There’s no reason why you can’t keep your rabbit (and your rabbit hutch) indoors

So you’ve done your research, purchased or built your rabbit hutch, got your rabbit and now it’s time to think about the fun you can have with a pet rabbit.

Of course rabbits are outdoors creatures, and if you’ve got a good run around the rabbit hutch then you should let him play in the rabbit run each day, both for fun for you both and for exercise for your rabbit.

However as well as playing with your rabbit outdoors it’s perfectly possible to bring a rabbit indoors for some pet fun.

The first thing to know is that rabbits can be housetrained, or what is sometimes called potty trained. Like all pets that can be housetrained it takes a little work but it’s worth it in the long run. But house training your rabbit is not what we wanted to talk about today.

We wanted to look at some of the things that you can do to give both you and your rabbit a fun time together in the house.

Rabbits love to explore and they also love to find small holes to explore. Offer him a small dark hiding hole and chances are he will want to get in there. So there’s lots of potential to provide your rabbit with fun playthings.

Be inventive. Plastic pipes used in plumbing are cheap, can be cut easily and can be the source by lot of rabbit fun. And if you experiment a little with things that may make fun rabbit toys you can design a rabbit play area where both you and he can have tons of fun.

But you’ve also got to be careful. Be aware that rabbits are happy to poke their nose, or their entire body, into small holes, and so before you bring your rabbit indoors you must examine the area where he will be to see if there are any holes where, if he disappeared in there, he is not at risk of getting hurt or stuck.

Examine his proposed play area with a very keen eye for any potential hazards.

Remember as well that rabbits like to eat greens, so if he has the chance he will probably start to eat your houseplants, which won’t be good for the plants and which may also not be good for the rabbit. Read the rest of this entry

Rabbit hutches with wire floors are not recommended

You will often see rabbit hutches offered the sale in pet shops. Most rabbits are kept in a commercial rabbit hutch that has been purchased on the net or from a shop.

As we have said before the principal problem with most commercial rabbit cages is that they are too small. The rabbit needs a certain amount of space to hop around, to play and to exercise and most commercial rabbit hutches do not provide sufficient space for your rabbit to do this.

Your rabbit should have a cage sufficiently long to allow him to take 2 or 3 consecutive hops, and the minimum size to do this is at least 2 metres. And he should be able to stand up straight as well.

Unfortunately it is probably true to say that the majority of rabbits are housed in cages that are too small because of course these are the cheapest to buy.

However there is something else that you should consider when purchasing a rabbit cage as well as the size. You will find rabbit cages offered for sale with wire on the floor.

Rabbits do not like walking on wire and will actively avoid doing so, and so if your rabbit hutch has wire on the floor will probably find he spends most of his time in the sleeping area purely to avoid walking on the wire. Read the rest of this entry

There’s no reason why you can’t house a rabbit indoors

It’s entirely possible to keep your rabbit indoors all the time. If you are prepared to spend a little time working out how you will house your rabbit and where you will put his rabbit hutch then there is no reason why you cannot house him indoors.

An outdoors rabbit hutch needs to be fully enclosed to protect your rabbit from predators. However if you are keeping him indoors it is not necessary to have a fully enclosed hutch as there are no predators that are likely to attack him. Therefore you can design an indoors hutch with an open roof. This allows you to access your rabbit much more easily and also allows for ease of cleaning. We suggest a solid floor so that all mess can be easily cleaned up without damaging the floor of your room.

When looking for a good location for the rabbit housing avoid having it placed right near open windows, which can be draughty, in front of windows which get sun as these can get too hot in summer, and avoid anywhere near appliances such as gas heaters which can leak fumes.

It is possible to train a rabbit to use a litter box, or in other words to house train a rabbit. If you do so it is much easier keeping a rabbit indoors than if he makes a mess wherever he wants. If he has already been an outdoors rabbit and used a litter tray outside then use the same tray inside as he will most likely continue to use this as it smells right already. Make sure put the trade as far away as possible from any food or water source, preferably in a corner opposite to where the food and water is provided..

And remember that rabbits like to chew, and normally in an outdoors rabbit hutch you would place something for him to chew on such as a piece of wood. It’s important to do this indoors as well as he would chew on whatever he can find, which will probably be your windowsills if he is able to.

Much more dangerous is if he chews on any power cords and so, if your rabbit is to be out of his hutch from time to time make sure all power cords are protected with hard plastic sleeving.

And of course make sure he also has a private place to go into when he feels the need, or when sleeping. A box is a good way to provide this. Sometimes you need to cut holes at both ends of the box, as rabbits dislike entering an enclosed area with only one exit. Read the rest of this entry

You need to spend some daily time with your rabbit

It’s important to understand as a rabbit owner that there are certain responsibilities that attach to having your own rabbit. One of those responsibilities is cleaning the rabbit hutch. This should be done as frequently as possible and in any case when droppings build up.

How often the rabbit hutch is cleaned depends of course on how big it as as well as other factors, however frequent cleaning is essential.

A rabbit is an active animal and so should be given daily exercise. The ideal way to give your rabbit daily exercise is to have a run that surrounds the rabbit hutch so that you can open the door of the hutch to allow your rabbit out into the rabbit run each day.

Your rabbit will thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to stretch, run, hop and play, all those things that he cannot do inside his rabbit hutch, particularly if it is small.

But your responsibilities as a rabbit owner did not stop there. You also need to groom your rabbit daily. Groom him with a firm brush to help remove dead hair and anything else that has become caught in his hair such as burrs.

Rabbits can also get tangles in their hair, this is more of a problem in long haired than short haired rabbits.

Whilst grooming you should give your rabbit a good look over looking for discharge from the eyes, the nose for the ears and also check these for grass seeds which can become lodged in them.

And you also need to be aware of the length of your rabbit’s toenails as they grow and will need to be cut just like yours do.
Read the rest of this entry