Essential Shopping List For Rabbits

Putting together a handy shopping list of everything you need to take care of your new furry friend is easy if you follow our guide! You’ll be fully prepared to welcome home your new addition in no time.

Your first task before you get your new pets is making sure you have a home adequate for them. Rabbits need a safe space that offers them plenty of room to sprawl out and perform normal behaviours. They are also social animals and enjoy living in pairs so finding a hutch big enough to house two new fluffy family members. Rabbits can thrive both indoors and outdoors as long as they have lots of enrichment when living indoors and plenty of space if they live outdoors. Indoor hutches tend to be much smaller because it’s assumed that you will spend more time interacting with your new fur friends.

An outdoor hutch needs to offer protection from the elements along with ample space. Two story hutches are great, especially if you’re getting more than one bunny because it gives them the choice of where they want to spend their time and if they want to snooze all cuddled up or spend some time apart. The Cheeko Smart Rabbit Hutch is a stylish yet user friendly hutch. It offers plenty of areas where your bunnies can shelter from the elements yet have the feeling of outdoors without actually moving out.

The Ferplast 120 Complete Rabbit & Guinea Pig Cage is a great indoor option as it has lots of space to sprawl out and a deep base for a nice, comfortable bed.

Rabbits need a mixture of a pellet-based food, fresh greens and a constant supply of high quality feeding hay such as Burgess Excel Long Stem Feeding Hay. A rabbit’s teeth will constantly grow throughout their lifetime so always providing fresh feeding hay is arguably the most important part of their diet to keep them healthy.

Bunnies love fresh greens like cabbage, spinach and kale but what they don’t eat should be removed from their hutch after a few hours to prevent them from eating wilted greens. Another element of their diet is pellet-based food you can buy from the shop, designed to support their digestion and give them the rest of the nutrients they need. A diet like Tiny Friends Farm Russel Rabbit Tasty Mix is great for bunnies who love a bit of variety but it does allow for selective feeding. If you find your bunny only eating certain elements of their diet and always leaving the same pieces, it means they won’t be getting all the nutrients they need.

A diet like Excel Rabbit Food is all uniform so makes sure they get everything they need in every nugget. If your bunny picks and chooses which parts of their diet to eat, a nugget like this would suit them best.

First you need a way of providing a constant supply of fresh drinking water to your furry family member. A bottle like the Classic Universal Drinking Bottle is great because it keeps the water nice and clean instead of a bowl that can be split and you fix it to the outside of the hutch so you can easily change it without disturbing your pets. A hayrack fitted to the inside of the hutch like the Happy Pet Wooden Hayrack will help to separate their bedding from their feeding hay and keep them comfortable whether they’re resting or eating. Some bunny parents choose to also use hay as a bedding material, however, high quality feeding hay costs a little more so making sure their feeding hay is nice and clean and out of the way will save your pockets in the long run.

As far as feeding bowls go, rabbits love to rearrange their hutch so finding the right bowl that helps prevent them from instantly throwing it into their bedding is essential. A bowl like the Cheeko Non Tip Rabbit Bowl can help to keep their dinner upright or you can even get a bowl that fixes to the bars like the Happy Pet Bolt On Pet Bowl to make it extra secure.

There are a range of different bedding options to get your bunny and what you give them is entirely based on what you’re looking for. Nice and warm bedding that you can provide a thick layer of is straw like LFJ Millers Barley Straw Bedding. Straw is a pretty low cost substrate but make sure you only provide dust extracted straw otherwise it can lead to respiratory issues.

Paper-based bedding such as the Back 2 Nature Small Animal Bedding & Litter is a popular option for both indoor and outdoor hutches as it’s cheap, super absorbent and great for spot cleaning so you can pick out all the dirty areas each day. Bedding like straw can sometimes mask where needs a little cleaning up. You can even bulk buy paper bedding in 60 litre sacks with the Carefresh Natural.

You may think like most small pets, rabbits aren’t fussy about where they go to the toilet but indoor rabbits can be toilet trained. Even those living outdoors will want to keep their home nice and clean and choose a preferred spot to go to the toilet. This will need to be cleaned daily and it may be worth getting a litter tray and popping it in their favourite corner to make the cleanup even easier. A little tray like the Rosewood Corner Litter Tray Large is ideal to minimise smells and keep their home fresh and clean.

Once you have a safe environment for them to thrive in, you should really consider going the extra mile to enrich their lives. Without toys to play with and things to interact with, they might quickly get bored. Rabbits are social animals that love to play and use their brains so they need a supply of altering enrichment items to always give them something to do.

Bunnies are naturally burrowing critters so toys like the Rosewood Hay 'N' Hide Large lets them harness that behaviour and explore new things. It also has the added bonus that it’s covered in hay so it’s safe to have a little nibble on too!

If your bun is never happy with their furniture arrangement and always trying to move everything around, the Wooden Rattler Circle Toy will be super satisfying for them. It rattles as they throw it around so they can have hours of fun satisfying their need for creating chaos. The Rosewood Hide N Treat Forage Tray is great for getting your bun to use their brain and work out how to get their treats out of this puzzle. You can either add treats or a portion of their daily food to keep them occupied for a little longer.

Another vital element of being the best friend for your new rabbit addition is making sure you have everything you need to keep them happy and healthy. A good hutch-cleaning regime with daily spot cleans and weekly deep cleans using a pet safe cleaner will help keep them free of illness and comfortable in their home. In Summer you may need a little extra help keeping the insects away but Johnson's Cage 'n' Hutch Insect Spray is designed for just that, so don’t forget to stock up!

Whether your bunny lives indoors or outdoors, they still need to be kept safe from parasites with Beaphar Anti-Parasite Spot On for Small Animals. For all of your bunny necessities, check our website or come visit us in store.