Rabbits are often kept in conditions that do not meet their behavioral and social needs. Understanding their complex requirements helps owners provide genuinely enriched environments.
Rabbit welfare in captivity is compromised by the persistence of traditional small hutch keeping that fails to meet their physical and social needs. The three-by-two minimum recommended by welfare organizations is itself barely adequate - wild rabbits have home ranges of several hectares. The absence of companionship causes chronic social isolation stress in a species that evolved in social burrow communities. Insufficient space prevents the running, jumping and binkying that are natural expressions of positive emotional states in rabbits. Dental disease from insufficient hay and behavioral problems from barren environments compound the welfare problems of inappropriate housing. The gap between common rabbit keeping practice and evidence-based welfare requirements remains large despite twenty years of progressive improvements in guidance and welfare standards.