Provided enough space (minimum 24 square feet per rabbit), your rabbit can be kept in your bedroom. What matters most is that there’s enough room for them to move around and exercise. However, rabbits are active at night, so they may keep you awake.
Imagine waking up and seeing your cuddly friend right next to you! Watching binkies around your bed, hearing your furry friend snacking away, or occasionally noticing the jarring thump, letting you know something is wrong.
There are many benefits to keeping a pet in your room. They can aid with depression, help with a daily routine, and bring a smile to your face on a bad day.
Rabbits require about 24 square feet for running around. This is primarily for exercise, as rabbits need to stretch their legs and get their primal instincts out.
Playtime is essential for your furry friend, and 24 square feet is only the minimum required. This doesn’t all have to be flat, open space, either. While that would be desirable, you can add many other common bedroom items for them to jump around on.
The minimum space would ideally be horizontal, but you can also make your rabbit’s playground vertically challenging.
Hutch space is important as well. As far as contained habitats go, the recommended size for a hutch is a minimum of 8 square feet. Rabbits shouldn’t be left in their enclosure all day, and never keep your rabbit locked away for more than 24 hours. This can lead to health issues, anxiety, and behavioral consequences such as aggression and chewing on furniture.
The average bedroom is around 132 square feet. This hosts more than enough space for your rabbit, provided you don’t have furniture blocking all of it. Clear some of the clutter out of the way to provide a good amount of floor space for your rabbit to run on.
What You'll Learn
Why Do Rabbits Need This Room?
Rabbits, although domesticated, still carry many of their primal instincts. Hunting for food, scanning for predators, sniffing the air, and exercising are prominent features of their behavior.
Exercise is essential for those big, strong back legs, especially if you have a younger bunny. Animals still adjust to living in homes, it is not in their nature, and they still struggle with it even if we can’t tell.
Making your home rabbit friendly is paramount for them to feel comfortable and happy. The more you satisfy their needs, the more at home they will feel.
In the wild, rabbits consistently use many of their survival instincts. This includes using their five senses and an orienting, fight, flight, or freeze response. Orienting is determining if there is danger anywhere nearby. This perks up their hearing and sight senses. If danger is sensed, they normally tend to freeze first. If that doesn’t work, flight becomes the next option. If no other avenue has worked, they will try to fight the predator if possible.
To avoid your rabbit feeling like they must fight to find safety, promote their love of small places to hide in if they get scared. This can be done through hutches, beds, tunnels, and more.
They tend to live underground in the wild, so putting many cool, dark places around your room for your bunny to burrow into will make them feel right at home.
Exercise is key to a healthy rabbit. Like humans, they weren’t made to sit around all day. They require running, jumping, and exploring.
A bored and under-exercised rabbit can develop boredom, anxiety, frustration, and health issues like obesity. They need at least four hours of exercise a day to remain happy. The ideal amount of time for exercise is around seven or eight hours.
This means you should open your furry friend’s cage and let them hop around for a good portion of the day/night to ensure they get out all of their kinetic energy!
How to Keep a Rabbit In Your Room
Rabbit Proof Your Room
The first step to bringing a furry friend into your bedroom is rabbit-proof it! I can’t tell you how many times my rabbit has found some delicious-looking wires and tried to get at them before I stopped him. Hide or wrap up wires in your room so your bunny doesn’t put themselves in harm’s way.
You should also consider putting a mat on your floor if you have hardwood, as it will help with traction when running around. I use a yoga mat for my bunny, and he absolutely loves it!
Make sure to also scan your room for sharp objects that could hurt your friends’ feet or toxic chemicals they might get into (Body scrub, leftover food, etc. all counts!)
Get The Correct Hutch
A hutch is essential to have in your room. While it might seem fine to have your rabbit use your dresser for a hideout, hutches mimic their natural environment. They are designed to meet rabbits’ specific needs.
Most hutches are made from wood, including willow, apple and pear trees, aspen, and poplar wood.
Most hutches have a wooden floor, as mesh wiring is bad for rabbits’ feet. Some are even two levels, providing a ramp for your friend to run up and down on. Getting off the main ground can be pertinent if your friend feels there is danger on the first level.
Maximize Free Space
Try to organize your room to maximize free space. Push a bed up against a wall, try to limit large, bulky items, and create lots of floor room for zoomie time!
While your rabbit will love running on floors, they can also like to explore. Jumping on a bed, roaming under a dresser, and making use of everyday household items can be exciting and stimulating.
How to Turn Your Room into a Bunny Playground
Tunnels, tunnels, tunnels! Rabbits love hideouts, and tunnels can remind them of underground pathways they dug underneath the earth in the wild.
There are many types of tunnels available online for purchase, some even leading to a mini-hutch at the end! There are also lots of colorful wooden blocks to give your friend. They can flip them around, toss them in the air, chew on them, and make a game of their own!
There are also scratch boards or dig-simulators for those primal instincts of theirs. Hay balls are also common, making your rabbits’ main source of food a fun playtime exercise.
Even cardboard boxes can add hours of entertainment. You may buy your rabbit all the most expensive toys in the world, and all they want is your leftover Amazon packages.
Rabbits don’t pay attention to price or quality, they just want to have fun and examine new objects! Consider doing some DIY crafts for rabbit toys if you’re strapped on cash. They love hideouts, and they don’t all have to be purchased from Amazon. Have a couple of hideaways in your room aside from the hutch to give them multiple areas to relax.
Rabbits are easy-going creatures, but they do need stimulation and safety. Make sure your rabbit has enough room to get out their energy, items to play with, and places to hide. They will love their environment if it stimulates their primal senses and habits.
Remember, they are living creatures with wants and needs even if they can’t communicate them. Also, the most important piece of keeping a rabbit in your room is to shower them with attention. Rabbits can become bonded with their owners and need just as much love as we do! Before bringing a furry friend into your bedroom, make it a place they will enjoy waking up to every day. Of course, their favorite part will be seeing you!
