#thank you for asking I love talking about Meej

[okayto]

Hi! I'm planning on getting two rabbits soon cause I heard they like companions. Any tips for a new rabbit owner?

Oh heck yes! So for context, I am a fairly new rabbit owner--I got Momiji this past summer and he is the first rabbit anyone in my immediate family has had. I grew up with dogs and cats. So learning how to have a bunny has been a real learning experience.

A rabbit is not really low maintenance, is what I’ve learned. I was actually planning to get a cat after my previous roommate and Artemis-the-cat moved out. I ended up with Momiji instead because of Reasons (foster-in-law fail, basically), but I did a lot of reading before I committed because I was pretty worried. You don’t have to walk rabbits like a dog, but they do need quite a bit of space, consistent attention (for health and wellness) as well as socializing, supplies/items, and a specialized vet.

This got a bit long so it’s under the cut. Spoiler: I love my rabbit! But they’re different enough from dogs and cats that their needs can be surprising.

Below the cut: personality, space, behavior, vets/health, and stuff that costs money.

Their Personality

Like any animal, rabbits will have their own personalities. Momiji is very inquisitive (must sniff all new things, likes to hop on top of all furniture and things to get tall), and often socializes by chilling in the same room, but not right next to me. Rabbits are social and do need a lot of attention (or a pal). They can “purr” (chittering their teeth when happy), and Momiji loves it when I pet his nose and forehead the most. He also grooms me, and a rabbit tongue is closer to a cat tongue than a dog (not very wet, but also not rough).

He will sometimes sit on my chest, especially if I'm lying down, or he'll hang out on a surface like the bed or couch when I'm on the floor, so sitting up puts my head at his level. He doesn't mind if I give his [mostly-]adorable face many, many kisses, and sometimes sticks his face right next to mine (I'm assuming to make it easier to kiss or snuzzle, because that's what I always do and yet he keeps coming back). If he wants pets and I'm not paying attention, he'll force his face under my hand until scritches are dispensed.

Rabbits are prey animals so by nature they can be very skittish. Momiji can jump up from what appears to be dead sleep in approximately .034 seconds if he hears literally anything unusual or sudden (which includes sneezes and phone notifications). How much they tolerate being held will vary—Momiji is good at being held for short amounts of time but will start struggling after about 10 seconds. And rabbits are apparently pretty fragile creatures, so you really don’t want them twisting or jumping out of your arms. Speaking of, I need to trim Momiji’s nails because I’ve got a nice long slash across my clavicle from trying to prevent him from committing suicide via stairway the other day. (Trimming nails seems easier as a two-person job, so I’m willing to pay my vet.)

Speaking of personality: bonding rabbits is a Thing you will want to look into—I’ve gleaned it involves keeping them separated for a bit and then slowly introducing them and building up exposure, until they are safe together. Even if they’re siblings from the same litter, apparently a “baby bond” will break as they get older.

Space for Rabbits

Rabbits need a good amount of space—approximately 16 square feet (4x4 foot area) per rabbit minimum. Because of that, generally I see people recommending x-pens/dog playpen fencing instead of hutches. I got lucky and got some used x-pens (tall! To prevent hops!) from a dog breeder on FB Marketplace. As we’ve adjusted (and Momiji has mostly proven he can be trusted not to destroy furniture), he basically gets my whole guest room to himself when I’m not home, but I used to shut him in the cage. When I was pricing them (before I found them used), I was seeing around $80+ for a pen the right size. (And unless you’re going to jury-rig a ceiling, you want tall ones so they don’t just hop out.)

I’m still figuring out a flooring issue, since I keep him in a room with carpet. My current setup is a $4 plastic picnic blanket as a moisture barrier, covered in a non-fuzzy thrifted blanket that I can wash when needed. This helps keep a lot of his hay out of the carpet, as well as pee. I play to upgrade to a more solid flooring at some point; the FB rabbit groups often have people asking/offering suggestions I’ll check out.

When I am home, he now gets to free roam the house (close doors to off-limits places, like my roommate’s room, or my closet full of tasty shoes), but we worked up to this over several months. I carefully expanded his access (room – room + adjoining bathroom – previous + my room down the hall, etc.). I needed to be sure that he would consistently find his way back to his food and litter box, and use them, and that he wasn’t going to try and chew my house to shreds.

Speaking of chewing…

Rabbit Behavior

I saw someone call it “puppy-proofing on steroids” to describe what they needed to do to get their house rabbit-proof. Rabbits chew. What your particular rabbit chews on is up to chance.

I’m lucky because Momiji doesn’t do a lot of chewing—there’s no way to get him to understand what’s OK and what’s not. He lives in a room full of books, which have thus far lasted over 6 months without being nibbled. But even so: my TV stand is now blocked off with cardboard and stacks of boxes to prevent him from getting behind it—he chewed through the cord to my blu-ray player (had to buy a replacement cord off eBay) and my Chromecast cord (haven’t figured out if it can be replaced or if I need to buy a whole new gadget), I’ve blocked off the corner my modem and internet apparatus sit in as a precaution, and just last night I discovered he’s hit some wires in an extension cord, so I had to get my electrical tape to cover that, then tape it to the wall to keep it out of his way. Momiji has also developed a taste for my faux leather wallet, specifically. As in, I need to get a new one now. (And can’t leave my purse on my bed anymore, because that’s within rabbit-reach.)

Basically, with a critter like this, potentially anything at their level is something you might have to deal with being chewed, or protected. Other people have stories about all cords, baseboards, wooden furniture, etc.

Rabbits also thump their back legs when upset, angry, scared, etc. Momiji has thumped because my roommate’s dog startled him. He’s also thumped because my bedroom door was closed and he wanted in. Today he thumped, a LOT, from under my bed because I’m pretty sure he was annoyed that I was obviously awake and hadn’t fed him his morning pellets yet.

There’s also hormones and everything that entails. If you have a female rabbit, it’s heavily encouraged you get her spayed because apparently the risk of uterine cancer is super-duper high. I haven’t read if there is an associated high risk for unaltered males, but I need to discuss that with my vet because Momiji seems to have testicles that weren’t there before. But besides cancer, from what I’ve read spaying/neutering can also help with mating/courtship behaviors, territoriality, litter box habits, and aggressiveness. Momiji is pretty good about all of the above, thankfully (no problems, and he hasn’t sprayed me with urine as a declaration of love), but every animal is different.

Speaking of vets…

Veterinarians and Health

Rabbits need an exotic vet—they are unusual enough that for veterinary purposes, they qualify as “exotic.” Depending on where you live, that may limit your options. This means that their vet bills might be higher, especially a spay/neuter. The House Rabbit Society has a list of rabbit-savvy vets and some links to other lists, and you could also find an online group and ask for recommendations in your area.

Rabbits need to be eating/drinking constantly to avoid their digestive system going into stasis, which is a life-threatening condition that can kill rabbits within hours, so I have to keep his supply topped up and pay attention to any behavioral changes. I also have an emergency kit (food, gas drops, etc.) that I hopefully never need to use. The majority of their diet is hay and water; some formulated rabbit-specific pellets, and some fresh greens. You’ll want to do a search for what fresh foods are safe, and what aren’t or should only be given sparingly (anything sugary, including carrots, are a treat rather than a staple). I’ve also noticed that sometimes treats will be sold advertised for all small pets but will contain things bad for rabbits, like yogurt drops/coatings, so beware.

I pay close attention, both because I’ve read enough sad stories about someone’s beloved pet passing away in less than a day, but also because my vet said that the closest emergency veterinary care for rabbits (rather than cat/dog-focused) if I have an after-hours emergency is like, 3 hours away. And I live in a city!

So that costs money. As do other things:

Things That Cost Money

So besides veterinary care, and your cage, you need:

litter box (big! I use a large cat litter box, I’ve also seen people just use under-bed plastic storage boxes) (I actually bought 2 litter boxes, so I can fight my executive dysfunction by breaking up “clean the litter box” into the easier “swap in a new litter box” and “deal with contents of old litter box and clean it out” which can be done at a different time)

Stuff for the litter box (I use pine pellets from Tractor Supply because it’s like $7 for a 40-pound bag; you don’t want to use cat litter)

Water bowl (big! They drink SO MUCH water! Momiji has a medium-sized heavy ceramic dog bowl so he can’t tip it over, and he drains it if I don’t keep it topped up. When in doubt, go bigger and heavy) and food bowl, but since so much of their diet is hay and water, the food container isn’t so important

Maybe one of those food mats for animals, if you want any water splashes to be contained

Hay holder (yes, I can put hay directly in the litter box, but it lasts longer if he can’t kick it everywhere. At the same time, he needs to be able to sit in the litter box while munching)

Hay and pellets

Cleaning products (I have both Angry Orange Bio-Enzymatic Pet Stain Spray and Arm & Hammer Pet Stain remover for messes on cloth, Nature’s Miracle Urine Destroyer for the carpet, and Nature’s Miracle small animal cage cleaner spray for pee on hard surfaces)

Carrier(s)

Treats and toys, because who can resist?

Brush (maybe not an immediate need, but don't wait too long--rabbits can't vomit so you don't want them to ingest too much hair, especially during a shedding season) (if you get a fluffier/longer-haired breed, though, you'll DEFINITELY need one quickly)

Baby gate if you will need to block off a space without a door. I got a 48-inch one from Chewy and so far he hasn’t tried to jump it

Toys can mostly wait until you get to know your rabbits. I started off with some plastic baby stacking cups (would put a pellet or two in each one so he had to unstack to get them), some willow balls I found at the store, and some pressed hay cubes. I eventually made him a forage box filled with shredded paper, chopped toilet paper tubes, apple sticks, some rabbit-safe toys he didn’t care about, and then scattered some pellets/small treats in there so he has to dig around to find them. Most recent acquisition is a tube (or really, three tubes that connect at the center) that he politely hops through occasionally. I have more things, but he doesn’t play with them much, unless I somehow affix snacks to them. So start small (and cheap).

Both Chewy and Small Pet Select make it easy to buy everything; I get all my hay from SPS because their prices/amount worked best and I like a site dedicated specifically to small pets, and I really like their hay cubes as a treat (timothy hay/alfalfa blend, or just timothy hay); watching Momiji go to town on a little cube is insanely cute. Incidentally, I do definitely have a lot of treats for him (foraging blend I mix in the foraging box, small dried papaya chunks, meadow loop bites), but Momiji loves his pellets so much I can use them as treats if I want to entice him anywhere, or provide some foraging/finding enrichment after I leave.

Other

Going on vacation? Good luck finding a place you can trust to board your rabbit. At Christmas, I couldn’t take Momiji with me (hours-long car ride could probably be dealt with, but not finding space in a house full of 6 people, 2 cats and 3 dogs), but I was lucky that my roommate wasn’t going anywhere, so I paid them to pet-sit instead of having to find someone to come over a couple times a day. The whole space + socialization needs + consistent review of food/water availability were hard to figure out if that didn’t work out.

Find some rabbit-related groups (I've joined a couple on Facebook; there is one specifically for bonding which will likely be relevant to you since you're looking to get two) and sites (I've found The Bunny Lady helpful, and The House Rabbit Society has an entire section for new rabbit owners) and poke around--when everything is new and the amount of info is overwhelming, I personally find lurking and backreading a bit helpful, because it both gives info, and helps me start crystalizing the things that I do need to find out or ask, regardless of whether I ask in those places or not.

And because you mention getting two: unless they are spayed/neutered when you get them, you'll probably need to keep them apart, including cages with a minimum of several inches between them, until they are about 8 weeks post-op. I have seen, at a conservative estimate, twenty bajillion posts from people who ended up with surprise babies ("but they're so young!" "we thought they were both girls!" "we thought they were both boys!" "they only had access to each other for two minutes once!" "they’ve always been separated by cages!" "but they're siblings from the same litter!") so really, truly please believe me.

Kayt, you're a new owner, what are your sources?

First and mainly, my veterinarian, who is not just experienced working with rabbits but also owns them. A lot of the health stuff I ran past them to confirm. And also aforementioned FB groups, which I'm not citing specifically for privacy reasons, but I went and joined a bunch, so seeing what issues pop up or what people say (and cite) overall has been helpful. I also went and borrowed every book I could find in my public library system that dealt with caring for rabbits, and A House Rabbit Primer: Understanding and Caring for Your Companion Rabbit by Lucille Moore was very helpful and explanatory. There are some things in there that don't seem to have held up since it's original publication 17 years ago (waiting hours if your rabbit isn't eating; feeding your rabbit bread or yogurt), but as a companion tot everything else I think it's fine, and there's also a 2nd edition that was just published that is probably up-to-date.

All that to say: it's entirely possible I've gotten some things wrong, but I've tried to make sure my knowledge and practice is backed up by as many reputable sources as I can find.