Rabbit Care for Beginners: The Honest Guide

🐰 The short version: rabbits are smart, sensitive, litter-trainable companions — and almost nothing like the low-effort hutch pet they’re sold as. Give them real space, a bonded rabbit friend, a hay-first diet (about 85% hay), neutering and RHDV vaccination, and watch for gut stasis (a rabbit that stops eating and pooping is an emergency). Do that, and you get a friend for a decade.

🔧 Tools for your rabbit: is my cage big enough? · what can it eat? · is this normal?

The myth to unlearn first

The single most important thing to know about rabbits is that the way they’re sold is wrong. They are not cheap, low-maintenance starter pets for young children. They’re prey animals that mostly dislike being picked up, they need daily care and an exotic vet, and they live 10+ years. Meet them where they actually are and they’re superb; expect a cage ornament and both of you will be miserable.

Space: a hutch is not enough

Rabbits need room to hop, run, dig, stand fully upright and stretch out flat. For a pair, aim for a living space no smaller than 3m × 2m × 1m high, combining a secure shelter with an attached exercise area they can use whenever they like — dawn, dusk and overnight, when they’re most active. Housing must be dry, draught-free, well-ventilated and predator-proof, with a solid (non-wire) floor and hiding places.

Company: rabbits need rabbits

Rabbits are social and shouldn’t live alone. A neutered male paired with a neutered female is the classic bond, because neutering reduces fighting in both sexes (and spaying females prevents a common, often-fatal uterine cancer). Bond them slowly on neutral territory, and give them room to be together and to get away from each other.

Diet: hay, hay, then a little of everything else

A rabbit’s gut is a hindgut fermenter that needs constant fibre, and its teeth grow continuously and must be worn down. So the diet is:

• ~85% hay and/or grass, available at all times (a bundle at least as big as the rabbit)
• ~10% leafy greens and herbs daily (kale, parsley, mint, dandelion — a variety)
• ~5% pellets — a small, measured amount, never topped up
• Fruit and root veg (carrot, apple) as occasional treats only

Never feed muesli-style mixes (they cause dental and gut disease) or lawnmower clippings, and change any diet gradually. Eating their soft caecotroph droppings is normal and essential.

Health: the two things that catch rabbits out

• Gut stasis — a rabbit that stops eating or passing droppings for more than about 12 hours is a genuine emergency. Unlimited hay is the main prevention; a vet the same day is the treatment.
• Flystrike — in warm months, flies lay eggs on a soiled rear and the maggots are rapidly fatal. Check the bottom daily.

Add RHDV vaccination (and, in many regions, myxomatosis) and neutering, and know that several common antibiotics are dangerous to rabbits — so never medicate without an exotic vet.

The honest takeaway

Rabbits reward the keeper who ignores the pet-shop version of them. Real space, a bonded friend, a hay-first diet, neutering and vaccination, and a watchful eye on eating and droppings — that’s the whole game, and it buys you a decade with a genuinely characterful, litter-trainable companion. See the full rabbit care guide for the complete spec.

Sources & further reading

• Hayfold — rabbit care guide — the full, fact-checked reference.
• RSPCA — rabbit environment and diet — space and the 85/10/5 diet.
• Merck Veterinary Manual — rabbits — lifespan, vaccination and health.