Brought outside bunnies in-help

[Laura]

Hi,

I’m the lady that has 4 Reno Rabbits.  I have had them for 2 years, and they have been outside in a huge (10X15) rabbitat (separated with 2 buns on one side and 2 on the other). Due to our unusually cold weather I brought 2 of the 4 inside.  The other 2 are in the garage and will go back out into the rabbitat when the weather is above 30 degrees again.

The 2 that are inside are Bambi and Cinnamon. They have both been in the house before on various occasions.  The last time was a few months ago when Bambi had minor eyelid surgery.  They were both in the house together for a week and they did pretty good.  They used their litter box every time, and the only damage they did was eat the plants (can’t blame them for that one).  During that week they were in the guest bathroom while we were away and at night.

I have had them in the house, in the same bathroom, for a week now; letting them out for a short time when we are home.  Bambi has already chewed a small phone cord (my bad).  I know I need to do some rabbit proofing, but my biggest concern right now is that she won’t stop humping Cinnamon.  She really won’t leave him alone and pulls out fir and is honking. Even when I feed them she won’t leave him alone.  In a few weeks I will be building some sort of permanent enclosure in the office for them, but for now they are in the bathroom.  What can I do to get Bambi to chill out, I know she is showing that she is the dominant one, but I think Cinnamon is really getting tired of it and don’t want either of them to get hurt or be stressed out all the time. Please help.

Thanks,

Laura

[Sarita]

This can be normal behavior in pairs when there are changes. I think it’s anxiety related and can take awhile to calm down.

I think once Cinnamon is tired of it he will let her know. I would just try to calm both of them down when you see this behavior happening.

Have they been together as a pair since you got them from Best Friends?

[Laura]

OK.

Actually all 4 of them were together when I first got them.  After a few months Cinnamon got sick and had to be separated from the others for a week or so, that is when they unbonded and only Bambi accepted Cinnamon when he was introduced back to the others.  At the time I didn’t know they could be come unbonded, but then again I couldn’t take all 4 buns to the vet at the same time, and Cinnamon had open wounds that prevented him from being with the others.

Anyway, thanks so much.

[Beka27]

yes, i remember you! how are you doing?! that’s awesome that you’ve been able to bring them inside during this time. is there any possibility that they’ll be able to stay inside permanently, or will this just be temporary?

[Laura]

Bambi and Cinnamon will be in permanently.  We have talked about bringing them in before, the cold weather just made it happen sooner.

Cinnamon has been sick off and on over the years, so he has been in the house before, alone.  He is such a good house bunny.  Makes me wonder if he was a house bunny before he went to the crazy Reno lady.  Anyway, if Cinnamon was alone I would let him have free run of the house 24 hours a day.  But I can’t do that with Bambi, so I keep them together.

Bambi and Cinnamon are in the house permanently. They are temporarily in the (guest) bathroom, and I need to come up with something permanent in the office. Which I will start working on in the next few weeks.

Oh, and Bambi is eating the artifical Christmas tree (they both love sitting under it).  I can’t watch her every minute, how can I discourage her from eating it?

[Beka27]

i surround mine with a NIC grid fence… it keeps them out from underneath it. make sure it’s big enough to go fully around so they can’t scoot past.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Oh I remember you! We have a bonded pair at my shelter and when I clean cages little bunbun gets humped by Roger throughout; Of mine, Rupert will hump Kahlua when we are doing any changes in the house-like big cleaning jobs or moving furniture. Definitely normal but you still feel for the bun-on-the-bottom!

The NIC cube fence is great for keeping them away from anything =and great if they are only inside for a while and you need something temporary, as you can just clip off the zipties and put the cubes away when they go back outside!

[Laura]

Hi there,
OK, the humping and honking has decreased. Cinnamon is tired of Bambi and is fighting back.

Now, here are my current issues:

1. Plant eating. I have tried perfume and tea tree oil, neither work. I can’t move all the plants out of the living room, I have no where else to put them. Though last night I got the spray bottle out and squrited Cinnamon once. The problem with that is that I don’t have the time to constantly watch them. I let them out once a day, after their dinner (trying to stick to a schedule), for about an hour.

2. Peeing. I am assuming that Bambi is the one peeing in inappropriate places (like in front of the cat litter box; she leaves tons of poop there too). She is also peeing in her home (bathroom) on her towels and in a cardboard box I gave them to hide in. Right now the buns have 1 litter box that I clean out twice a day. Do I need to add another box? Though I have never trained either of them to use they box, they are really good about using it, so maybe Bambi needs a little help. I have also been cleaning the pee spots with vinegar, which doesn’t seem to discourage her from going back to the same spot.

That is all for now. I will have more later. Already got some great ideas from Beka from another post where she posted pics.

Laura

[bunnytowne]

OH my.  Once you have things bunny proofed you are pretty much done with spending big $.  Can you get NIC cubes or an x pen? 

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

You might want to purchase some cubes and cube off the plants-you could use clips and then you could take them down when the buns aren’t out if you’d like.

For peeing, can you move the cat litter box? Sounds territorial to me, they can probably smell the cats business and are marking.

[MooBunnay]

Do you have some type of ex-pen you could set up to give them their exercise time so that you can have some more time to bunny proof? I built a pretty big ex-pen out of NIC cubes, and then I put a sheet down on the ground and put the ex-pen on top of that and then let the bunnies run around in there if I want to let them get some exercise when I cannot supervise them.

[2lops]

Try wrapping tin foil around anything you don’t want the buns to chew. :]

[Laura]

We have a ex-pen that we just bought to put the boys in when I put them in the garage when it was cold; but it’s smaller than the bathroom the Cinnamon and Bambi are currently in. Bambi just now chewed, in half, the cord to the mouse and peed, again, by the cat litter box. I’m going to Wal Mart tomorrow to see how much cord covers are and NIC cubes. Funny thing is that I was going to move the cat box over to make room for Cinnamon and Bambi’s new home (so it would be next to them in the same room!). Thanks for all of your help, I will keep trying new things.

[Hedi]

You can buy cord covers very cheap in any hardware store if you dont find them at Walmart. Home Depot or even small Ma and Pa shops. And they are easy to cut so you dont need to use an entire cord cover on one cord. We typically only cover just the portion of a cord they may come in contact with.

What about putting a rabbit litter box next to the cat litter box? We have 4 house bunnies and they live in our finished basement. Two bonded, other two are not. So they all have litter boxes in their houses and then we have 2 “community” litter boxes downstairs so when they are out they have an additional place other than their own boxes to use. They LOVE their community boxes! lol

We also have one community potty box in our living room so that when someone is upstairs with us for free time there is a box there so they dont need to run downstairs to go. That has cut down all of the marking/peeing in other places. Who knew the community potty box would be the answer?!!

And another thing to look into is offering more diversions for play. At Home Depot/Lowes they have those QuickTubes for Cement that are made of cardboard and we have one running behind the couch the entire length of the house and at the end in the corner there is a dig box for them to play in. They all love to run in their tube and many times that is the first thing they run to when they are out playing. For just one QuickTube it was about $3 here. It will take your buns forever to even get close to destroying them. So they are a great investment.

Have you thought about spraying your plant pots with perfume or something that smells strong to deter your buns? Do you have higher tables or can you put those hooks in the ceiling where they will still get sunlight? I know this depends on the type of plants so Im just brainstorming..

I remember when you 1st joined I was confused about the Reno buns having to be outside. Do you know anyone else that took Reno buns and do you know if any of the others have come inside? I was just curious if people just assumed Reno buns couldnt be house bunnies or if there were medical issues? Just wondering…

[Lily]

My two lop rabbits have been together since before i bought them from the pet store (We dont get alot of shelter rabbits her in the NT, which is really good!) and it was always the male, Fluff, humping the female, Puff, then i got Fluff neutered. Fluff has stopped humping Puff, but now Puff humps him, he runs away but he never defends himself, its been a few months since the nueter. If i neuterd her to would she stop?

[bunnytowne]

WEll Tiger Lilly it would subside after her hormones die down   I hear that can take 6 months for a females to die down.  Thats a long time. I hope it doesnt’ take that long.

There may still be dominance isues that come about from time to time but overall the humping would stop.  Females can be very moody if not spayed.  Very moody.  Some are and some aren’t  just depends on the bun.  But that moodiness will decrease once spayed.

To the lady that adopted the Reno bunnies   I hope everything works out with your bunny proofing.  We learn as we go.  You will block off one thing and they may find another.  There will come a point where you get it all blocked off and no more worries and chewed cords plants etc.

[bunnytowne]

It will be worth the work involved once everythign is bunny proofed.  Glad that they are staying inside. And the others will be moving in too.  You will really enjoy them.

[Laura]

Hi there,
Here is an update. They have both calmed down and they seem less stressed and there is less humping. It’s great to watch Cinnamon fight Bambi off when she starts humping.

Perfume, Tea Tree oil and vinegar do not deter these buns, they will chew on it no matter what it smells like.

I moved Bambi and Cinnamon from the bathroom and into the guest bedroom. I’m using an x-pen. To protect the carpeting I’m using a tarp with a carpet and towel on top of it. I use a towel because Bambi likes to pee in front of the litter box. Oh, I have 2 corner litter boxes. Peeing and pooping outside of their pen has stopped. I close all doors to the rest of the house (office, laundry room and our bedroom). I got clear automotive fuel line; works great. I added a phone book and wood blocks for them to chew and cardboard boxes. Because she was destroying the towel I put in the pen I made Bambi a digging box, but not sure if she uses it much (I have only seen her use it once). It’s a plastic laundry basket I put towels in.

They still eat the carpeting and I don’t know what to do about that. I removed all plants from the living room, but really have no other place to put them. They also discovered baseboards, how do I protect those????

Cleaning is a bit time consuming also and wonder how I can reduce that.

Heidi – we were told by the shelter that the adult Reno buns could only be outdoors. I have been trying to find other Reno Rabbit owners but only found one I could contact and she adopted a younger bun that could be in the house. Most of the adult buns went to shelters, one shelter in Michigan got most of them, and they are outdoors.

[Laura]

 Here is the current set up.  The other problem with it is that it makes the guest room unuseable for guests. Maybe I can move them to the office and make something that looks a bit nicer…..

1214351862971.jpg

[bunnytowne]

Hey wow thats a cool set up.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Thanks for the update!!

Here is an amazing run down of bunny proofing-that’ll help you with basebaords. I’m glad you moved the plants-it’s hard to know what’s poisonous!

https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/BunnyProofingYourHome/tabid/61/Default.aspx

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