# Can changing cages stress my rabbit?



## amandaaaa_xxo (Feb 2, 2016)

Hey everyone  

I have two cages for my holland dwarf lop. He's two years old. We have a two storey deluxe hutch in the garage and a normal house cage inside our house. We bring in our rabbit inside the house whenever it is hot, or cold or if he's sick. Other than that, we keep him in the hutch in the garage over night. We take him out every morning in the backyard to run around and exercise until night time and of course we give him food throughout the day, and water.

I'm wondering if changing the cages will stress my rabbit? Do rabbits like to be only in ONE cage?


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## ladysown (Feb 2, 2016)

depends on the rabbit. if he's handling it well then you have your answer.


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## Azerane (Feb 2, 2016)

You can usually tell when they're unhappy in a situation like this. When I first got Bandit, I had to partly keep him outside in a hutch as well as bringing him inside in bad weather conditions. He always hated going back in the hutch. When I was carrying him as soon as we got to it he would start to stress, and always before I could close the door he would try to jump and climb out and would push against the door after it was closed. So it was pretty obvious to me that he didn't like being out there. However that's not to say that your rabbit isn't ok with the way you move him around. If anything it changes up his day a bit and keeps him from getting bored.


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## LuckyAmi (Feb 8, 2016)

I've read in multiple bunny books that switching their cage (or even just changing around the arrangement of the cage in the room) can cause stress, but I would imagine it would depend on the rabbit mostly. 

I see several people talk about their rabbits being more skiddish / nervous / afraid of things being changed or happening too fast.... but my rabbit is pretty zen. Not much phases him, so I think he would be cautious at first but pretty ok with a big change. If nothing really bothers your rabbit, you are probably going to be fine as long as the cage switch happens slowly. If your rabbit is the type who gets stressed easily, be more careful. Maybe try letting him investigate the cage on his own first. Give him time to figure out for himself that the new cage is not going to harm him and is good. If he feels safe in there, I would think it would be ok.


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## flemishwhite (Feb 10, 2016)

I've seen situations, more than once, where we removed a litter box for refreshing, and the rabbit immediately ran over to where the litter box was and peed. Rabbits are very territorial and they also become very fixated on things in their world. Also, it's very common that when we put down a fresh litter box, a rabbit will run up, jump in, and give it a blessing. I'm describing house rabbits free ranging in our home with litter boxes distributed in our home.


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## ts786 (Feb 14, 2016)

In my opinion, it depends how used the rabbit is to its surroundings, its routine, and to people, as well as how territorial the rabbit is.

I need to be able to take my rabbit to work, on vacation, and when I go out. When at hotels, obviously the rabbit must be well litter trained, non-destructive, and not territorial beyond the point of the harmless chinning. Through trial and error, I've come to believe that you can easily condition a rabbit to deal with change better, and as a result you can introduce new situations without concern of stressing the rabbit to a point that is unhealthy. While it requires an investment of time, it is relatively easy to do because it mainly entails introducing a rabbit to new situations. If and when you determine the rabbit is stressed by the change, you call it a day and then start again later with the goal of going a little further. This can entail going to different locations, using multiple enclosures or rooms, and changing up patternized routine so that the rabbit doesnt become so set in a single way or time schedule that any change to that fixed routine can cause major distress. This conditioning can reduce territorial behavior as well, especially if you change the location of feeding, practice removing food as well as as providing it, and changing the time you feed. If you ever need to take the rabbit to different locations, moving the location of the litterbox on a frequent basis seems to make it easier to place a litterbox in a hotel room that bunny has never been to before, but he/she can then use the litterbox regardless of the change in scenery (the process of getting to that point sometimes means accidents at first.) This same conditioning also works to acquaint rabbits to frequently meeting new people without having any significant concern/fear over their presence. This has worked well for me at least.

The exception may be if a rabbit spends a significant amount of time free roaming, as they can easily start to hate any enclosure and this comes with a certain degree of stress that I find hard to eliminate or reduce. At least to date, I've had zero luck getting a rabbit that spends a lot of time roaming to not despise cages, and I think it is partly because they prefer to be near the action. My current rabbit becomes enraged when put in an enclosure, and it is the only time she is unhappy and I am having zero luck conditioning her to deal better with cages. So in that regard, I don't think it is going to be possible to affect her stress levels when in an enclosure - it might be possible for some or many rabbits, but I am having zero luck here!


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## flemishwhite (Feb 17, 2016)

ts786 said:


> I need to be able to take my rabbit to work, on vacation, and when I go out. When at hotels, obviously the rabbit must be well litter trained, non-destructive, and not territorial beyond the point of the harmless chinning.



With our previous rabbit, Bunny, we took her with us on weekend trips. We'd just put a Friday night and Saturday night prepared litter box in the trunk of the trunk(boot) of the car. Just no problem at all. She would use her litter box...I remember in one hotel room we put the litter box in a closet and left the closet door open. She would sleep beside our bed. I remember one hotel room had a skirt around the mattress and she would sleep inside the skirt so she was completely hidden...I'm sure she loved this. (In hotel rooms, the rabbit can not go underneath the mattress since it's blocked off). One of our hotel rooms had a ceiling to floor window overlooking a hotel sidewalk. Bunny liked to lay by the window and watch people walk by. Obviously they could see her too. I was worried that someone would report to management that there was a rabbit in a room, but it never happened. Once again, bottom line, Bunny never soiled the carpet. 

Bunny spoiled me and my wife with expectations of house rabbit behavior. Our two Flemmish house rabbit babies .. 5 months old now...well lets just say, to accentuate the positive for now, that 99% of the time they are little angels.


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## flemishwhite (Feb 26, 2016)

ts786 said:


> The exception may be if a rabbit spends a significant amount of time free roaming, as they can easily start to hate any enclosure and this comes with a certain degree of stress that I find hard to eliminate or reduce. At least to date, I've had zero luck getting a rabbit that spends a lot of time roaming to not despise cages, and I think it is partly because they prefer to be near the action. My current rabbit becomes enraged when put in an enclosure, and it is the only time she is unhappy and I am having zero luck conditioning her to deal better with cages.



Bunny was a rescue rabbit at about 9 months or so of age. She had had been caged all her life. She had no stamina. Why do I know she had been caged? Because she got loose in our back yard, and me and my wife in our late 60's rand her down and caught her. When humans in their late 60's can outrun a year old bunny you know there's something wrong in the bunnies life. 

Months after we introduced Bunny to living free range in our house, to make sure I could catch her for a vett appointment, I caught her and placed her in her old cage...she went HYSTERICAL...she did not want to be in the cage. She was violently thrashing around in the cage. I picked her up and placed her in cat carrying cage ....many time smaller than the old cage. She was relaxed. The cat carrying cage was just to be temporary. 
This tells me that rabbits absolutely positively hate to be caged.


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## Blue eyes (Feb 26, 2016)

ts786 said:


> In my opinion, it depends how used the rabbit is to its surroundings, its routine, and to people, as well as how territorial the rabbit is.
> 
> The exception may be if a rabbit spends a significant amount of time free roaming, as they can easily start to hate any enclosure and this comes with a certain degree of stress that I find hard to eliminate or reduce. At least to date, I've had zero luck getting a rabbit that spends a lot of time roaming to not despise cages, and I think it is partly because they prefer to be near the action. My current rabbit becomes enraged when put in an enclosure, and it is the only time she is unhappy and I am having zero luck conditioning her to deal better with cages. So in that regard, I don't think it is going to be possible to affect her stress levels when in an enclosure - it might be possible for some or many rabbits, but I am having zero luck here!


 

I think the mention of routine is really key here. Rabbits do become accustomed to routine and come to expect it. 

My rabbits are free range from morning till about midnight. But I have no trouble getting them in their roomy cage at night. They have no problem being in their cage through the night either. However, if I am delayed in letting them out in the morning, they_ will_ let me know. 

This has been the routine for all of my more recent rabbits. They never complain about being caged at night. It's all about routine.


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