Enrichment

Have you ever found your pet rabbit digging carpet, chewing toys and scratching furniture? To us these may be seen as “bad habits” but the truth is that these are just natural behavior of the rabbits. 

Rabbits are social animals and in the wild they spend a lot of time digging burrows, searching and digging for food and exploring. However, our pet rabbits are usually not able to express these natural behaviours in our household so what we see are those "bad habits". 

As they are social animals they do like companionship. 

As they are prey to many animals (ie they will be killed and eaten) they are always alert and aware of their surroundings. 

Letting them express these natural behaviours is important to reduce the stress of our rabbit and to help their health especially the bones and muscles, gut function, as well as their mental health. 

The living environment of the rabbits should be enriched to stimulate the expression of the natural behaviours without causing much trouble. 

The cage should be high enough so that the rabbit can sit upright without its ears touching the top of the cage, since rabbits in the wild sit on their hindlegs with ears pricked to look around. 

They like to jump to different levels of height if they can, to see what is going on in their surroundings. This can be done in our household simply by placing a box in the cage. Being exposed to open area without anywhere to hide can be extremely stressful. The box also serves as a hiding place for the rabbit to rest and escape from potential danger so they will feel more secure and comfortable. 

Rabbits in the wild chew sticks and dig burrows so chewing and digging are part of their natural instincts. In our home environment, eliciting these behaviour can be done simply by providing our rabbits with chewable toys and a digging box. 

Free roam exercise daily can help maintain the health of our rabbits. Building a playground of tunnels for them or just letting them out of the cage for exercise can make a great different to our pet’s happiness. 

Foraging – making them work for food. In the wild they need to search out food. It is rewarding for them to find it. 

We can mimic this by: 

• Stuffing hay inside the cardboard roll from inside toilet/kitchen paper.
• Poking bits of vegetables through the bars of the cage high up so the rabbit needs to stretch up.
• Scattering pellets around the floor when the rabbit is let out to roam
• Using a cardboard box and filling it with hay so the rabbit can dig through it, Pop some treats in here for your bunny to find. This is called a forage box
• Providing an enriched environment for your rabbits is lots of fun for both you and your pets! 

Thank you to Vivien Li for her help with the rabbit enrichment section.