Rabbit Conditioning?

[furrybollocks]

My rabbit lives in an outdoor hutch. Usually our daily routine is to let him out in the morning and then put him back in at night, especially since it's so hot here. However, lately he's been returning to his hutch less and less, not even for food despite how tasty the treats I leave out there for him. I went our of town for labor day weekend and when I came back, his pellets and vegetables were barely touched. I doubt that's healthy and I don't want him to get in the habit of not going in at night, especially since he's not the most keen on being held so finding and getting him in at night can take a while and sometimes results in scratches. I know that for birds it's a natural instinct for them to return to their coop every nightfall for protection, so you lock them in to have them associate that with home. Can this technique be applied to rabbits as well, or are they missing that homing device? As of right now, he's confined to his hutch, but I know how much he loves being able to roam, so I would rather that not be permanent. Any ideas?

 

[hoolie15]

I have a house rabbit(who will soon be an outdoor rabbit) who can be stubborn, too. Once he has found himself a comfy place to chill out (usually wayy under my sofa where he's impossible to catch), he is not interested in going back into his cage. I remedy this by letting him out for only a couple hours at a time. It gives him plenty of time to explore and binky and chase my pitbull around the house. Then, as soon as he starts settling in for a chill session, i herd him back to his cage. Then a few hours later I do it again. If I'm not off that day, I just let him out for a couple hours either before or after work. If your bun is free ranging in your yard, maybe you could try a covered run connected to his cage? That would give him some space to explore without straying too far.

 

[furrybollocks]

I go to school, so I'm not able to make it back in shifts to get him inside and out. His hutch is on concrete and right in front of where we park our cars, so any run would have to be separate and I would have to manually put him in and take him out... :/

 

[Bunnylady]

Wild rabbits are crepuscular, meaning that they are most active at dawn and dusk. They spend a lot of the daylight hours just chillin' in some quiet, secure spot; there may be several of these in the rabbit's territory.

If your rabbit spends the day loose in your yard, he probably has a couple of cozy places where he spends most of the day. Clearly, he prefers them to the hutch for some reason. Your problem is compounded by the fact that you are probably trying to lock him up at one of his most active periods of the day.

You are going to have to try to think like a rabbit here. Where do you usually find him when you go looking for him in the yard? Is there some way you can make his hutch like the place he seems to prefer? It sounds like you are free feeding him; maybe you could take his food up when you let him out, and give him some fresh food when tou get home in the afternoon, locking him in at that time? Obviously, he is finding something in the yard to eat, if his pellets were hardly eaten over a weekend (and you shouldn't leave vegetables lying around, they need to be thrown away when they start to get wilted).

Just some thoughts.

 

[furrybollocks]

My hutch is attached to my coop and I'm not really sure what major improvements I could make to make it more appealing to him. When it was hotter, he would retreat to go lie by the fan, but there's a patch of shaded sand in my yard that he loves to dig in to keep cool. I feed him in his hutch. He gets 1/4 of a cup of pellets a day in the morning when I first let him out, and when I get home I give him fresh fruits and vegetables. Depending on his mood, he'll either come back on his own accord when he smells the raspberries (they're his favorite, but he only gets three or four a day since they're so sugary) or I'll have to go corral him in at night and he'll go straight to eating. The whole yard is his favorite spot; if he's not in his sand patch, then I have to do an entire perimeter sweep with my dog who absolutely loves him.

It's not that big of a deal, I just get worried when I'm gone for the weekend like now that he won't come back for food or Timothy hay without prompting.