Bunny Boredom Breakers – An Essential Guide or How to Stop Your Rabbit Getting Bored: our pet rabbit tips guide by our pet expert, Amie Robbins
The UK is known for being a nation of pet lovers, and rabbits are no exception. An estimation is that 2% of the UK population own a rabbit – that’s one million fluffy bunnies (data: pdsa.org.uk)!
But they need a lot of care if you want to give them the best life ever.
Rabbits are very active and curious animals and can become bored quite quickly. They are most active at dawn and dusk, which is when we are often busy or asleep. Rabbits, therefore, need to have lots of things to do to keep themselves happy.
Here are six ways to ensure your rabbit is a “happy bunny”:
Forage trays
Rabbits spend the majority of their time eating! They need to eat regularly to keep healthy so, by providing them with a forage tray, you encourage them to spend time searching and eating food. All you need is a low-rimmed plastic or cardboard tray big enough for your bunny to sit and turn around in. You will also require some fresh hay mixed with dried greens and safe flowers.
A dig box
Digging is a natural behaviour that rabbits love to do, particularly in the summer when they want to find cool soil. You can use a plant pot large enough to get into and some soil, turf or play sand. To encourage them to start using their new digging space, you can hide some treats in the soil or sand.
Toys
There are lots of toys suitable for rabbits. They love to chew and throw around untreated wicker items, plastic cups and jar lids to show off their cheeky sides. There are also food balls which they can roll around to release their pellets slowly. Yes, rabbits have their own version of football… or nose-ball.
Tunnels and cardboard houses
A cheap way to entertain your rabbits is to give them a cardboard box with a hole or two and cut-outs for an entrance and exit. They will enjoy sitting inside and on top of the box – rabbits enjoy keeping a lookout over their accommodation.
Scatter feeding
A quick and easy way to keep your rabbits busy is to scatter feed their food rather than using a bowl. Rabbits spend hours searching for their food in the wild, so eating from a bowl can be boring! Simply sprinkle their pellets into their hay or around their enclosure, and watch them search.
Hanging up fresh greens
Not all of the rabbits’ diet is on the ground. Rabbits also stretch up high to reach other tasty plants. Tie some string up in their enclosure like a washing line and hang some leafy greens from the line. Remember to make sure it is not set too high or in a place that may cause injury.
For more ideas and information about rabbit care and enrichment, go to best4bunny.com or rabbitwelfare.co.uk.
If you would like to talk to Amie, email her at leadstosuccesspdt@gmail.com or call her on 07895 833 849.
About Amie
Amie Robbins owns Leads to Success, an Oswestry based K9 training business. But, as well as having a BSc in canine clinical behaviour, she also has an FdSc in Animal Behaviour and welfare. Amie is also a qualified puppy school tutor and is part of the Beastly Thoughts Instructors Team.
BTPDS is the largest pet dog training establishment in Wales. They specialise in puppy training and reactive dogs, but offer a whole host of obedience training classes, lectures, webinars and online training hubs and groups. Karen was named Animal Star Awards Dog Trainer/Behaviourist of the Year in 2019.
We hope you enjoyed reading our article “Bunny Boredom Breaker Guide“. If you’d like to read more of our articles about looking after your pets, click here.
Pet Rabbit Tips Guide
