Indoor Rabbit Housing Options
Having your rabbit inside your home means you get to spend lots of time together. However, you also need to think about how you are going to meet your rabbits needs and give them opportunities to engage in natural behaviour. Rabbit’s need somewhere to sleep, somewhere to poop, someone to eat and space for jumping, chewing and digging and socialising, and their homes need to accommodate that.
The options for keeping your rabbit inside fall roughly into three groups, although quite often you end up borrowing a bit from each:
Rabbit Cage & Exercise Pen
There are lots of options for cages – you can buy a commercially made one designed for rabbits, a dog crate or build something DIY. Think of a cages as a base for your rabbit – they have their litter tray, food bowls and sleeping area there. Cages aren’t big enough on their own though, as they don’t have enough space for meet rabbits needs for play, exercise and socialising. To create the extra space you can attach a pen or if you prefer you could just leave the door open and have your rabbit free range.
Commercial Indoor Rabbit Cages
There are a wide range of indoor rabbit cages commercially available, but only a few provide enough space to really be suitable for rabbits to use as a base even when combined with an exercise pen. Most designs are similar with a plastic tray forming the base and a wire section for the top. Although there are a few modular cages being introduced.
Commercial cages are neat and easy to clean. The deep base section is their big benefit – you can put messy elements like litter and hay in this area to help keep the exercise area easier to clean. The down side is large cages are expensive compared to the amount of space they provide, and not available in most pet shops so you'll need to order one in or buy online. Unless your rabbit will have free access out of the cage, you'll also need to factor in the cost of attaching an exercise pen.
Cost: 5' x 2.5' rabbit cage £120
More on choosing a rabbit cage
Dog Crate
A dog crate is a cheaper alternative to a rabbit cage. A large dog crate will cost around half the price of a similar size rabbit cage. Dog crates are wider than most cages making the floor area roughly equivalent to a 6'x2' cage. The extra height (as they are designed to accommodate dogs) means there is plenty of room for your rabbit to stretch up and for a shelf to create a platform (which rabbits tend to enjoy). The down side with dog crates is the shallow tray, which does not contain mess, but this can be remedied by adding a large storage box as a litter tray. Again, you will need to add a pen to make it big enough to meet your rabbit’s needs.
Cost: 4' x 2.5' crate £60
More information on dog crates
Homemade Rabbit Cage
Making your own custom cage is a good alternative to commercial cages. It allows you to create something that fits the space you have available - ideal if you want to build in a corner or have an L-shape or unconventional space. You can build something that matches your rabbit's needs for example a large flat cage for an elderly or mobility impaired rabbit or a high cage for a rabbit that likes to jump up on raised platforms. You can also aim for something that looks less like a cage an fits in with your homes décor.
There are lots of different ways to build a cage - you can start from scratch, customise a piece of furniture or use readymade materials. Storage cubes are an easy way to make a cage even if you aren't comfortable with DIY. They are simple grids that you fix together with cable ties to create the shape you want. These are very flexible and you can extend later by adding addition panels.
Cost: 2 packs (34 x 14" panels) £50 will build approximately a 5'x2' cage.
Exercise Pen
Both commercial rabbit cages and dog crates do not come big enough to provide enough space used by themselves. An indoor playpen is a good way to provide a secure exercise area if you have a cage or dog crate but want to limit your rabbits full access to your home.
Pens are available is a wide variety of sizes and many can be extended by adding extra panels. Most pens do not include lids or floors so you may need to make some adjustments to protect your flooring and prevent escapes. You’ll also need to be careful the gaps between grids are an appropriate size or covered. One big benefit of a pen is you can walk in to interact with your rabbit.
Cost: 2' x 6' pen £50-60
Enclosure
Rabbit’s need a lot of space, so you may decide that rather than trying to create something suitable by combining cages and pens, an enclosure would work best. An enclosure can be a commercially available large exercise pen or similar free standing pen you’ve build. It can also be a section of a room made by diving off a space for your rabbit. I tend to think of an enclosure as an area in your home you’ve designated as for your rabbits and adapted specifically to suit their needs. It’s also an area that you have easy access to so you can spend time with your rabbits in their space.
An dedicated enclosure for your rabbit can give them lots of space whilst still making sure they are protected from areas of your home that could put them at risk e.g. wires. It can also work well if you have children or other pets that you want to keep separate or only interact with your rabbits when supervised.
Free Range
Free-range rabbits can have access to the whole house or an individual room(s); this is a great way to provide plenty of space and exercise. Some rabbits free-range all the time, others may have a cage/pen combo or enclosure and just free range when supervised for extra exercise and enrichment. Even a free range rabbit will need an area they feel is their own where their litter tray, food bowls etc. are available and they need a private area to sleep/retreat to. These can be incorporated in your home though and don’t all need to be in the same space – you might find your rabbit likes to have a hiding spot in more then one room and uses them a different times of the day.
Before allowing your rabbit access to your house you will need to 'rabbit-proof' anything they should not have access to and may chew, damage or could be dangerous for them to access.
Cost: Initially free, but may require replacement wires, carpets, books etc. if rabbit-proofing is not thorough!
More information on freerange house rabbits
Remember: You can also combine any of these options, for example using a cage as a base to contain your rabbits water, food, litter trays and sleeping area but leave the door open 24/7 so they have free access to a room or your home to give them the necessary space for exercise.
