Outdoor Rabbits

How to keep your rabbits outdoors.

We rehome rabbits to both indoor and outdoor set ups. This is our guide on the modern way of keeping rabbits outdoors and keeping them safe, healthy and happy. We do not rehome to less than 60 square foot of space.

We also do not rehome to a home that allows rabbits to free range unsupervised. This is not safe.

Housing Types

The “traditional” method of keeping a rabbit in just a hutch outside is now considered very old fashioned and does not meet the needs of rabbits.

Hutches

While we will consider homes that have a hutch as the principle home, this will need extra work to ensure they meet our minimum size requirements. This could include attaching a run to the front or side of the hutch, or putting an aviary over the top of the hutch. You could also put the hutch inside a shed and remove a door of the hutch. Here are some lovely examples of hutch-based homes we’ve rehomed to:

Playhouses

A cute alternative to a hutch is a wooden children’s playhouse. These come in a number of sizes, but the standard is usually 4ft by 4ft or 6ft by 6ft. They offer more floor space than a hutch, and more headroom for humans. Although they will still need an aviary or run attached to meet our housing requirements. Here are some cute playhouse set ups we’ve rehomed to:

Sheds

A traditional wooden garden shed is a great way to keep bunnies. They can be modified in lots of different ways. They will need an aviary or run attached for extra space, but inside you can shelving and lots of different enrichment. You can add inner mesh doors and mesh windows for better ventilation in the summer. The best bonus is it is much easier to interact with your rabbits, especially when the weather outside is poor. We recommend you avoid “overlap” sheds as they can fall apart, shiplap or tongue and groove are much sturdier. Here are some great sheds we’ve rehomed to:

Kennels

There are some fabulous custom made bunny kennels available on the market now. They do cost more than a shed or hutch, but they are usually very solid and built to last. Here are some gorgeous kennels we’ve rehomed to:

Aviaries

You will have seen a trend in the images above that many adopters have chosen full height aviaries for their rabbits rather than runs that are only 3-4ft high. If you have the choice between a shorter run or an aviary, we would strongly recommend going full height. This makes interacting with your rabbits, and cleaning up after them, a much more pleasant experience as you don’t have to crawl around and bonk your head! It’s even better if you add a solid roof to the aviary, this could be a solid shed-type roof, or plastic for more light. This adds excellent weather proofing for both your rabbits and yourself!

Flooring

One significant aspect of keeping your outdoor rabbits safe, weather proofed and secure is considering the flooring throughout your set up.

You may notice in many of the examples above the set ups are on paving slabs or patios. Both rabbits and predators including foxes are very good diggers, so keeping your rabbit on a grass run is risky and escapes can happen in the blink of an eye. With paving slabs there’s no worry about digging escapes and it’s much easier to sweep up and wash down any mess. You can still give your rabbits grass in the form of hand picked, or grown in seed trays especially for them.

If you do want to use grass in a run, we will only rehome to this set up if you have first dug wire under the grass and relaid the grass back on top. This makes it dig proof for both the rabbits and any predators. However, it will not stay grassy for long and will quickly turn to mud. It’s much better to lay paving.

For inside areas there are a number of options. We tend to use rubber flooring or non slip lino with hay on top with woodshavings underneath. Other options include vet bed and blankets, but do watch for your rabbits chewing on this. Some of our adopters also use rubber matting or non-slip lino to help with cleaning or offering a slightly softer floor than plain wood. Be aware that any flooring you use will be urinated on at some point so ease of cleaning is very important.

Our No-Nos

As well as just a hutch without a secure run, we have a few other common rabbit set ups we will not rehome to. This is usually because they do not offer enough space or are in fact unsafe for rabbits.

Chicken Coop-type hutches

These are very common and easily bought for rabbits, but are entirely unsuitable. They look spacious in photos but actually are very tiny. They are also often very cheaply made and flimsey. Plus the tiny spaces are a nightmare to try and clean out!

Plastic hutches or sheds

Plastic is not suitable for rabbits outdoors, in the winter it’s freezing cold and offers poor ventilation in summer. Plastic sheds, plastic coops and plastic hutches are absolutely not suitable for rabbits.

Metal Runs

Metal runs, often designed to be folded, are commonly sold. Some have a roof some are open top. Unfortunately these are not suitable for rabbits, especially not unsupervised. They are very lightweight and can be easily lifted by both rabbits and predators. Those without a roof are usually not the right height as rabbits can easily clear a 3ft barrier. There’s also numerous very sad incidents were the thin wire has been flimsy enough for rabbit to push through and get their head stuck, this can be fatal. We will not rehome to metal bar runs.