Indoor Rabbits - House Training Tips

Keeping rabbits indoors at home is becoming more and more popular with the general public these days. If you are considering this and need more advice on how to house train your rabbit then you have come to the right site. If trained properly from the right age a rabbit can be a very clean friendly house pet..

It is imperative to start with the rabbit(s) from a young age. Between 8 and 10 weeks is the perfect age to buy a rabbit and start to train them. By doing this you will be speeding up the learning process, as like humans much depends on how we was brought up from a young age.

Before bringing your rabbit home make sure that you have a suitable cage, food, water and toys available. It is important to keep the cage in the same place in the first few months whilst they are still becoming familiar with their surroundings.

When the rabbit first comes to your home you should keep him/her in the cage for a minimum of 24 hours. I would personally recommend up to 48 hours. This gives the rabbit a chance to feel that the cage is a safe place for them that offers security. The cage should contain hay or straw, and i would advise newspaper underneath this to soak up any unwanted mess. The rabbit will then find a place where it will want to go to the toilet. You will find that this will usually be in one of the corners of the cage. Once you have identified where he/she likes to toilet then you can place a litter tray in this area. One similiar to a cat litter tray will be fine. It is a good idea to put some of the hay or straw in to the litter tray.

Try to place food, or the food bowl reasonably close the litter tray, this will encourage the rabbits to return to the litter tray once they have finished eating.

After a day or 2 you can now introduce the rabbit to the house, by allowing him/her out of the cage. At first the rabbit may be hard to catch and shy. If you find that he or she is doing droppings outside of the cage then you should put back in the cage each time and onto the tray. This can be frustrating and long winded but it has worked for me. It follows the same advice given to training a puppy (e.g putting them out in the garden each time they deposit)..

Treats should be given to the rabbit by or even on the litter tray from a young age; again encouraging them to use the tray when feeding.

The links at the top and side of the page will be able to help you with further stages, such as when the rabbit reaches puberty. This can be a very challenging time for the owner, so a good idea to read up on this if you are considering keeping rabbits indoors!