my 6yr old niece's rabbit

stabu

Ok, my niece gave me her pet rabbit while she's off on hols, and I gave a commitment to her .. the only thing is I'm not so good with pets. I had a dog when I was a wee lad, but a rabbit is new to me.

I've been through several internet sites, and I think I've got a good gist of what I should be doing .. but they do cater more for owners than for temporary carers like me.

Now, I have a 3rd floor apartment, so, unlike my niece, the rabbit can not have a run around a garden any more, like what she's used to. There are open areas, but my first worry is about the rabbit jumping.

I let her out of her hutch (it's a god size hutch, I would say) onto the balcony, and she jumped on top of the hutch! Holy Kahuna, she scared me ... She'd too good at jumping then so, images went through my mind of her jumping off the balcony .. so back into the hutch it was.

She;s a good rabbit, but ... she has strong curosity. I let her out inside the apt. But then again I'm warned .. they eat electric cables. So back into the hutch!

Unfortunately, then, unless someone has some advice for me, she will spend all her time in the hutch. Yes. I'll feed her properly .. but I've got a feeling she's not delighted.

So she'll be bored to tears and my niece will say I didn't treat her right.

Any advice for an rabbit-inexperienced uncle? Cheers!

Sigma Force

No matter how big the hutch a hutch should only be used for sleeping/eating/shelter from the elements/drinking/a place of saftey if bunny is scared.
As long as the rabbit can stretch upward fully and outward fully and hop about comfortably in the hutch then it's fine for when you are out and for rest time etc.

Rabbits can jump up to 6 feet.
If you can rabbit proof one room that will be enough space for the bun.
They will chew at any cables etc exposed but it should be easy enough to rabbit proof one room by blocking any dangerous areas. You can also use those cable tidys, they're cheap and keep everything out of the way in one large thick cable.

The balcony would be ideal but only if it was wired off since you're only minding the bun for a short time you might not want to go to this kind of lenght. So what you can do is just keep the rabbit indoor.
People tend to think that rabbits need to be out in the garden but they make excellent apartment pets and as long as there's space to run around the rabbit will be perfectly happy.

There are pet pens you can get to confine the rabbit to a certain area of the house but again since it's short term this might not be ideal for you.

While the rabbit is in the hutch provide him with some safe chew toys, avoid shop bought treats like the treat bars but things like timothy hay etc is fine.
Never feed the rabbit iceberg lettuce, best avoiding lettuce anyway. Romaine lettuce is fine but I never bothered with it. I tended to give rabbits less greens and more things like carrot, apple, cauliflower, oregano, thyme, pear.

Another thing you can do while the rabbit is in the hutch is stuff an empty kitchen roll insert with hay and some bits of carrot the rabbit will have great fun trying to get at the food in the middle. Plain brown paper bags stuffed with hay and veggies also works the rabbit will rip it up and have fun shredding it.

There are also rabbit toys like treat balls where you can fill the ball with part of their dry mix and the rabbit will push it around to get the food out.

Some like hanging toys like the wooden toys you can get with a bell on (make sure there's no string or rope on it).

Any other bunny questions just ask, although I prolly waffled on too much as it is lol.

Btw just to mention to nieces parents to ensure that if not done already the rabbit will need Myxomatosis vaccination and VHD vaccination and especially if the rabbit is outdoors, it's rampant at the moment and kills very quickly.
Also they should keep an eye on the bun when in their garden to make sure the bun doesn't pick up any rabbit fleas.

I think Heatons and pound shops do those cable tidies and Argos as well.

stabu

thanks very much Guineapigrescue,

that looks like excellent advice, as it sounds that you have good experience.

Can jump 6ft! On the internet sites it said 4ft, but ok, so the rabbit is not an athlete, still 4 feet is too high, because it can jump onto the hutch (2ft) from there onto the balcony ledge (1ft) and over the balcony railing (1.5ft) .. and down to a terrible impact. I'm thinking now that with that sort of scaling, very few animals can be kept on balcony without special fencing.

However, I suppose I can tidy things up in the sitting room, and bunny-tise it.

So the idea is to make her have fun is to make it tricky for her to eat? I suppose it would fill up the time for anybody and she probably has too much time on her hands. So I'll see what I can do.

Will do on the owner advice. Cheers! Thanks so much!

Sigma Force

It depends on the rabbit and how agile they are, their size etc your average house bun would jump 4 feet and they wouldn't normaly jump that high unless larking about or they get a fright.
They do like to climb well as in jump from one thing to another.