Rabbits are the third most commonly used laboratory animal species, but their specific social, behavioural, and physiological needs are often inadequately met in traditional laboratory housing, creating preventable welfare deficits.
Laboratory rabbits face welfare deficits from traditional housing that fails to meet their social and behavioural needs. Social isolation in individual cages prevents social grooming, play, and the proximity contact that rabbits rely on for comfort. Cages that do not permit the full standing-upright posture cause chronic physical restriction. Barren environments without hiding places keep prey-adapted animals in a persistent state of low-level anxiety. Rabbits mask pain and illness so effectively that welfare problems go unrecognised until they are severe. Progressive implementation of pair housing, enriched cages with hiding structures and elevated platforms, and validated pain assessment tools is improving laboratory rabbit welfare, but implementation quality varies substantially between institutions.