House Rabbits
Rabbits In Houses??
Should a rabbit live in a house? The answer to this is definitely yes. They are very clean, and easy to train, which makes them ideal to keep in the house. They need lots of company, so if they are in the house, this makes it easier for you instead of having to go and stay with your rabbit in the garden every day.
The environment in the house is better for the rabbit’s health, as it is warm and dry, which makes it less likely that your rabbit will become ill. They are also safer, as they are further away from predators than they would be in a hutch outdoors, but you must also consider their safety in relation to other things in the house.
Accomodating House Rabbits
A house rabbit should have a cage somewhere in the house that it can sleep. The cage should be secure so that your rabbit can be safely kept in its cage when you are not there. It should be big enough for your rabbit to move about, turn around and lie down stretched out on the floor. It is best to have a cage with a solid bottom and lower sides to keep the bedding in and make it easier for your rabbit to walk on the floor. The top and upper sides should be wire mesh to let plenty of light in. Make sure that there are no sharp edges or ends on the wires that your rabbit could hurt itself on.
Cover the whole floor of the cage with suitable bedding – wood shavings, hay or newspaper are good. Your rabbit will choose a section of the cage to use as its toilet area, you should clean this area each day, and clean the whole cage around once a week. Use an animal safe disinfectant when cleaning. You should also provide a supply of hay and water, see our feeding section for more information about this.
Safety In The House
The two main concerns for safety are for the safety of the rabbit and for the safety of your house! Rabbits are natural nibblers, and will nibble at things they can reach, like wires and furniture. If there is anything within their reach that is fragile and could hurt your rabbit, move it higher up so that the rabbit can’t reach it. Protect wires with cable protectors of plastic tubing. To distract your rabbit from nibbling at table legs and other furniture, provide it with plenty of things that it can nibble – rabbit toys, cardboard tubes, wooden chews. All of these are available from pet shops, and cardboard tubes from the insides of toilet rolls are most rabbits’ favourite toys.
Choose which rooms you want the rabbit to be allowed in, and whenever the rabbit is out of its cage, keep the doors to the other rooms closed. This way you can ensure that the rooms that the rabbit goes in are totally safe, and you will be able to give the rabbit lots of freedom in the house without worrying what it is doing. Never leave your rabbit unattended when it is not in its cage.
Safety Outside
If you let your rabbit run around the garden, supervise it at all times. Before doing this, go all around the edges of the garden and make sure there are no little gaps that it could escape through. Be aware that a rabbit can very quickly dig under a fence that is resting on soil. You could also use a rabbit harness and lead to keep your rabbit safe. Use a proper rabbit harness, not just a collar, as rabbits do not have strong enough necks for collars and leads. A proper harness fits around the middle as well as the neck to make sure that the neck is not at risk of injuring the neck.
Rabbits don’t always know to avoid plants that are poisonous to them, so make sure that you have nothing that your rabbit could eat that is not safe for them to do so. See our feeding section for foods that are safe and plants that are poisonous.
How to Live with a House Rabbit is available in our store along with many other rabbit books and products.
