Anyone got a house rabbit?

[SleepyJess]

We have had our rabbit for a few months.. was about 6 months old when we got him. During this cold weather we have been bringing him indoors as much as possible.. and he seems really happy in here.. although do worry about hom a bit when kids have phases of chasing him around. He hides very well though! He uses a litter tray (we just use the one from his hutch in the garden) and have only found the odd stray bit of poo not in the tray.. which is pretty inoffensive really as poo goes!

Just wondered if anyone else has an actual house rabbit that lives indoors all the time? Do you still have to have a hutch indoors? (Because I can't do that.. have a DS with cystic fibrosis and there is a germ that lives in pet hay which can be harmful to people with CF). Guess we could keep him indoors all day and then put him to bed in his hutch at night...

Does your rabbit chew things a lot? Ours chewed through our phone wire this afternoon! It was blissfully quiet - the bl*dy thing never stop ringing normally.. but obviously we can't have that on a regular basis!

And seeing as he goes upstairs when he feels like it, I am worried he will eat something poisonous.. or something that is jsut not good for him.

has anyone got any input?

SJ x

Our rabbit used to live in the house when we lived in a flat, although he had his hutch on the balcony (!). When it was really cold, he slept him in a big travel basket in the house.

I don't think you can stop them chewing thru' wires. You'll just have to try to move them. Have you got a garage or shed for him to sleep at night in the cold weather?

They seem to know what not to eat. We have rhubarb in the garden and he never goes near it. Not fool proof though according to the vet.

Thanks Strawberry.

Another thing.. he keeps humping everything! Mainly footballs.. and DS's Bob The Builder hat though.. they are his faves! shock Does this mean we need to keep him neutered? I thought that because he won't see any other rabbits, we didn't need to fork out for this..

If so, roughly how much is it?

Any rabbity peeps? [grin}

SJ x

We kept him in over night.. and he was very good.. poo-ed in his litter tray etc.. but the house stinks of pee even though I think he's only peed in his litter tray! Is this connected with the possible need to get him neutered as well, does anyone know?

Help.. need bunny advice fast.. don't want to put him back in his cold, cold hutch outside now he's spent so long in the warm!

SJ x

Sleepjess - I have had our house rabbit (was called Rooney until the traitor went to Man United ) for 2 years now. We have a big plastic indoor hutch which he is in most of the time. He doesn't get to run free. We let him out every evening for a while. He jumps back into his hutch to go to the toilet.

The strong smell of pee could be him 'spraying'. So it might help to have neutered. We don't have a litter tray so don't know what to suggest. Scented sawdust? We use that and it's fab.

As for Hay... we don't use hay as bedding. He's warm enough indoors so just has newspaper and sawdust. Perhaps straw. He seems happy enough, in fact given the choice of lying on the sofa or lying on the sawdust bedding in his hutch, the hutch wins every time.

Thanks Toothache. We have put him back in the hutch in the shed now though.. because the place started smelling so badly of rabbit wee Miss him now.. he is like a puppy!

Will see about getting him 'done'

Any other 'house rabbit' avice greatly appreciated.. would like him indoors but its not just the wee.. found poo in DDs room last night!

SJ x

Sleepyjess - Why not keep in a house hutch... without the hay. And just let him run around when you are there to supervise. That's what we do. He gets out for about an hour at a time, and as many times as we can. We don't let him go upstairs coz he tends to chew wires. He doesn't often poo on the carpet, if he does he goes straight back into his cage. He has never pee'd on the carpet. The scented sawdust really keeps the smell away and as long as you empty the hutch into the bin once a week(just carry it outside and tip straight into the wheelie bin, it's just plastic so is very light) it shouldn't smell. Incidentally we haven't had our male 'done' yet.

He gets cleaned out on a Sunday morning and on the rare occasions his cage smells, it's a Saturday night when he's due to cleaned the next morning anyway. It's really managable and shouldn't really be a problem as long as he's caged when unsupervised. HTH