How to Look After Your Rabbit (A Guide for Kids)

Getting a rabbit is brilliant. They are clever, funny, and have actual personalities — once you know how to read them. This guide is written for you, the kid in charge. (Your grown-ups can read it too.)

What Your Rabbit Needs Every Day

  • Fresh hay. A pile bigger than the rabbit itself, every single day. Hay is 80% of what rabbits eat — not pellets, not lettuce. Hay.
  • Clean water. Change it. Don’t just top it up.
  • A small handful of fresh greens. Spring greens, herbs, rocket, dandelion leaves. No iceberg lettuce, no rhubarb, no avocado.
  • Run time. At least a few hours outside the hutch — in a run or rabbit-proofed room. They go a bit mad if they can’t hop properly.
  • You. Just sit near them. Talk to them. Don’t always be trying to pick them up.

Things Your Rabbit Will LOVE

  • Cardboard tubes from the inside of kitchen roll — toss them in. They’ll chuck them around.
  • Brown paper bags with a bit of hay inside.
  • A digging box: a tray of safe soil or shredded paper to dig in.
  • Slow blinking. Try it. If they blink slowly back, it means “I trust you.”
  • A flat hand offered low down for them to come sniff. Always let them come to you.

Things Your Rabbit Will HATE

  • Being picked up. Most rabbits dislike it — in the wild, being lifted means being eaten. If you need to lift them, support their bottom properly and keep them close to your body.
  • Sudden loud noises. Vacuums, shouting, a dropped pan.
  • Being chased. Even “playfully”. They don’t know it’s a game.
  • Being alone. Most pet rabbits are happier with another rabbit friend.
  • Strong perfume or scented hand cream.

How to Be Your Rabbit’s Favourite Person

  1. Sit on the floor near their hutch or run. Just sit. Read a book. Don’t even look at them.
  2. Within a few minutes, they’ll come over to investigate.
  3. Offer a small piece of leafy green from your fingers. Wait. Don’t shove it at them.
  4. Over weeks, they’ll start to climb on you, sniff your face, even “groom” your hand with little licks.
  5. That’s what a rabbit love-bomb looks like. It’s the best.

What Rabbit Behaviour Means

  • Binky: a leap with a twist in the air. They’re happy. Pure joy.
  • Flop: they suddenly throw themselves on their side. Not dead! Just very, very relaxed.
  • Thumping back foot: “something scary, watch out!”
  • Tooth-grinding (soft): happy purring. Loud tooth-grinding = pain, call the vet.
  • Chinning everything: they have scent glands under their chin. They’re saying “mine”.
  • Running circles round your feet: showing off / asking for attention / sometimes flirting (don’t worry).

Ask Your Grown-Up

Some jobs are too big for kids: putting up the hutch, taking the rabbit to the vet, deep-cleaning, and deciding what to do if your rabbit gets ill. That’s parent stuff. Your grown-ups might want to read:

One last thing: rabbits live for 8 to 12 years. That’s a really long time. By the time your bunny is old, you might be at secondary school, or even at college. Loving a pet for that long is one of the kindest, most grown-up things a person can do. Good luck.