Hi, new bunny owner here! This is my bunny, coconut. I’ve had her for about a month now. Things are going great! So far we’ve been giving her free roam of the main floor in my house. She seems pretty happy, and I try to bond with her by hand feeding her a few times per day and petting her. (Usually lettuce, but she freaking loves bananas obviously!)
My question is, do you think it would be too stressful for her if I wanted to bring her into different areas of the house for some parts of the day so we can spend more time together? Moving my office isn’t an option.
My “problem” is that I don’t really hang out on the main floor too much, where we have her set up. We do spend time on the main floor bc that’s where the kitchen is, but I don’t spend my relaxing or working time on the main floor.
I work from home, but coconut doesn’t hop up the stairs, and that’s where my office is. I keep thinking it would be nice if she’d hang out in my office during the day with me so that we could spend more time together while I’m working.
My idea was to buy a pet carrier and lure her in with lettuce and use that for transport between her normal space and my office (she doesn’t like being picked up, which I hear is typical for bunnies, but she approaches me and lets me pet her).
If I try doing this, I would also set up a bunny station in my office so she has access to her necessities (litter box, water, and hay). I bought the carrier already, but it hasn’t arrived yet. I needed one anyway though!
I’ve been reluctant to bring her up to my office so far, bc I wanted to focus first on making sure she feels safe and comfortable in her current environment . She’s about 4 months old now. My office is a bunny-safe space (cords are tucked away..)
Do you think she would possibly enjoy doing this so she doesn’t get lonely, or do you think it would stress her out to change environments like that? My main goal is to spend more time bonding with her bc I’m working from home most days, so it seems like a missed opportunity to hang out with her when I’m in my home office). I work a lot (like 60+ hours per week), majority from home, so this would be nice for me, but I don’t want coconut to feel super stressed out.
Does anyone do this with your bunnies, or do you keep them in a certain area and just visit them on their turf?
I was thinking, when the carrier arrives, I will leave it sitting out in her space for at least a week and put food in there daily to encourage her to become comfortable with being in the carrier.
What do we think about this idea, bunny whisperers of Reddit? Good idea? Terrible idea? Try it and see how it goes?
by Hour-Bullfrog4829