When you have a house rabbit (or two or three…), a puppy pen is invaluable. Although most people envision rabbits living in a cage or outdoor hutch, we always recommend people use a puppy pen to house their bunny instead.
With a puppy pen, you can set up your bunny’s primary living area in a corner of a room. Your rabbit will have more room to explore than if you use a cage. Your setup can include a litter box, food & water bowls, a hay feeder, and a cardboard castle. You can open the door to the puppy pen to let your rabbit out to explore or to go inside to clean it.
An example of a rabbit area setup. A cardboard castle and other chew toys complete the area. You can enclose the entire corner with a puppy pen. In the future, if you would like your rabbit to have free reign, you can gradually extend the space by moving the puppy pen panels out.
The great thing about puppy pens is the flexibility they provide. You can arrange the panels of the pen into the optimal size and shape to fit the area. You can also gradually expand your rabbit’s space once he/she gets accustomed to using the litter box, so that eventually your rabbit has free reign of a bunny proofed room.
And if your bunny does have free reign, you can still use the puppy pen to block off areas of the room that you want to protect. Or you could use the puppy pen as a makeshift outdoor run (while you supervise- rabbits can dig underneath and tunnel out).
We recommend the medium/large puppy pen from Precision Pet (36 inches tall). It is very sturdy and generally tall enough (although Cosette has cleared the fence four times in the past 10 years… barely).
You can find the Precision Pet puppy pen at various pet stores or on Amazon. Buy now >
Yesterday my gorgeous rabbit gizmo she dug out of her pen and my dogs sadly killed her how do I keep my dogs and rabbit seperate without getting rid of any animals and my other little gold rabbit climbs how do I stop that
Yes, if you have a pen outside, rabbits can definitely dig under it and escape. We recommend that rabbits live inside the home with you in a living room/family room. In terms of keeping your rabbits separate from your other pets, you’ll just have to make sure everything is secure using metal baby gates/puppy pens/wire storage cubes. And using heavy duty zip ties, etc. If you can separate them by floor, that might be best as well. Make sure the dogs can not jump over gates or push through doors, etc.
Hello,
My girl has been a free range bun for about 2 years now. It took a few months for this to happen, and she was such a fast learner and so eager to be next to us everywhere that her freedom changed daily. She is such a great girl.
We are in the process of moving to a city now. I see the dog pen, but I am wondering if one with a lid, the nylon pens, would be okay for her. She cleared her pen about a month after we had her, and showed her good manners immediately so we did not need to find a different style pen back then. Thoughts on temporarily using the nylon kind to keep her safe during pack up and move in days. She needs to see and be included, but not free to escape! Getting it now is key so she knows it is ‘hers’ and a new adventure begins in there. And, it would be a piece of her to come to the new place with other toys, etc. of hers, so she feels like a home in a new home is a good change. Thanks for advice.
Is the siding of the pen made of mesh/nylon? If so, a rabbit can chew through that pretty easily. That’s why we recommend the metal pen. Even heavy duty plastic can be chewed through.