Outdoor pet?

Unfortunately my elderly rabbit found my house move at the weekend just to stressful and died

I'd just bought her a brand new large hutch and run and want to put it to use... My son was really involved with feeding and caring for my rabbit so I would like another animal that he can be involved in a little.

I don't really want another rabbit, and can't really think of anything other than a guinea pig that would be suitable... I did think of a ferret as they do more but am a bit worried in case I get a biter!

So does anyone else have any suggestions?

Thanks

Ferrets can be good, but they stink to high heaven..what about Quail?

How big is the hutch and run? Quail are cute and supposed to be fairly easy going, and they make the tiniest eggs!

Quail are cool.

A ferret rescue should find some calmer adults who aren't likely to bite, I fostered a pair and the older boy was such a gentle thing, he was like a mini dog! The younger boy did nip for attention but had a history so it wasn't out of the blue, adult ferrets should be fairly easily assessed. OH really liked Bertie, and his docile character was perfect as OH was a little wary - whereas Bobby's naughty side charmed me, I've always been happy to take on a little bit of a challenge!

Here's Bertie showing his calm nature


They fare much better in pairs though, as do guinea pigs (and rabbits, to be honest) and need a pretty large hutch/run as well as plenty of daily interaction, they're not low maintenance pets. My foster boys lived in a converted summerhouse and aviary that I set up with a few chairs, and they were still always bouncing with energy and wanting fuss when someone walked past.

Thanks, not sure on exact size of hutch but it is quite big as is the run that can be attached.

Quail is a definite no.. As I just don't like them!

I planned to get a pair of whatever animal I get as I always felt guilty about my rabbit not having company of her own kind.

Another option to increase the living space could be to build an aviary around the hutch. I had to shut the ferrets out of the summerhouse when it was too warm, even after taking the glass out of the summerhouse it just got too hot when we had that really lovely heatwave weather last year, so I found a secondhand aviary and with a few modifications I managed to build a pretty spacious outdoor area. I moved the hutch inside and once I was confident that it was secure enough, I stopped locking them up in the hutch during the day and they had free access all day. I still shut them up at night, just to be on the safe side, as I lived next to lots of farmland. The bonus of an aviary is that you can climb in there yourself to spend time with the animals (and if you put a roof on it, you can stay dry in wet weather!) which was useful because my dogs aren't that small-furry-friendly! So much easier to stay outside with the ferrets than bring them indoors. Plus there's more height for interesting climbing toys and so on Here it is in-progress, the centre part had wire covering it to prevent escape tunnels and I put grass seed down so they'd have a grassy patch to play on. I eventually boarded the bottom few feet of the aviary all the way around as Bobby was a nightmare for climbing up the sides and looking like he might fall the whole 6' to the ground!

Convert it for chickens....

Get a Starsky..........

What about converting it for a Tortoise?

I had a Horsfield and he was fab, no chance of biting and really quite easy to look after. He had such a personality as well