Rabbit environment & housing — DAERA welfare code: space, hiding places, cleaning, hazards

Rabbit environment & housing — DAERA Code of Practice for the Welfare of Rabbits (Section 1)

Source: Code of Practice for the Welfare of Rabbits, DAERA (Northern Ireland), issued under section 16 of the Welfare of Animals Act (Northern Ireland) 2011. Crown copyright, re-used under the Open Government Licence v3.0 with attribution. All bullets below are exact verbatim substrings of the cited source_file and C1-substring verified.

Claims

• The resting area should ideally be permanently attached to an exercise area to which the rabbit has free access at all times.
• be high enough for it to stand up fully stretched on its back legs without its ears touching the top
• As a guide, your rabbit should be able to take three hops from one end to another as an absolute minimum. For a fully grown average breed of rabbit this can equate to around 150/180cms in length and 60cms in height.
• Your rabbit should have daily access to an exercise area (the run).
• The run should be as large as possible to allow your rabbit to stretch upwards to full height and to run, as opposed to just hop.
• Rabbits should have 24 hour access to appropriate hiding places where they can run if they feel afraid, stressed, unwell, or simply want to be on their own for a while.
• There should always be at least the same number of hiding places in any enclosure as there are animals.
• Your rabbit’s living area should be cleaned daily.
• The entire living area should be cleaned thoroughly at least once a week
• Bedding should be provided to give your rabbit extra insulation, somewhere to hide and something to nibble on. It should be clean and dry and should also be safe for your rabbit to eat. Examples include hay and straw.
• Use of wood shavings as bedding material should be avoided.
• Wood shavings containing pine or clay based cat litters should not be used as they can be hazardous to rabbits.
• If let loose indoors particular attention should be given to restricting access to areas where there are electrical cables which rabbits may chew through.
• Rabbits should not be left unattended in a car or other vehicle in warm weather. This can be life threatening
• A constant supply of fresh water needs to be provided at all times.
• Household cleaning materials including liquids, medicines or other products intended for people or other animals should also be kept out of reach. You should contact your vet promptly if you think your rabbit has come into contact with anything that could harm it.
• Rabbits can be kept outdoors all year round but ideally their resting area should be brought into a shed or unused garage with natural light and ventilation for the winter months or otherwise protected from bad weather