Farmed rabbits are commonly kept in individual wire cages, but colony housing systems that allow social interaction and movement represent a significant welfare improvement for this social species.
Farmed rabbit welfare has historically received less attention than that of other species, despite billions of individuals being farmed annually. Individual wire cage systems prevent virtually all natural behavior: rabbits cannot run, jump, groom conspecifics, or express the cursorial locomotion for which their anatomy is adapted. Colony housing represents a meaningful welfare improvement: social interaction, elevated platforms, and larger space allowances allow behavioral expression previously impossible in caged systems. The management challenges of colony housing — aggression control, disease management, and group composition — are real but solvable. European regulatory reform is moving toward colony and park systems as the minimum standard, following the evidence that individual cages are incompatible with basic welfare requirements for social, active animals.