Why house rabbits need bunny proofing, About us

Introduction

Welcome to the bunny proof guide. This guide was born out of my own interest in improving my well being and the well being of my house rabbit and I hope by sharing this others could benefit also.

When I was younger I had a pet rabbit called whisky. Like a lot of pet rabbits it was bought for me by my parents as a "low maintenance" pet in an attempt to teach me something about responsibility. It was secured in the garden in a hutch and lived pretty much the same life as rabbits have in this country since the Victorian era. I remember on one occasion I decided to sneak it into the house and during this first outing it gnawed the bottom off a set of floor length lateral blinds, thinking about it now that was probably the happiest moment of its life. After that it wasn't allowed in the house again. I never learnt anything about rabbits or responsibility from this experience.

Twenty or so years later my life had moved on quite a bit, pets not featuring in any of this time till my wife, then girl friend, agreed to move in with me. I knew she had a pet rabbit but I didn't think much about this at the time till it was moving day. This is how it went... Me: "where are we going to put the hutch", Her, "it doesn't really matter it folds away, he only uses it when I'm too busy to supervise him. Louis (His name) likes to stay in the bed room, we better start bunny proofing it. This is where it all started for me and what I hope to share is everything I now know about what happens when you share your home with a "house bunny" or as my wife puts it "When you let some woolly-ness into your life".

What my experience has taught me primarily is when you have a house bunny as a pet; you are taking a small wild animal and bringing it into home. This realisation comes the moment you try and relate to a bunny as you would a cat or a dog. What you quickly learn is that without the thousands of years of constant human companionship and breading common pets have gone through to live with us, you and your bunny are going to have to work a lot harder to get. Get it wrong and the wild spirit your bunny brings with it can bring total chaos into your life and home and if you're not prepared for the ensuing destruction you will unfortunately bring misery to yourself your bunny and anyone else you live with. Get it right and you can create a place for both of you allowing a unique friendship to develop with a creature which comes with pure natural honesty.

What I hope to share is what I have learned about getting it right. It's not about making your bunny a better pet it's about what you have to do to make sharing your home with your bunny work successfully. What I hope to offer are suggestions, anecdotes and strategies along with some good solid practical information that, through experience, will allow you to get the most out of how you and your bunny get along in your home. I hope it challenges the way you think about your own behaviour and gives guidance about how to change the way you live and arrange your home to achieve the best results on both sides of this natural divide.

I hope after reading this you gain a new insight into how this relationship can work supported by the best practices for both bunny and you and that you come back to it again as a resource for constant development and improvement.