Our rabbits have five welfare needs. These are the five things that need to be met to help keep them happy and healthy. One is the need for a suitable environment to live in. Rabbits need a home with lots of room to binky, explore, and complete all their natural behaviours. So what does great rabbit housing look like? Where do rabbits live? What should you buy for your rabbits?
Take a look at our rabbit housing FAQs:
Where do rabbits typically live?
In the wild rabbits live in a group of burrows underground, called warrens, in family groups. You’ll often find wild rabbits in the great British countryside, living in large groups.
Domestic rabbits can live indoors or outdoors and need suitable housing that meets their needs. Just like their wild counterparts, our rabbits want to dig, need space to hide, and love to forage in their housing.
How to choose the right rabbit ‘hutch’. But a hutch is not enough.
Sadly, some rabbits are still kept in small hutches, with no access to an exercise area. The Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund’s campaign A Hutch is Not Enough has worked to spread the word about the best housing for your rabbits.
When looking for the best housing for your rabbits, look beyond just a hutch. A pair of bonded rabbits need housing that’s at least 3m x 2m x 1m as well as constant access to their exercise area. This is because our rabbits are often most active at dawn and dusk, so need to be able to exercise, play, and explore when they want to – which isn’t always when their owners are awake!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Remember the three hop rule! Your rabbits should have enough space to lie stretched right out and hop at least three times.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
What does your rabbits’ home need?
Rabbits are extremely intelligent animals that need to be mentally stimulated and get lots of exercise every day. As well as suitable bedding, and access to water, feeding bowls and litter trays, your rabbits’ housing should allow them to express their natural behaviours. Natural behaviours are just the things rabbits would do in the wild. Here’s some top tips for how to help keep happy bunnies:
- One of their favourite things to do is dig. Our rabbits’ digging is a natural behaviour and should be encouraged with the addition of a digging tray.
- Rabbits are prey species. This means they’ll need look-out posts, or raised platforms, and places to hide, like cardboard boxes or tunnels, when they sense danger.
- Rabbits LOVE hay and it should make up 85-90% of their diet. Give them constant access to good quality feeding hay or fresh grass in their housing. You can use hay racks, pop some in their sleeping areas, and sprinkle good quality forage throughout to encourage your buns to eat their hay.
- Most bunnies like to play. Make sure you have engaging toys in their housing that they can enjoy. A willow ball or cardboard tube filled with hay is a great boredom breaker. Puzzle feeders can also help keep your rabbits’ minds active.
How can I adapt my hutch to make it more suitable for my rabbits?
Introducing Excel Runaround, a connective rabbit run system that can attached to any hutch, indoors or outdoors, to give your rabbits a larger overall enclosure as well as constant access to their run! With mix and match options, layouts can be made to suit the size and shape of your garden.
Runaround’s main aim has always been to improve rabbit welfare by creating a more natural environment and expanding your rabbits’ available space. Runaround systems emulate an overland warren structure, just like rabbits would have in the wild!
Importantly, all Runaround housing units have two exits. As our rabbits are naturally prey animals, they’ll regularly feel the need to hide. Offering two exits can help make your rabbits feel more secure knowing that they have options on where to go next.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Runaround Connection Kit: The original Runaround product, the Connection Kit securely links any two enclosures and is suitable for mesh or wooden fixings for rabbits and guinea pigs.
Runaround Top Box: This light rabbit house has a front viewing panel for your rabbits. It can be covered at night or in hot weather, and in the winter it offers somewhere for your rabbits to sunbathe out of the wind.
Runaround Sofa Pipe: Perfect for indoor rabbits, the sofa pipe gives your buns a great indoor activity and provides a safe space for them to rest.
See the full Runaround range on our website.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Runaround is a family business based in the north west of England. After adopting an unwanted rabbit 12 years ago, founder of Runaround Caroline explains: “We were inspired to think of better ways of keeping pet rabbits in a hutch. A wild rabbit would run about five miles a day and, without adequate exercise, the skeletal frame of a pet rabbit suffers. So we wanted to create a system that would help our rabbits to exercise while still keeping them safe”.
We always keep our rabbits outdoors all year round and use our own products in our garden. In the winter, we use products from our winter collection, including our clear dig box. In the summer, we have developed and used tunnel shades to help keep our bunnies cool.”
Here at Burgess Excel we are delighted to announce the acquisition of Runaround into the Burgess Pet Care family.
