Rabbit with the run of the house

Apr 11 2007 By Jane Tyler, Birmingham Mail

YOU'VE heard of pampered pooches - now meet Bert the spoilt bunny.

While most rabbits have to make do with a hutch in the garden, Bert revels in luxury in his own double bedroom.

He also has the run of his owner Nina Whitehead's four-bedroomed house.

But he needs the space... for one-year-old Bert is a monster.

A continental giant rabbit, he tips the scales at a hefty 20lbs and is two-and-a-half feet long.

And he is going to get even bigger as he has another six months' growth left.

Proud "mum" Nina, aged 25, said most people thought it was odd that Bert had his own bedroom and lived in the house.

"He is as house-trained as a dog or a cat," she said.

"But if you train them when they're young, any rabbit can live quite happily and safely in a house."

Nina has converted a bedroom in the Redditch house she shares with her partner into "Bert's den".

"It's a double room and we've put in a cage, a bed, all of Bert's toys and his litter tray," she said.

"Because he's so big we had to buy a dog bed for an Alsatian.

"But he doesn't always sleep there as he pretty much has the run of the house and sleeps wherever he likes."

Bert also has a monster appetite and munches his way through two big bowls of food a day, as well as treats of apples and carrots and his all-time favourite food - toast.

Nina, a management support officer for a Solihull company, said: "He's very friendly and loves human company.

"When I sit down he'll come and lie next to me. He used to sit on my lap but now he's too heavy."