Bam]

Is his pen in your room where you spend a lot of time? if that’s the case, I think he’s fine. Ideally more hours of playtime would be good, but if he has company most of the time and gets 1-2 hours of free roaming per day, I think he’s better off than many rabbits. I’m not a fan of taking buns to parks, so if he doesn’t like it, I really think he’s a wise rabbit =) Parks can be dangerous to buns and if they get scared, they can hurt themselves on the harness.

I’m sorry your mum is afraid of rabbits.

[stahn]

Thank you!

This pen is in a room where I am working from but nowadays I have to go out to meet my clients for hours on end so like from 3 pm to 10 pm at night I am not around. I am thinking of getting another bun for him but when I brought up the issue of getting another bun, my mum broke down and cried (due to depression).

The free roaming, in this case, is the large carpet in my living room where he loves. He binkies on it and run around but never run out of it.

So in the case of parks, can I hold him in my arms and walk in the park? My wife thought that I am crazy to treat him like a human as I thought that BengBit will be bored

[Muchelle]

I still wouldn’t take him to the park because he can get frightened (and possibly suffer from a heart attack or dart off your arms/off the harness and get injured) if there are barky dogs or children that are too noisy. Also, I wouldn’t even let him nibble on the grass in a public place since you can’t know if there are chemicals or other substances.
Harness is potentially dangerous too, so in all honesty I’d use that only when stritcly needed and in very quiet, secluded places (for example I’ve seen a leashed bun one time that I was travelling overnight by ship).

He will be ok even the days you gotta be out working if you spend some quality time with him when you’re home

[joea64]

Panda and Fernando live with me in a small efficiency where the main living space is basically just one big room, so their two-deck condo is in one corner and their X-pen is put up and taken down as needed. I started out letting them out into their pen 2-3 hours per evening with longer on weekends, but for the last few weeks the X-pen has remained up all night so that they get anywhere from 10 to 14 hours out per day to run/hop/play/hide in hidey boxes depending on whether it’s weekday or weekend. With the close quarters, they get almost continual interaction of some sort with me when I’m home even if it’s only them sitting and looking at me as rabbits like to do, and they always have one another’s company when I’m away. They’re strictly indoors, only ever going outside when they need to be somewhere else and then they’re in their carrier, never on a harness; there are a lot of dogs and cats around that I don’t want them to be spooked by and I also don’t want them to be eating grass that might or might not have been treated with pesticide (and even if other conditions were ideal, I don’t have the kind of covered X-pen suitable for outdoors use anyway).

[stahn]

Great to hear that, thank you so much for your reply. Really appreciate it!

Posted By Muchelle on 11/01/2017 6:44 AM

I still wouldn’t take him to the park because he can get frightened (and possibly suffer from a heart attack or dart off your arms/off the harness and get injured) if there are barky dogs or children that are too noisy. Also, I wouldn’t even let him nibble on the grass in a public place since you can’t know if there are chemicals or other substances.
Harness is potentially dangerous too, so in all honesty I’d use that only when stritcly needed and in very quiet, secluded places (for example I’ve seen a leashed bun one time that I was travelling overnight by ship).

He will be ok even the days you gotta be out working if you spend some quality time with him when you’re home

[stahn]

Ah ok i got it! Thank you so much for your reply too =)

Posted By joea64 on 11/01/2017 7:18 AM

Panda and Fernando live with me in a small efficiency where the main living space is basically just one big room, so their two-deck condo is in one corner and their X-pen is put up and taken down as needed. I started out letting them out into their pen 2-3 hours per evening with longer on weekends, but for the last few weeks the X-pen has remained up all night so that they get anywhere from 10 to 14 hours out per day to run/hop/play/hide in hidey boxes depending on whether it’s weekday or weekend. With the close quarters, they get almost continual interaction of some sort with me when I’m home even if it’s only them sitting and looking at me as rabbits like to do, and they always have one another’s company when I’m away. They’re strictly indoors, only ever going outside when they need to be somewhere else and then they’re in their carrier, never on a harness; there are a lot of dogs and cats around that I don’t want them to be spooked by and I also don’t want them to be eating grass that might or might not have been treated with pesticide (and even if other conditions were ideal, I don’t have the kind of covered X-pen suitable for outdoors use anyway).

[stahn]

And here i am wondering if my bunny is bored, staring into space whole day, disturbed by me every single time when he turned around with his butt facing me, hopping around, eating hay and pellets with no other buns to talk to until the day that they die.
Haha if that bun is me, i will die of boredom.

But hey, my bun have me! haha!

[Bam]

Bunnies do like company, but it doesn’t seem like they are very demanding of that company. We shouldnt anthropomorphize https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/anthropomorphize too much. A good friend of mine once told my dog to go read a book or something because he got stressed out by her just lying there, doing nothing. Dogs and rabbits do need stimulation, but they aren’t super-demanding (unless it’s working dogs, of course) once they’re adults. I think my bun regards hanging out together as a nice activity.

It’s good if you can scatter or his food or even hide it a little bit so he has to look for it – foraging is a big part of a wild bun’s dayly routine. Twigs like apple and willow to gnaw on, a cardboard house to bunstruct, an elevated spot to hop up on and lounge in are other examples of enrichment. If you’re gone from 3-10 pm, he’ll probably adjust to that and do his daily lounging during those hours. Because adult buns spend their days lounging more than anything else.

The park would be pretty useless to him if you carried him around in it, but the fact that you want to do stuff for him so he wont get bored is just so lovely =)

[joea64]

Bunnies tend to be most active around dawn and dusk; most of the rest of the time, they’ll be sleeping, lounging around, sitting around gazing at each other, you or whatever else catches their interest, or eating. Several authorities hold that it’s considered quite friendly, when a bun is sitting or loafing and gazing at you, to get down on the floor with him and look right back, either talking or not as the fancy strikes you. My Panda and Fernando are most active, as I’ve indicated, in basically the nighttime hours, especially now that I leave their X-pen up all night. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes during the short wintertime days. During daylight hours, I know for a fact that they spend their time sleeping or lazing for the most part, even on weekends when I’m around more during the day. I take care to enter and exit my apartment, and move around in it, as quietly as possible during those hours so as not to disturb them.

As Christmas is coming up, I think of getting something nicer for them than a beer carton with doors cut in it for an X-pen hidey place…

[stahn]

Great tips right there! I think i will get some cardboard house for him to bunstruct and bunstroy haha!

Yeah sometimes when i forgot something in the car, i will carry him to my car and back. But its in the middle of the night

I think why i was thinking that way was that i saw videos on youtube of bunnies on leashes running around with their owners.

Posted By bam on 11/01/2017 12:27 PM

Bunnies do like company, but it doesn’t seem like they are very demanding of that company. We shouldnt anthropomorphize https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/anthropomorphize too much. A good friend of mine once told my dog to go read a book or something because he got stressed out by her just lying there, doing nothing. Dogs and rabbits do need stimulation, but they aren’t super-demanding (unless it’s working dogs, of course) once they’re adults. I think my bun regards hanging out together as a nice activity.

It’s good if you can scatter or his food or even hide it a little bit so he has to look for it – foraging is a big part of a wild bun’s dayly routine. Twigs like apple and willow to gnaw on, a cardboard house to bunstruct, an elevated spot to hop up on and lounge in are other examples of enrichment. If you’re gone from 3-10 pm, he’ll probably adjust to that and do his daily lounging during those hours. Because adult buns spend their days lounging more than anything else.

The park would be pretty useless to him if you carried him around in it, but the fact that you want to do stuff for him so he wont get bored is just so lovely =)

[stahn]

Haha thats cute! So right now their hidy places are beer cartons? cause i am considering using shoe boxes but the smell in them seems weird. 

New shoeboxes though

Posted By joea64 on 11/01/2017 1:01 PM

Bunnies tend to be most active around dawn and dusk; most of the rest of the time, they’ll be sleeping, lounging around, sitting around gazing at each other, you or whatever else catches their interest, or eating. Several authorities hold that it’s considered quite friendly, when a bun is sitting or loafing and gazing at you, to get down on the floor with him and look right back, either talking or not as the fancy strikes you. My Panda and Fernando are most active, as I’ve indicated, in basically the nighttime hours, especially now that I leave their X-pen up all night. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes during the short wintertime days. During daylight hours, I know for a fact that they spend their time sleeping or lazing for the most part, even on weekends when I’m around more during the day. I take care to enter and exit my apartment, and move around in it, as quietly as possible during those hours so as not to disturb them.

As Christmas is coming up, I think of getting something nicer for them than a beer carton with doors cut in it for an X-pen hidey place…

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