How do I look after a rabbit properly?

Rabbits are the UK's most commonly neglected pet, and almost always through good intentions rather than cruelty — the traditional small hutch, a bowl of muesli mix and a rabbit on its own is a set of arrangements that were normal for decades and that we now know cause real suffering. Getting it right is not difficult, but it is different from what most people were taught.

Safety

What you'll need

• A large enclosure with a permanently connected run
• Unlimited good hay
• A bonded companion rabbit
• A rabbit-savvy vet (optional)
• Litter tray and paper-based litter (optional)

Step by step

1. Keep rabbits in bonded pairs.Rabbits are social animals and a solitary rabbit is a lonely one. The usual recommendation is a neutered male with a neutered female, bonded carefully — introduced gradually on neutral territory over days to weeks. A rabbit and a guinea pig is not a substitute: they have different diets and different languages, and rabbits injure guinea pigs.
2. Provide far more space than a hutch.Welfare guidance for a pair is a permanently accessible enclosure of roughly three metres by two metres and at least one metre high — big enough for several consecutive hops, for a full stretch, and for standing fully upright on the back legs without the ears touching the top. The sleeping area and the run must be joined permanently, not connected for an hour a day.
3. Make hay the diet, not a bedding afterthought.Around eighty-five per cent of what a rabbit eats should be good grass hay, available unlimited, in a quantity roughly the size of the rabbit itself each day. It wears the continuously growing teeth down and keeps the gut moving, and both of those are the reason most rabbit health problems happen.
4. Feed a small measured pellet portion, and never muesli.A tablespoon or two of a uniform extruded nugget food per day for an average rabbit, as a supplement rather than a meal. Muesli-style mixes let rabbits selectively eat the sweet bits and leave the fibre, which causes dental disease and gut problems, and they are best avoided entirely.
5. Add a daily handful of suitable fresh greens.Leafy greens and herbs rather than fruit and carrot, which are sugary treats rather than staples. Introduce any new green one at a time over several days, because rabbit guts react badly to sudden change.
6. Learn to recognise gut stasis, because it is the emergency you will meet.A rabbit that stops eating, stops producing droppings, sits hunched, presses its belly to the floor or grinds its teeth is in trouble. Twelve hours without food or droppings is an emergency. Rabbits deteriorate quickly and this is the single most common cause of preventable death.
7. Check for flystrike twice daily from spring to autumn.Lift the rabbit's tail and check the bottom and the fur around it for soiling, eggs that look like tiny grains of rice, or maggots. Flies lay on a rabbit that cannot keep itself clean, and the damage is catastrophic within hours. Any sign at all is an immediate emergency. Keeping the enclosure clean and the rabbit's weight and diet right is what prevents it.
8. Vaccinate annually and neuter.Myxomatosis and both strains of rabbit haemorrhagic disease are widespread and usually fatal, and vaccination is the only protection — including for indoor rabbits, since the diseases are spread by insects. Neutering prevents uterine cancer, which is very common in unneutered female rabbits, and makes bonding possible.
9. Handle correctly, and accept that most rabbits dislike it.Support the chest and the hindquarters at all times and hold the rabbit against your body; never lift by the ears or scruff and never let the back end hang. A rabbit that kicks out while unsupported can fracture its own spine. Most rabbits prefer interaction at floor level, and sitting on the floor with them is better than picking them up.
10. Enrich the space and litter train.Tunnels, cardboard boxes, platforms, a digging box of soil or shredded paper, and safe things to chew. Rabbits litter train readily — put a tray in the corner they already use, with hay at one end, and most will use it within days.

Tips

• Rabbits eat some of their own droppings — soft ones called caecotrophs, usually straight from the source. It is normal and essential, not a sign of anything wrong.
• Not every vet sees many rabbits. Ask the practice whether they have a vet with a particular interest in rabbits, and find that out before you have an emergency.
• A rabbit that suddenly becomes aggressive or stops moving normally is usually in pain. Rabbits are prey animals and conceal illness extremely well, so any behaviour change is significant.

Common mistakes

• Keeping a rabbit on its own — Rabbits are social and a solitary rabbit suffers for it. A neutered bonded pair is the standard, and it is better for the rabbits and easier for the owner.
• Housing a rabbit in a traditional small hutch — It does not allow the hops, stretches and upright standing that a rabbit needs, and it causes both physical and behavioural problems. The run must be permanently attached, not offered for an hour.
• Feeding muesli mix and unlimited pellets — Rabbits select the sweet components and leave the fibre, which causes dental disease and gut stasis. Hay must be the bulk of the diet.
• Skipping vaccination for an indoor rabbit — Myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease are spread by insects and by contamination brought in on shoes and hay. Indoor rabbits are not exempt.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask