Indoor housing

Where in your home are you going to keep your bunnies? - Will they get disturbed by loud appliances like TVs or will they be housed next to a draught?

Do you have enough room? - Indoor rabbits need the same amount of space as outdoor rabbits.

Will they still have access to an area outdoors? - It is important to give your rabbits access outside to fulfil natural behaviours.

  Is your home 'rabbit safe'? - Other pets, house plants and electric wires can all pose a risk to your rabbit's safety.

Options for keeping house rabbits

As the name suggests, this is where the rabbits are given the run of most, if not all, of the house. If you choose this option, we recommended starting off in one room or part of a room to begin with while your rabbits settle in and get used to both you and their new environment. Once they have settled into their new home and they are fully litter trained you can start letting them out to explore the rest of your (and their!) home.

See the ‘litter training’ and 'tips for rabbit proofing your home' below for more information and advice.

A particular room :-

This tends to be a room that has a hard surface where it is easier for you to clean up any toilet accidents or old food. Rabbits have fur on their feet and can't grip hard surfaces very well without slipping and sliding so it is essential to put something in place for them to hop onto. This can be anything from blankets, towels, rugs, carpet squares or cut-offs. Soft playmats are often used but please monitor your rabbits very closely in the first few weeks of using mats to make sure they do not chew and ingest any pieces. To prevent this make sure to give them plenty of room and chewable enrichment for them to nibble instead.

Part of a room :-

If you want your rabbits inside but can't give them an entire room, you can use large runs, flexi pens or CMC caging to cordon off part of a room. As long as you follow our minimum standard on size, you can have this as a permanent option for your rabbits or if you want to keep them a bit more secure when you are not at home and monitoring them.

Tips for rabbit proofing your home

Rabbits love to chew so it's important to make sure you protect your furniture and make your home safe for our bunnies. You can protect furniture with guards, covers, and boxing. If you are not able to use these then getting flexi pens or some type of caging to protect your possessions could be a good option. Every rabbit is different, some will chew more than others, so it is important to make sure you have plenty of enrichment in your home to keep your rabbit entertained so they don't get too tempted to start chewing something you don't want chewed!

Cables and wires are very tempting to your rabbit; make sure they are all out of reach by covering them with cable boxes or putting caging around areas like computers or the back of your TV to keep them out of nibbling reach!

One of a rabbit's natural behaviours is to dig. You can protect your flooring by putting down carpet squares or carpet cut-offs and by giving your rabbits enrichment boxes and digging trays. Please see 'Enrichment' below for further information on these.

Rabbits have furry feet so any hard surfaces in your home can be very slippery for them. By placing towels, blankets, rugs, carpet squares or matting down for your rabbits to run on, or to hop from one to another like islands, can help prevent your home from being a dangerous slip and slide.

Use caging like flexi pens or CMC caging to block off areas you don’t want them to hide in. Rabbits are very inquisitive animals and will squeeze their way into every gap to explore if you give them a chance. To fill this need, change enrichment items over every now again and bring in new toys and items for them to play with. Cardboard boxes are always a big hit with rabbits. You can attach multiple boxes together for them to climb on, and cut lots of holes for them to go through and hide in.

Keep anything that could potentially harm them well out of reach. Normal household items like house plants can pose a risk to your rabbits so make sure you do your research by Googling 'is this plant safe for rabbits?' and keep them well out of reach.

  If you don't want your bunnies to access a certain room or upstairs then you can use stair gates with wire mesh attached.

Rabbits are great escape artists so be very careful every time you go to go outside or when you enter your home. Even an open window is very tempting. Rabbits love to jump so be careful about tucking your chairs in, in order to prevent your rabbits getting onto tables where they can potentially get out of a window.

Be careful when leaving any items in the path of your rabbits; everything is a tempting chew toy so closely monitor your rabbits with anything new to prevent them from ingesting something they shouldn't.

Something as simple as watching TV or vacuuming can be very scary for any new bunny so be sure to help your rabbits adjust to any new smells or noises in your home.