Choosing a Rabbit Part 3: Compatibility with Your Home

Many rabbit owners like to keep their rabbit inside the home and even let it run around outside its hutch on a regular basis. This certainly allows the rabbit to get plenty of exercise and it also means more interaction with your rabbit, which children can especially enjoy. But sharing your home with a rabbit does require some thought. And if children and other pets are also present you need to consider the safety of the rabbit and children as well as other pets.

Hutch Location
You will need to think carefully about the best place to locate your rabbit’s hutch within the home. It needs to be in a place free from draughts, but which does not get overheated or suffer from big fluctuations in temperature. Wherever it is in the home you will want to pay close attention to hygiene and especially odour. A good layer of SmartBedz rabbit litter will absorb urine and suppress unpleasant odours. Spot cleaning solids daily will reduce odour from droppings, as well as being a good idea for your rabbit too (see Part 2 on Health Problems). A layer of SmartBedz also makes a good base layer for your rabbit bedding. The sleeping box especially needs plenty of rabbit litter and a good amount of soft rabbit bedding material on top - hay is ideal, but keep it well topped up as your rabbit will enjoy eating it.

Within a home, choice of rabbit bedding is important to the other human occupants as it is to the rabbit. Human owners, especially children, should avoid rabbit bedding which is dusty, as they are likely to be exposed to it during cleaning out. Both rabbit litter and bedding layer should be as dust free as possible.

Toilet Training
Rabbits of all breeds will show a preference for urinating, and to a lesser degree defecating, in a particular place and this can be further encouraged both within a hutch or outside it by noticing where it likes to go and providing rabbit litter in that area. If you want your rabbit to be able to run free you will need to provide a litter tray for it to use. As this litter tray will be permanently in your house, odour and liquid need to be well controlled, by using a highly absorbent rabbit litter such as SmartBedz. In adult rabbits, some urination will be territorial (known as spraying) so it is a good idea to have house rabbits spayed or neutered to minimise this type of urination.

Even if you don’t want your rabbit to run free, but are simply keeping your rabbit’s hutch indoors, you will want to minimise odour by using SmartBedz rabbit litter. As well as controlling odour, SmartBedz natural rabbit litter pellets will help keep your rabbit dry and comfortable when used as a base for rabbit bedding.

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Temperament
If your rabbit is to be handled by people, especially children, you will want to choose a breed which is naturally even tempered and happy to be picked up and stroked. Regardless of breed, unsprayed or unneutered rabbits will be generally more aggressive and more likely to bite or attempt to “mate” with feet, shoes, toys or even other pets! Neutering is therefore recommended for rabbits intended for children to play with.

Neutering apart, some breeds are more docile than others. The Sussex is especially friendly, as are the Dwarf Lop, the New Zealand and the English Spot. Some breeds, such as the Polish, can be trained to be friendly provided they receive plenty of handling when young. Others, such as the Netherland Dwarf are known to be a bit of a handful and are not recommended for children.

Size
Bigger bunnies are more likely to cope with being around other pets such as cats and dogs - a small rabbit is likely to be in significant danger of being attacked by a cat. And larger rabbits are less likely to squeeze themselves into small spaces behind freezers etc - which they are likely to do if frightened or on a foraging mission. Bigger rabbits are easier to keep sight of and more able to withstand rougher handling by children. On the other hand, a bigger rabbit means more urine and droppings to deal with if they don’t make it to the litter tray - and it also means a bigger hutch - which could be a space issue depending on your home.

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Hair
All rabbits moult, sometimes more than once a year. A rabbit which is running free in the house will therefore deposit significant quantities of rabbit hair on carpets and sofas, which creates work for you. White haired rabbits such as the New Zealand will create the most noticeable amount of mess, which can be hard to keep under control.

Other Pets
We’ve already noted that larger rabbits will be better able to hold their own in the presence of other pets such as dogs and cats. You should bear in mind that rabbits are prey in the wild and are programmed to respond with fear and be on the alert for potential predators. So even if your cat or dog is not actually attacking your rabbit, you should be aware of placing it under undue stress by letting it out of its hutch. Watch carefully for signs of stress such as trying to hide under or behind furniture, "freezing" or thumping the ground with its hind legs (meaning "go away" and a warning to other rabbits). If your rabbit is ambling about happily, feeding and showing curiosity about other things, it is probably happy enough.

Taking care to think about how your choice of rabbit will fit in to your home will help both you and your rabbit enjoy being in your home together.