'Bunnies without Borders' - written by one of our bunny adoptors
I am a pretty anxious bunny owner and completely and utterly love Alfie
and Lola (formerly known as Cherish) - I would be devastated if anything
happened to them but I think you can be too cautious.
I was so cautious with Alfie I initially kept him like this. I used to let him out for as long as I could each day, when I could supervise, thinking this was enough exercise for him.
I think the key thing for me was when I changed my thinking after speaking to Caroline, and realised that you don't need to cage a bunny to ensure that it is a safe bunny and that bunnies do not actually need to be stuck in cages at all. At first I was very nervous about the damage they would do to my flat and any dangers to them. I didn’t think my flat was unsupervised-bunny friendly at all. After some thought I realised I could reorganise a room for them, which was safe for them to be unsupervised.
Over time I have discovered that the less I bar them from, the less destructive they are and the more I get to know all their habits and behaviours. You just have to have the confidence. The first time I left Alfie alone in his room (before Lola joined him) I was worried about him all night. He was fine. I really think it's about ones attitude to rabbits and how they should be housed.
Now that they are never caged, I realise that they are in fact most active when I am asleep. When I leave my bedroom door open all night I really understand how busy they are. Last night Alfie spent most of the night using my bed as part of his assault course and Lola practised her sprint turns on my bed for a large part of the night. Whilst I don’t recommend this (I do wake up a lot!), it would be awful for them to be caged when they really want to be very active. Below are pictures of their room:
I think the key thing for me was when I changed my thinking after speaking to Caroline, and realised that you don't need to cage a bunny to ensure that it is a safe bunny and that bunnies do not actually need to be stuck in cages at all. At first I was very nervous about the damage they would do to my flat and any dangers to them. I didn’t think my flat was unsupervised-bunny friendly at all. After some thought I realised I could reorganise a room for them, which was safe for them to be unsupervised.
Over time I have discovered that the less I bar them from, the less destructive they are and the more I get to know all their habits and behaviours. You just have to have the confidence. The first time I left Alfie alone in his room (before Lola joined him) I was worried about him all night. He was fine. I really think it's about ones attitude to rabbits and how they should be housed.
Now that they are never caged, I realise that they are in fact most active when I am asleep. When I leave my bedroom door open all night I really understand how busy they are. Last night Alfie spent most of the night using my bed as part of his assault course and Lola practised her sprint turns on my bed for a large part of the night. Whilst I don’t recommend this (I do wake up a lot!), it would be awful for them to be caged when they really want to be very active. Below are pictures of their room:
They don't necessarily need a whole room, if there isn’t a spare room
going, but an extra fenced off area. Now that my attitude has changed, I
would be very unhappy for Alfie and Lola to be caged at all.