Free Range but unattended

I have a "bunny garden" in our garden. Its where the boarding hutches used to go, half concrete and the other half is grass, never treated or dogs allowed, its probably about 20 foot x 10 foot and the buns go mental in it.

I often let them free range once or twice a week when im home for about an hour. We dont get foxes, and no cats every come in our garden thanks to rocky. The buns could get out of the garden if they wanted to, as the wall is about 2 foot high but in the five years I have had them they dont, there is a pond one side and their shed the other, but they just dont care they love the garden too much.

Mum let slip to me that every Sunday for the past month she has let them out at 8am and they havent gone back in until 2pm. Now they aparantly have a mad hour, then they all pile together and rarely move , and every so often have a play. She said they binky pretty much all day and Domino has gone mad in there, so active.

So I dont know how to feel about it. Our garden as a whole is pretty much bunny proof and the dog doesnt care about them, and she said she does check them frequently and watches them from the window most of the time.Am i being over paranoid and should I let them be, or should I ask mum not to do it anymore?

She says they are fine, and its nice to see Domino active and playing, and Mum says they are having so much fun they dont stop darting around and binkying, where as in their shed they just lounge all day. But i just feel nervous

If you are concerned then maybe you could ask your Mum to supervise them all the time they are out there even if they are out a little less longer. But they do sound like they are happy and fine.

thing is she doesnt have the time to supervise them, she sits out there maybe half hour but thats all she can offer, so its half hour, or most of the day. but they do seem fine, so i think deep down I am okay with it, its just a bit scary - theyre my babies

Sounds like they are for sure. Sound like absolutely love being out there for all that time

I'm glad you posted this as I have been thinking about this a lot with my buns. My lot love to frolick around the garden but sometimes I do have to nip in the house if the kids want me to get them something which means the buns are left out unsupervised. For me it boils down to freedon v risk. The freedom is wonderful for them but it carries risk and that risk is death. So do you shut the buns away all the time to keep them safe or do you allow them the freedom to do what bunnies do but leave them open to attack as they would be in the wild?

I guess you have to ask your self how would you feel if one was killed? Could you live with that but knowing that the bun had a great life running free and being as close to nature as it could be, or would you be racked with guilt (or blame) and wish you'd kept them under lock and key?

I look forward to reading other peoples responses

I think for me its about balance. Im not going to let them run around the whole garden but for anything to happen they would have to get out of that garden AND our garden, and when my mum, dad, brother and my friend who lives there is in and out the house thats very unlikely. I would put them in danger and say "well they have freedom" but, i think okay they would be safer if they were in their run all the time, but they dont enjoy that.

And if you take it on a purely selfless level, buns dont know time and space, they know happiness and freedom. The risk of this is so minimal, its tiny. But its still a risk.

I think I would prefer they had the chance to behave like natural rabbits, they forage and play and they love it.

One summer I remember Domino dug up an apple, and he ate half of it (it was a new apple from the tree just got a bit buried) before i took it away but he was so happy,and he dug a hole and rolled around it for about 10 minutes he was so happy, and thats natural to him.

The free range your buns get with your mum sounds a lot safer than the free range my buns get.

I feel that by letting them have freedom I am a good bun mum as I'm letting them display their natural behaviours (a lot of which I don't see when they are in their hutch and runs) but I am a careless bun mum if one got caught by the local Mr Fox. It's only 3 of my buns that really do enjoy the free range time, the other two seem quite content with the set up I have provided for them.

The environment you have sounds fairly safe for them

Hmm I think I wouldn't like my mum doing it while I wasn't home. I've actually explicitly told her never to let them in the garden if I'm not home. That's partly because I don't trust her to supervise and also because I don't think she'd be able to get them in.

Having said that, I leave my buns free range in the garden quite often, sometimes up to 3 or 4 hours. I have a ground-floor bedroom with a door that goes straight into the garden. I usually leave my door open and sit and work on the computer. That means I can hear most of what they are doing (a lot of the garden is gravel so when they hop I hear) and as soon as concerning or unusual sounds are made I pop out to see how they are.

The only concerns in my garden is that the buns will kill mum's plants, it's a pretty secure place.

Rationally it seems fine, your garden sounds secure and with minimal predators during the day. I think your caution is the gut instinct - if you were doing it, and had to walk away to the answer the phone or something, you would only have yourself to blame. Also, if you are there, you can control the exact amount of risk involved.

On the plus side, they seem really happy!

See in that respect i have to give my mum credit because she looks after the buns when im at uni, for example I have been away since January 16th and wont be back until March 27th, i did go back for one night but thats it.

And also my mum is very very rabbit savvy, she does the boarding with me and knows what she is doing (she would never put boarders out free range in case any clients see this!!)

A friend of mine had 7 buns which roamed free all year round in her garden 24/7 , because there were so many no cat was ever interested. They also had chickens which you would have thought would have been tempting to cats but no.

I had 7 buns as a child who also lived with a cat , the cat protected the buns as if it was his babies, so I knew they were ok out in the day he would not leave them...but I still brought them in at night.

We have recently moved ... there are cats in the area. I have 2 buns , 1 of which is used to living with a cat previously. The garden is 70 x 50 and its not easy to keep my eye on them all the time. I have watched for few mths how they behave, the neighbours cat is scared stiff of Binky due to his size . However if Pumpkin is running around he shows an interest until Pumpkin then chases the cat and the pigeons... so I now can cope not watching every second of them play outside. Its made easier that my office has french door windows and I can always take a peak.

They have 5 ft runs/hutch outside and beds inside its their choice what they want to do and where they want to be within reason.

Not sure if this helps... it is really down to a personal decision dependant on size of buns and their personality, if they go out together perhaps this is positive in terms of safety in numbers..

Dawn

They are very lazy. A few years ago i wouldnt have done it, but they are so mellow now they just like to lay in the sun.