Any Rabbit advice ?

johnson293

I have another quick question - re: location of the run.

Our garden is a decent size, but the lawn has a slight slope to it, and is uneven in places. In the bottom corner, we have a hardstanding area paved with paving flags - our small garden tool shed is sited on this. However, the area is large enough to comfortably house the shed and the hutch/run combo I have ordered.

Would it be ok for the rabbits if their run is placed on the paved area?

We hope that during the day we can leave the door between hutch and run open so they could have free access to play/exercise (the run itself will be closed obviously), but in the evenings/weekends we could supervise them and let them have a run on the grass area too. We also thought that the shed could provide a degree of shelter from the wind for the hutch.

Also, being on a patio area may be easier for clearing any mess up within the run.

However, I wasn't sure whether a hard paved, potentially cold (in winter) surface would be ok for the buns? There is also no chance of them burrowing out of the run if its on a hard surface as well.

Cheers All.

MJ

KVet

"humping" is a sign of dominance, they are prob testing out their dominance

Shambler

Our 2 males are both about 2 years old and have both been neutered but still love to hump each other...sometimes they don't even bother going around the rear and prefer to 'hump between the eyes'

loulou123

My grandad accidently brought me 2 male rabbits instead of 2 females when i was younger. (dont ask how he managed to get the sex wrong on both!) and they started off by "friendly" humping, but as they got older they started to fight really badly, so had to be seperated, (cue buying a 2nd hutch etc!)

Id say keep a close eye on them and if they stop humping and start fighting then they will need to be seperated asap, as rabbits can be pretty savage fighters when they get going.

amy104

Humping is the way rabbits establish dominace and hierarchy. It is usual to see this when bonding rabbits of any sex.

However you will need to get your new male neutered otherwise it is fairly likely they will start fighting.

amy104

The patio is fine and has lots of advantages. Firstly no predators can dig in and bunnys can't dig out, secondly its easy to clean especially god forbid any of them get ill as its easy to disinfect, thirdly if you cover the run with a tarp in winter they'll still be able to use it unlike grass that will turn to mud pretty quickly.

As you said you can let them have supervised access to the grass or you can grow some in low seed trays to put in their existing run.

Alias_Omega

We have no problems with having 2 male rabbits, its just that each rabbit now leaves a 'stain' on each other rabbit.

Therefore we have to hose them down now and then.

The newer rabbit is friendly than our old rabbit, if one of them had to go, it would be a hard choice.

clutterydrawer

I prefer to use a paved area for runs for the reasons stated above - in fact when I adopted my rabbits, the rescue stated that their run HAD to be on paving/concrete or they would not rehome to me.

it's a good idea though to put down an alternative surface in the run to be softer on their feet - either trays of grass/soil, a layer of hay, or some rubber stable matting (watch they don't eat it!)

Alias_Omega

We let our rabbit run loose all the time if we can, only issues is where the rabbit does a no2. Initially it was on the paved area, so every day you would come down a nice pile of poop, We put something nearby, then this soon changed to the centre of the lawn.

8 months on, the lawn is pretty much dead in that area..

Not very good..

amy104

the lawn is pretty much dead in that area..

Thats odd. I've always found my lawns thrive from bunny poo fertiliser.