Rabbit Care Guide

Written and reviewed by Hugo Mellado · Last updated August 2026

Rabbits are quiet, clean and far more delicate than their reputation suggests. They are prey animals with continuously growing teeth and a digestive system that must never stop moving. Almost every rabbit emergency traces back to one of those two facts, and almost every one is preventable with hay, space and attention.

Nutrition

Grass hay is the foundation, not a supplement. An adult rabbit should have unlimited timothy, orchard or meadow hay available at all times — a pile roughly the size of her own body every day. Chewing long-strand fiber wears the molars down evenly and keeps the gut contracting. Alfalfa is too rich in calcium and calories for adults but is appropriate for babies under about six months.

• Fresh leafy greens daily: romaine, cilantro, parsley, dill, basil, carrot tops, dandelion greens.
• A measured portion of plain, uniform pellets — commonly around a quarter cup per five pounds of body weight for an adult.
• Fruit and carrot only as a rare treat, a teaspoon-sized piece; they are sugar.
• Constant fresh water in a heavy bowl, which rabbits drink from far more readily than a bottle.

Never feed

• Iceberg lettuce, which is mostly water and can cause diarrhea.
• Seeds, nuts, grains, bread, crackers, cereal or yogurt drops.
• Muesli-style mixes, which let rabbits pick out the sweet pieces and skip the fiber.
• Avocado, rhubarb, onion, potato, or houseplants and cut flowers of unknown identity.

Rabbits also eat cecotropes, soft clustered droppings taken directly from the body, usually at night. This is normal and necessary nutrition — not illness.

Habits & Behavior

A relaxed rabbit lies stretched out or flops onto her side, sometimes dramatically. Binkies — sudden leaps with a twist — are pure delight. Tooth purring, a soft grinding while being stroked, is contentment. A thump means alarm. Sitting hunched, pressing the belly to the floor, grinding teeth loudly or refusing a favorite green means pain, and pain in a rabbit is urgent.

Rabbits are crepuscular: busiest at dawn and dusk, dozing through the middle of the day. They are also intensely social. In most of Europe keeping a single rabbit is discouraged outright, and a neutered, properly bonded pair is far happier than a solitary animal. Bonding must be gradual and supervised, in neutral space, because rabbits can fight seriously.

Most rabbits dislike being picked up — being lifted feels like being caught by a predator. Sit on the floor and let the rabbit come to you. When you must carry her, support the chest and hindquarters completely, and never lift by the ears or scruff. A struggling rabbit can fracture her own spine.

Chewing and digging are needs, not vices. Provide cardboard, willow, untreated wicker and a digging box of shredded paper, and rabbit-proof the room: cover cables in split loom tubing, block gaps behind appliances and lift houseplants out of reach.

Care & Grooming

Give as much space as you can. A hutch is a bedroom, not a home: a pen of at least about eight square feet of floor for a pair, attached to several hours of free-roam time daily, is a reasonable minimum, and free-roaming in a rabbit-proofed room is better. Wire flooring causes sore hocks; use solid flooring with a soft mat, fleece or seagrass.

• Litter training: rabbits pick it up readily. Use a large tray with paper-based litter and put a hay rack at one end — they eat and toilet at the same time.
• Brushing: weekly for short coats, daily during a moult. Rabbits swallow shed fur and cannot vomit it back up.
• Angora and long-haired breeds: daily grooming, non-negotiable.
• Nails: trim every four to six weeks.
• Never bathe a rabbit. Full immersion causes shock. Spot-clean a soiled bottom with a damp cloth and find out why it is soiled.

In summer, check the rear end twice daily. Flies lay eggs in damp fur and the maggots invade living tissue within hours — flystrike is a killer of outdoor rabbits. Rabbits also tolerate cold far better than heat; above roughly 80 °F they need shade, ventilation, frozen water bottles and ceramic tiles.

Games & Enrichment

• Stuff a cardboard tube or a paper bag with hay and herbs so foraging takes effort.
• Build tunnels and a raised platform: rabbits want a lookout and a bolt-hole.
• Scatter pellets in a snuffle mat or a tray of shredded paper instead of using a bowl.
• Offer safe chew wood — apple, willow, hazel — and rotate it weekly.
• Teach targeting and simple recall with a clicker; rabbits learn quickly for a piece of parsley.

Set the litter tray, hay, water and toys in different corners so that ordinary life involves movement. A bored rabbit redecorates your baseboards.

Health & Veterinary Tips

Find a veterinarian experienced with rabbits before you need one — rabbits are exotic patients and not every clinic treats them. Annual exams should include a proper look at the cheek teeth, which is where painful spurs and abscesses begin. In the United States, vaccination against rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus type 2 is now available and is worth discussing, especially in affected states.

• Spaying females greatly reduces the very high rate of uterine cancer; neutering males calms spraying and allows bonding.
• Weigh your rabbit monthly and keep the record. Weight loss precedes visible illness.
• Watch droppings daily. Smaller, fewer or absent droppings are the first sign of gut slowdown.
• Keep the vaccination and parasite plan appropriate for indoor or outdoor living, and check for mites and ear canker.
• Rabbits mask illness until late, so any change in appetite, posture or grooming deserves attention the same day.

This is an emergency

• Not eating and not producing droppings for twelve hours — suspected gastrointestinal stasis.
• Loud tooth grinding, hunched posture, or pressing the abdomen against the floor.
• A head tilt that appears suddenly, or loss of balance.
• Laboured breathing, or breathing through an open mouth — rabbits are obligate nose breathers.
• Maggots or wet, soiled fur around the tail in warm weather.

---

Next: all our rabbit articles, or the guinea pig care guide, which shares the hay-first approach.