A small rabbit hutch and run is much better than a small rabbit hutch alone

The ideal housing solution for a rabbit, or for a few rabbits, is a rabbit hutch and run combined. As we’ve noted on this website before most people tend to buy rabbit hutches that are way too small for a rabbit.

This is generally because the smallest hutches are the cheapest, whilst very large rabbit hutches which are ideal for one or 2 rabbits are too expensive.

However if you buy a small rabbit hutch and combine it with a rabbit run around the outside of the hutch you’ve got the best of both worlds. To do so you simply build a post and chicken wire fence around the rabbit hutch so that you can open the door of the hutch each day and allow your rabbit to play in the sun and the grass. Rabbits love to play and he will be delighted if he has the opportunity to do this every day in a dedicated rabbit run.

Of course even better is to buy a large rabbit hutch and to build a rabbit run around this. The downside of buying a small rabbit hutch and run is that you commit yourself to letting your rabbit out to play in the run every single day. If he has a large hutch to live in it’s okay to miss a few days here and there. Read the rest of this entry

There’s some confusion over what a rabbit run really is.

There’s some confusion over the different terms used for housing for rabbits. You will often see the words rabbit run, rabbit hutch, rabbit cage and rabbit run used interchangeably. For instance there are some websites that sell both rabbit runs and rabbit hutches and when you look at the 2 it’s difficult to tell the difference between the runs and the hutches.

In both cases they are housing for rabbits.

There is in our view however a different meaning for the term rabbit run. In our view a rabbit run is an outdoors area where your rabbit can play and exercise safely. It is usually surrounded by some form of wire netting or fence so that predators such as dogs and boxes cannot attack the rabbits and so that the rabbits do not disappear.

Many rabbits are kept indoors. There’s no problem with keeping a rabbit indoors as long as you allow him time outside to exercise and play. Rabbits are naturally energetic creatures and love to run and jump. Not only that but just like people rabbits become unhealthy and overweight if they eat too much and exercise too little.

Like all of us rabbits need to stretch their legs, get the wind in their fur and go for a good run.

And if you watch native rabbits you will see that they also play from time to time. Rabbits like to play but cannot do so in a small rabbit hutch.

If you have an indoors rabbit then put some thought into how you can give him some outdoors playtime, preferably every day but if not every day then as often as possible. It’s not too difficult to design your own rabbit run, you can either have a permanent fixture with posts set into the ground and chicken wire around the posts, or you can have interlocking wire panels that can be assembled for use or taken apart for storage or to move them round. Read the rest of this entry