# HELP!!!!



## flagrl (Sep 27, 2011)

ok so my friend knew i was looking into getting a rabbit and she bought me a bunny today, he/she is cute. but i have no cage no nothing except a water bottle food bowl food and hay that she bought with it. right now he/she is housed in a bin cage. i wasnt planning on getting one for awhile till i could afford him/her, dont know what sex yet, but what should i do i need help. is it good to put hay in the whole bin. i asked my mom to send me money to buy some wire cubes for him.


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## LaylaLop (Sep 27, 2011)

Well, this is why pets aren't advised as gifts. But it's a bit late now. You should try to get him/her into a more ventilated cage ASAP, and most bins aren't very large either. Maybe make your friend buy you a suitable cage since they got you the rabbit before you were prepared for one?


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## flagrl (Sep 27, 2011)

ok i dont have the top on or anything but i will im thinking of things. i will ask my friend to buy me cage. i didnt ask for her to give me the bunny.


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## SOOOSKA (Sep 27, 2011)

Can you check on Craigs list for a cheap cage until you make one for him or her? I wish you lived closer to me as I have 2 extra cages and a bunch of the grids i'mnot using at the moment.

Maybe someone from your area on here has a cage they can loan you until you get your grids.

Susan


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## flagrl (Sep 27, 2011)

and i am reading a lot of things on here. but i have one question. should i leave my bunny alone for a day or two to let him/her get used the place or no?


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## Lucy500 (Sep 27, 2011)

Depends on what you mean by "alone". I'd say dont try to pick him up or snuggle him, but just dont ignore him completely.
I googled "bin cage" (I didnt even know they existed) and geez, I really wish you can take him out of there soon. And just really think about wether you really can handle taking care of him or not.
Best of luck, you came to the right place for advice!


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## flagrl (Sep 27, 2011)

I know its bad but I should be able to get one in a day out two from walmart the wire cubes then he will have a nice place I can take care pdf it I just don't get paid for a week but will get him a cage before then after that I will buy him goodies any homemade toys I can do tool then. can I try to pet him he doesn't seem too scared of me


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## Lucy500 (Sep 27, 2011)

There are some great tutorials here about wire cubes, if you build a nice habitat you wont need a cage. And you dont need to spend a ton money on toys, get some empty toilet paper rolls, a box, old phone book, something like that thats already lying around the house. Do you know if its a boy or a girl and how old? I hope you can post some pics 
And its great that its letting you pet, many buns wouldnt be that trusting at first.


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## flagrl (Sep 27, 2011)

i dont know if its a boy or girl yet i will be taking it to get spayed or neutered pretty soon thou well not right away but in time. thanks for the advice on toys


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## LaylaLop (Sep 27, 2011)

My buns always liked toilet paper tubes stuffed with hay and a few oats/grains in the center as a treat. Hopefully you can find a good temporary cage.


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## flagrl (Sep 28, 2011)

i got a few more questions. 1) is it ok to use a shoe box with the front cut open so he can get in. 2) i gave my bynny some lettuce last night, how much is to much and how many times a week can i feed him treats 3)is it ok to put an old shirt in the cage? 4) will they use the igloo's like guniea pigs and hamsters use? 

and this morning he was hoping around being all goofy it was funny. 


oh one more question how often should i clean cage? and how soon after he gets home should i wait a couple of days to let him get settled in?


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## Watermelons (Sep 28, 2011)

1) Yes
2) How old is this bunny, has your friend told you if he/she has had veggies before? And what kind of lettuce? Best thing to do is SLOWLY introduce veggies, one day he can have 1 small piece, next day 2 small pieces, then maybe a break, day 4, 3 small peices, and so on and so on. What are you giving him as treats? Best thing to use as treats are vegetables or herbs.
3) Yes but make sure he/she is not chewing and eating it.
4) Yes they will, and most LOVE them, but a cardboard box the same size is just as good as long at the top can support the weight of them sitting on it.
5) Try and litter train him, odd are he will pick a corner to pee in, get a plastic litter corner or box from the pet store and take the peed on bedding and place it in there and put it back in the same corner. He will (should) keep going back to pee in that corner, you need to help him along with the poops by cleaning those up and placing them in the litter corner, eventually they will catch on about the poops. Once hes litter trained you only need to change the litter corner daily, the rest of the cage can be left and changed as it gets dirty depending on what you use as a bedding (towels, plain floor, shavings, etc). For now until then, clean daily.

There are some great documents in the library on the forum that will tell you alot about what youre asking and need to know

here is some info on bunny safe fruits and veggies
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=54630&forum_id=17
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=13618&forum_id=17
Remember Leafy green veggies! Try not to feed fruit at all until the bunny is older as leasy and in moderation! 

Litter Training
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12213&forum_id=17


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## Lucy500 (Sep 28, 2011)

:yeahthat:


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## flagrl (Sep 28, 2011)

I haven't given him treats buy lettuce once I want sure what was OK I haven't read about it too much but did read that the lettuce I gave him was OK. Thank you for advice. I will put the shoe box in n his cage


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## SpikeyCardwell (Sep 28, 2011)

Hey FLAGirl, I will tell you what we did when we first got our bunny. 

When we first got our bunny we were very tight on cash, but luckily someone had an old bird cage that they had for many years but had no bird for it, so we took what we could get. 

Sanitized the hell out of it (birds carry some nasty stuff) Then since we had just moved into our new place we had TONS of boxes left over, so we cut a few to size for the bottom of the cage, and a couple more for 3 sides just high enough so she couldn't chew on the tops, stored a few boxes for the coming month or two. 

so now that she had a solid floor and not just metal bars, we filled it full of hay and bedding, we got from the person who gave us the rabbit, on the bottom so she could be comfy. put her food and water bowls in there, and pretty much set it up as a temporary cage. Then let her out of it as much as possible. 

Remember though, we got her when she was 4 weeks old. and cleaned/changed the cardboard floor every week. 
The cage was about 1 1/2 ft by 1 1/2 fr and 2ft tall so for a baby rabbit who was only about 5 inches long it was plenty. 

We went to our local petsmart and priced everything out, food, treats, toys, cages, etc... 
the food bag we buy is around $8 per month. 
the treats (we just started giving her these) are about $3 a small bag. 
The litter is about $8 per 2 months (very large bag) 
The litter pan/box thingy was about $12 
the cage (2 story 7ft x 2ft) was $50 
and the toys are very inexpensive/you can find them around the house. She seems to LOVE the wood balls with nuts inside.
The hay is about $10 when ever we run out of it. 
and bedding material (soft wood chips it looks like) we just ran out so I guess we will find out tonight when we go to buy more litter. 


This is one of the least expensive pets I have ever owned if I must say so. 
Hell even to get her nails trimmed the vet only wanted $5. 


Just let her out to roam as much as you can until you can pick her up a decent cage.


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## flagrl (Sep 28, 2011)

Thankyou I let her out today at first she wasn't so sure so I picked her up put her in the extra room with a huge rug and she was off she lived it at least I think so I was sorry to put her back in cage but had to go to school will take her out again when I get back. I found a cage for 20 so I will be getting that hopefully he will be happy. He came up to me today I think he wanted back out but he seemed OK with petting him


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## Watermelons (Sep 28, 2011)

What size is the cage you will be getting? I know you can pick some up dirt cheap through classifieds, the least we can do is make sure the cage is going to be a decent size for awhile to come  Have you seen a pic of the cage before you buy it? are you able to share that picture here?


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## flagrl (Sep 28, 2011)

Its not going to be her cage for good just till I get enough money to build one It will be smaller than what she's in now but it wont be a bin cage I don't have the lid on it just to let everyone know. ill put it up in an hour or two my class gets over at 220 one more question how do you tell of its a boy or girl and how can you tell the age


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## SpikeyCardwell (Sep 28, 2011)

See if you can find a large dog cage at the very least. 
And if it has the plastic removable floor it will make it so much easier to clean when it comes time.

I clean her new one every month, or two times a month if it needs it. Like this month  she decided to rearrange everything... and knock over her food/litter a few times in 2 days. so it gets cleaned tonight. 

Before she was potty trained it was once a week if not twice.


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## Watermelons (Sep 28, 2011)

Bin cages aren't as bad as everyones saying, especially temporarily. Better not to rush and find something good for her then stick her in something too small.

How big is this cage you will be getting?

A good size to look for is around 4'x2' x whatever height preferably 2' high. There are TONS of cages around this size on places like craigslist.

There are tons of threads on the forum about sexing bunnys, just pop the word sexing into the search tab up there and tons of threads will pop up.


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## flagrl (Sep 29, 2011)

sso the guy got rid of it before i got there ssd:. i have been letting him go to the extra bedroom we have and roaming around in there since there is nothing in it i watch him of course. but now he has figured out that he can hop out of his cage. so i put the litterbox out and but a smaller box by it so he can jump back which he has he has been laying down by my desk. i dont know what im going to do i cant leave with knowing he could get out. i put all the wires in tubes and picked up everything he could chew.


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## Watermelons (Sep 29, 2011)

If you cant have her/him running free like that, another temporary option would be a bath tub that has sliding glass doors. So long as shavings or staw or carpet is used to cover the entire bottom of the tub for traction.


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## flagrl (Sep 29, 2011)

i dont mind him being out i just dont want to leave him alone by himself because i havent had him long and i dont know what he likes to get into and stuff. i dont think he would like the bath tube thank you thou.


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## missyscove (Sep 29, 2011)

I was also going to suggest a bath tub. If you put some newspaper or something similar on the bottom (and cover the drain) for traction, it can be a great temporary housing situation!


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## flagrl (Sep 30, 2011)

a bath tub wouldnt be mean? hor his litter box should i use cat litter or just hay.


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## MiniLopHop (Sep 30, 2011)

The tub or bathroom in general works well as a temporary situation. Bethrooms can be easily bunnyproofed because they typically don't have cords etc. Just be sure there are no cleaning chemicals available. 

Kitty litter is not a good idea for buns. If it is clay it can cause impaction if eaten or respiritory issues from the dust. The one kitty litter that is safe is yesterday's news (recycled paper). I prefer wood stove pellets because they break apart if wet (just incase eaten) and contain the smell much better than anything else I have tried. Then hay goes on top or in a basket, to keep it clean, that is reachable from the box.


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## plasticbunny (Sep 30, 2011)

The bath tub is great. You could do the whole bathroom if you wanted, but if he's not litter trained it could be massy.

NEVER use cat litter, it's dangerous. Any paper litter is safe, kiln dried pine pellets, aspen... I use aspen because it's cheap. Cedar should be avoided like the plague and pine is in question so why take the risk. You can put hay on top for them to munch, but hay for the whole box is not absorbant and would have to be changed so often, it's a bit of a waste.


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## missyscove (Sep 30, 2011)

I use feline pine which is a cat litter, but it's made of compressed kiln dried pine. I wouldn't use clay cat litter and I don't consider if bunny safe. If you do keep him in the bathroom, remember to put the toilet lid down. I've heard horror stories of pets jumping into toilets and not being able to get out.


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## flagrl (Sep 30, 2011)

yea i read that thank you i bought a regular litter box for his cage and already had a cat litterbox for my room. i used carefresh for the bottom to and added a light layer of hay. so hopefully that will be better. i have one question what do you use as flooring for your rabbit?


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## slavetoabunny (Sep 30, 2011)

Please call Gainesville Rabbit Rescue's program director, Kathy Finelli, at 352-318-0028. She will give you great advice and help you out any way she can.


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## flagrl (Sep 30, 2011)

oh thank you so much i will do that today again thank you


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