General

Introduction

You may be considering getting your rabbit spayed, but aren’t sure what happens or what to expect. Last week, we had our female rabbits Fish and Chips spayed, so this post is based on our recent experience.

I’m going to take you through everything that happens, how much it costs, and why it’s worth getting your bunny spayed or castrated (neutered).

I am giving you what our experience was. Always check with your vet and follow their advice, as your circumstances may be different from ours.

Before the day

You need to book an appointment with a vet. It’s better if your vet is used to dealing with rabbits and other small animals. We used the vets associated with Pets at Home – Vets4Pets. 

The operation will take place over the day, so you need to make sure that you are free in the morning to drop off your bunny, and again in the afternoon to pick up and take home. We dropped off Fish and Chips at 9am, and picked them up around 3pm.

You also need to make sure that you are going to be around for a couple of weeks at least after the operation – we nearly forgot this and were going to book it too close to our holiday. 

On the day – morning

There is no need to stop your rabbit eating. This is different from other animals like cats and dogs, where you would stop them eating or drinking before an operation. But rabbits have a different digestion system that needs to keep moving food through it.

You will be using a suitable carrier to take your bunny to the vet (we like and own one of the small pet carriers sold by Pets at Home – check it out here).

You also need to take with some of your bunny’s favourite treats for after the operation. The vet will be keen for your rabbit to start eating again as soon as possible, so anything that will tempt them to start eating is good.

When I arrived at the vets with Fish and Chips, there were a couple of things to do before I left them.

First, I had to sign a disclaimer. This is standard before any operation. I also paid for the operations.

Next, the vet weighed them. Fish was 1.6kg, Chips was 1.9kg. They do this both for knowing how to medicate during the operation, and also for medication after the operation.

Additionally, later on they are weighed again to make sure they haven’t lost too much weight.

Then I went home.

And worried, a little bit. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself a little anxious.

On the day – while you’re waiting

Rather than just worrying, there is a job you need to do while you are waiting. And that is to prepare for the rabbit(s) to come home.

The vet may well recommend that the rabbit spends at least the first night indoors.

This is for two reasons – so that you can keep a watchful eye on your bunny while they recover, but also because after anaesthetic rabbits have trouble regulating their own body temperature. If it’s a cold night, they might even end up suffering from hypothermia.

We spoke about this with our vet. As it happened, we were in a warm spell, and the night-time temperature was going to be quite high.

Because of this, our vet was happy for our bunnies to go back into their own hutch.

Whether it ends up being their regular hutch, or whether you create something for them specially, your bunnies will have different requirements for the next couple of days until they can be checked over by the vet. 

In particular, the vet told us not to use straw or woodchip. The bunny will have a fresh scar on their bellies, and so they shouldn’t be lying on anything sharp or rough at first. 

That means that you need something softer for the bunnies to lie on – newspaper or cloth.

You could also buy large disposable pads similar to disposable baby changing mats – you can check them out on Amazon UK (or Amazon US). Our bunnies came home with one of these each from the vet.

On the day – collecting

We got a phone call from the vets about 2.30pm, telling us that both had come out of the operation well, but the nurse wanted another half hour to make sure that one of them was awake enough to come home.

I picked up Fish and Chips about 3.30pm. They had been offered some food (their favourite treats that I had packed earlier), but weren’t really hungry yet.

I also made a follow up appointment for three days later (this is about the maximum – more often the vet would see you two days later).

The vet showed me the scars from the operation, and explained how to take care of them the first evening and days. 

She emphasised how important the following are when checking your rabbit after spaying:

• Is the wound looking OK?
• Are the rabbits pooing?
• Are the rabbits peeing?
• Are the rabbits eating?
• Are your bunnies hiding away?
• Are they behaving very differently from normal?

The vet also gave us some painkillers for the rabbits. Each rabbit had a different dose (based on their weight).

The vet also told us not to let our rabbits out of the hutch (not even into their attached run) until they had been to a check-up (again, to protect the wound).

We had to be particularly careful to check that both Fish and Chips were eating – if we just put food out, and saw that it was gone, perhaps only one of our rabbits was recovering well and eating.

The next few days until the check up

Fish and Chips gradually started eating more, but it took time. We give them a small amount of nuggets at the start of the day, which they normally go wild for. But after the operation, they would look at them, nibble one or two, then wander away for a while. We offered coriander (their favourite herb), and they would nibble a little bit.

But at least they were eating – this is extremely important for rabbits.

We could also tell that their poo was returning to normal within a day. And although not their usual, lively selves, our rabbits weren’t hiding away by themselves. 

Giving the painkiller was tricky. You administer a syringe into their mouth. You have to go in via the side of the mouth to avoid their teeth.

Chips liked the medicine, and would happily take it. Fish didn’t like it, and it was harder to give her the full dose.

The wounds healed nicely; we had no problems here at all.

Overall, the three days following the operation saw our bunnies get gradually livelier and eating more normally. By the day of the check up, it was clear they were ready for their run, wanting more space to move around.

The check up visit

We brought Fish and Chips back to the vets in the afternoon three days after the operation. The vet checked them over, and was happy with how they were recovering. Our bunnies also got weighed again: Fish was now 1.58kg, and Chips 1.84kg. The vet was happy with this small level of weight loss.

The vet also told us that now we could let them back into their run, but not into the garden. 

Why not? Our rabbits love to zoom around at top speed (I never knew rabbits were so fast animals). If anything caught the wound at their top speed, it might catch and tear.

We would have to wait another three days (so a week after the operation) before our rabbits would be allowed to roam freely in our garden again.

Next few days after the check up

Things gradually go back to normal after the check up. 

You still need to check the wound regularly to make sure it is healing well.

For the next two or three days you can continue to give the painkiller to your rabbit.

The bedding can go back to normal (straw, in our case). This also helps settle the bunnies – they don’t like their home being messed around.

And after three days, we could finally let them back into the garden. They were delighted!

It was great to see them back to their old, adorable ways – binking and zooming and enjoying the garden.

What happens during the spaying operation?

The vet gives the rabbit an anaesthetic so the rabbit will be asleep during the operation. They shave a small patch of fur on the belly where the incision takes place (for female rabbits).

The rabbit is cut open and the reproductive organs removed (the ovaries and the womb).

For male rabbits, the testicles are removed. 

In our case, the incision was then stitched up with soluble internal stitches. This means that the rabbits don’t have to go back to have the stitches removed.

What painkiller is used after the operation?

The vet prescribed our rabbits Metacam (a brand name for Meloxicam). It’s in oral suspension (ie, it’s a liquid). Ours also appears to have been packaged for dogs. 

The concentration is 1.5mg of meloxicam in every ml. The syringe was marked in kg (that is, you draw up the liquid to the kilogram level of your dog). 

The doses seem higher than you might expect (strong enough for a dog?). Part of the reason might be that it is extremely important for rabbits to start eating again, so ensuring that there is little or no pain is paramount.

Chips needed enough once per day equivalent to the 9.5kg mark; Fish, being lighter, up to the 8kg mark. 

This shows how vital it is to follow your vet’s advice for your particular pet. 

Also – your vet may use a completely different painkiller. 

The right amount (or type) of medicine for one rabbit will be wrong for another.

How long does it take a rabbit to heal after being spayed

It normally takes about a week to ten days for a rabbit to be back to their old selves. 

How much does spaying/neutering cost?

It cost us £80 for each rabbit. Spaying (females) costs a little more than neutering (males). If you choose an adoption rabbit from some stores, they may give you a discount towards the cost of spaying. For example, if you choose a rabbit that’s up for adoption from Pets At Home, they give you a voucher covering the entire cost of spaying or neutering.

What age should I spay my rabbit?

Vets4Pets recommend that rabbits should be spayed at around four to five months old. Fish and Chips were just under five months when we brought them in for spaying.. 

But it is also possible to get older rabbits spayed (for example, if you bring home an adoption rabbit that had not been neutered by the previous owner).

Male rabbits can be neutered a little bit younger, from about three months old.

What are the benefits of spaying?

I’ll list the benefits below, but it has been interesting watching Fish and Chips change their behaviour as they have got a bit older. When they hit about five months they started burrowing, and making nests inside the hutch. 

More of an issue is that they started being active with one another. Fish would try to mount Chips, or the other way around, and each time the other rabbit would try to avoid it. These were the first times that we had seen any type of conflict between them.

It showed us that they were the right age to be spayed.

After spaying, they no longer try to mount each other, and are living happily with each other again. 

And there are lots of benefits to having your female rabbit spayed:

It ensures that they can’t get pregnant. This is the most obvious one. The number of adoption rabbits in pet stores shows that we don’t need to add more accidentally.
Also, every pregnancy carries risk for a rabbit, and they can get pregnant multiple times in a year.

Spayed rabbits are likely to live longer. Female rabbits are particularly prone to uterine cancers and other reproductive diseases. Spaying removes this high risk factor to their lives.

One example of this is neoplasia (new, abnormal growth). Female rabbits can form adenocarcinoma (malignant tumours) of their endometrium.

Sadly, without spaying, female rabbits have a 60% chance of developing this by the age of four years, and three quarters of female rabbits will suffer this by the age of 7. (For further information, check out this summary by a vet who specialised in rabbits – pdf file).

If you want to give your female bunny the best chance of a long life, then book them in for spaying.

Another reason for spaying is to avoid phantom pregnancies (also called false pregnancies). The bunny can think that she is pregnant, and her hormones are those of a pregnant rabbit. The result is that the bunny can become aggressive (both to humans and other rabbits) and territorial.

Spayed rabbits are also generally better tempered, both with companions and with humans. This is important – rabbits are social animals. Spaying and neutering enables them to live together with less aggressive behaviour.

And, if you have a house rabbit, they are easier to house-train.

Much of the benefits also apply to neutering male rabbits.

What are the risks?

Any surgery carries a small element of risk. But the benefits far outweigh them.

Conclusion

We got our rabbits spayed, and we are pleased that we did. They live together happily, and we have given them the best chance of a long, contented life. 

I hope our experience lets you know what to expect if you are thinking about getting your bunny spayed or neutered, and demystifies the process.

Concerned about your bunnies’ diet? Check out our post on what herbs are safe to give them – and which aren’t.

Thinking about insuring your rabbit? I’ve done research on the UK companies that offer pet rabbit insurance here.

When we first bought Fish and Chips, our much loved bunnies, we were entirely new to the world of pets. We had never owned any type of pet before. I literally had no idea how much it would cost to buy a rabbit or to keep a rabbit.

Perhaps you’re in the same position. You’re thinking about buying a pet rabbit, and wondering how much it is going to set you back, both upfront and year to year.

The costs can add up (and remember that pet rabbits can live up to ten years – this is a long term commitment).

This is our experience of buying two pet rabbits. I hope you find it useful, and enables you to make a more informed decision.

How much does it cost to buy and keep a pet rabbit?

It costs between £150-500 ($200-650) to buy a pet rabbit, rabbit hutch (cage) and equipment. The main difference in cost will be the quality of hutch you get – hutches designed to last outdoors cost more. It costs about £550 (about $700) a year to keep a rabbit, including insurance and vaccinations, hay and bedding. Treats and toys are additional costs to these. 

	Cost (£)	Notes
One-off costs
Rabbit	£0-50	Ideally you buy two rabbits or more – they are sociable animals who need company
Spaying/neutering	£70-80	Spaying/neutering leads to healthier, longer-lived, calmer rabbits. Remember to double this cost if you buy two rabbits.
Hutch & run	£50-350	Outside hutches need to be large, secure and with a secure run. You also need a cover for winter. Inside hutches still need to be suitable.
Litter tray	£10	Simple plastic.
Water bowl	£3	Heavy and shallow so doesn’t get knocked over.
Feeding bowl	£3	Same as water bowl.
Hair brush	£4	Regular grooming helps rabbits.
Hay manger	£10	Hay is the main food for rabbits.
Total	£150 to £510
Running costs per year		Remember to double up if you have two rabbits
Vaccines/health check ups	£96	Your rabbit will need vaccinating every year (included as part of health plan).
Insurance	£120-180	Pet insurance can save you a lot of money if your rabbit needs any medical care.
Bedding	£216	Straw and bedding needs replacing weekly.
Hay & pellets	£124	A rabbit’s main diet should be hay.
Toys and treats	£0-£200	Rabbits get bored easily. Toys and treats keep them entertained and happier.
Total	£556 to 816

How much does a rabbit cost?

A rabbit from a pet store will cost about £45 (or $20-40). You can buy a rescue rabbit for less than this.

At first, we thought we were going to be buying a pet rabbit. We were wrong. We ended up buying two rabbits.

Why? Because rabbits are sociable creatures. They enjoy company. Either you need to guarantee a lot of human interaction every day and throughout the day, or they need a bunny companion (more info here).

The good news is that rabbits are relatively cheap to buy. You may even be able to adopt a rabbit from a shelter for free.

The less good news is that, ironically, rabbits are not the main cost of buying rabbits!

We bought Fish and Chips from a pet store. 

Some organisations strongly suggest you never do this and only adopt rabbits from shelters. At the time, we didn’t know much about rabbits at all. 

All I can say is that the pet store we used (Pets At Home) was professional, cared for the rabbits, refused to sell them at inappropriate times (weather too cold; rabbits too young), provided excellent information on caring for rabbits, ensured we had suitable facilities at home before selling the rabbits, and also supports the adoption of rabbits. 

They also refuse to sell rabbits over the Easter weekend, to ensure that people aren’t buying bunnies on impulse. Many of the staff owned rabbits themselves, and all seemed passionate about the animals.

We paid £45 for each rabbit. However, this included RHD1 vaccination, which on its own can cost £40. 

Rabbits available for adoption were generally cheaper, and some of them were already vaccinated and neutered or spayed.

In the USA, typical prices are around $20-40. Again, this can be cheaper if you are buying from a shelter.

Our rabbits, cute as they are, have no pedigree. If you are buying a rare breed, the price is likely to be higher (maybe even hundreds of dollars). 

We paid £45 per rabbit.

Medical matters and insurance

Your rabbit(s) will need regular trips to the vet for vaccinations and other costs. These are for routine issues; this is separate from going to the vet for any emergencies or illnesses that your bunny may have.

Your rabbit will need two vaccinations each year (combined RHD1/myxomatosis, and RHD2) and protection against flystrike. You can pay separately for these, but most vet practices offer a package combining them all, which ends up cheaper. 

Vets4Pets (which is associated with Pets At Home) charges £8 per month (£96 annually – 2022 price), and also included a consultation as well.

If your rabbit isn’t already spayed/neutered, you need to include this cost (it is highly recommended by practically all organisations). It typically costs a little more to spay a female than it does to castrate a male. Find out more about the whole process in our article.

And then there’s insurance. This typically costs £10-15 per month. The usual price comparison websites don’t include pet rabbit insurance (they only offer one choice). I researched the area – you can see my comparison between the main five UK providers here.

We paid £80 per rabbit for spaying.

We pay £96 every year per rabbit for a care plan for vaccinations.

We pay £130.56 every year per rabbit for pet insurance.

Hutch, run and cover

You can spend a little or a lot on a hutch. Partly it is going to depend whether your rabbit(s) is going to live indoors or outside. In the UK, there is pretty much a 50:50 split. 

Our rabbits live outside, so we needed a hutch that was a decent size; that would keep them safe from foxes or cats; and that last in Manchester’s wet climate. Indoor hutches can be cheaper (though still need to be large).

We did some digging around, and settled on the Large Coach House hutch, with a run and a cover for winter. It arrived flat-packed, and we assembled it ourselves. You can read our user review of the Large Coach House rabbit hutch here.

You can expect a good quality rabbit hutch to last three years if kept outside. Beyond this, you might need to start making more and more repairs as the weather and the bunnies cause wear and tear. In particular, bunnies can chew wood, and can nibble away at struts and wooden supports over time.

We paid £312 for the hutch, the run and the cover, including delivery. 

Equipment

Your bunny will need some stuff besides the hutch itself. This is what we ended up buying:

• Litter tray – we chose a large plastic one £12
• Water bowl (heavy so can’t be knocked over) £3.25
• Feeding bowl (to put pellets in) – ended up same as water bowl £3.25
• Small double sided brush £4.50
• Dustpan and brush (to help clean out the hutch – we didn’t fancy using our normal one) £2
• Hay manger to hang on side of hutch £10.40

In total, we paid £35.40 on equipment

Bedding and Litter

The hutch needs cleaning out each week. We then line the bottom of the hutch with newspaper, and then woodshavings (with dust extracted) on top. In the bedding area, we use straw (again, make sure that it is dust extracted).

A large (10kg, 22lb) bag of woodshavings costs about £10.

A large bag of straw costs about £4.

You will need about one bag each month.

We also use litter in the litter tray. A 20l bag sets us back about £12. You’ll need about 4 bags a year.

We pay £216 a year on bedding and litter.

Food

The main diet of rabbits is hay, and we always try to buy Timothy hay (read here to find out why). In England you can buy Timothy hay for about £4 for 1kg of hay (which goes further than you’d think). I haven’t kept track, but about half a bag every week per rabbit seems about right. We buy ours from pet shops (some supermarkets also stock hay), but you can also order from Amazon UK or Amazon US.

If you are near a farm (one of our friends is), you might be able to get access to hay a lot cheaper than this. 

The bad news if you’re American is that getting Timothy hay seems to be a bit more expensive than in England. It’s worth buying a bigger bag to save money.

Rabbits also have pellets of dried hay (no more than half an eggcup per day per rabbit). The pellets cost about £10 for a 2kg (4.4lb) bag. You probably won’t need much more than a few bags a year. Again, you can get these from pet stores, or direct from Amazon UK.

On top of that, we also regularly buy herbs and other greens when doing our supermarket shop (but not chives! See why not here). I haven’t included this cost.

We pay £124 per rabbit every year for hay and pellets. 

Toys and treats

The good news: toys and treats tend to be inexpensive.

The bad news: buying them becomes a little addictive…

And most toys are something that your bunnies love to chew on. This means that, after a day or so, they will have been destroyed by your rabbit’s gnawing and chewing. So you buy another one…

As an example, we found that our bunnies really enjoyed chewing and messing around with small hay boxes. We have bought three in the month.

You can read here about some of our favourite treats and toys for our bunnies in our rundown of ten of the best (and they’re all pretty cheap).

We pay about £180 every year for toys and treats.

Other costs

We have had other costs, but these depend on our particular circumstances. For example, we needed to improve the fencing in part of our garden to make sure that the bunnies couldn’t escape. This took a couple of days work plus materials from B&Q (similar to Home Depot). 

Conclusion

Thinking about buying a pet rabbit? It’s always worth having some idea up front about what you are committing yourself to. 

We love our rabbits, Fish and Chips, and are delighted we took the plunge.

Our experience is here to help you make sure you can commit to affording and looking after your rabbit(s) not just today, but in the years to come.

And rabbits make great pets (you can read our 7 reasons why they’re better pets than dogs here).

Have you ever had a weird question that kept going around your mind? Utterly inconsequential, but nags and gnaws away? So you do what we all do, and put your trust in Google. 

And always, someone, somewhere, will present an answer to you neatly by the algorithms of the internet. Nearly always… …and then you end up with a question that no-one else has asked. 

You know what the question is, because you’ve ended up on this page.

What type of rabbit is Roger Rabbit? In particular, what breed of rabbit? 

I have happy memories of the ground-breaking film that mixed live action with traditional animation. Bob Hoskins starred as the world-weary private eye inveigled into investigating who framed Roger Rabbit. But there are many different breeds of rabbit – what type was Roger? 

That is, what type besides cartoon rabbit – Wikipedia classifies Roger as a Toon Anthropomorphic Rabbit. I can’t find that classification anywhere on the ARBA website.

The answer wasn’t obvious, but I did some digging around. Here’s my hypothesis.

What type of rabbit is Roger Rabbit? Roger Rabbit is most likely to be an American White rabbit.

How did I come to this conclusion? My reasoning is laid out below – see what you think.

Is Roger Rabbit a rabbit or a hare?

The first question is to establish whether Roger Rabbit is really a rabbit. After all, he could be a hare. 

You think this is unlikely? But Bugs Bunny, a cartoon parallel, seems at time to be more like a hare than a rabbit, and the two are similar. For example, the first short film in which Bugs Bunny got his name was called Hare-um Scare-um. And the first ‘official’ Bugs Bunny film was called A Wild Hare. 

Charlie Thorson, the lead animator, created Bugs Bunny as a mix between a hare (called Max Hare) he had drawn for an earlier film and the cute rabbits more typical of Disney.

The key evidence that Bugs is a rabbit is that he has a burrow, living underground. Hares live overground. And Elmer Fudd calls him that ‘wascally wabbit’. But other evidence points towards the hare: 

• He is a loner (hares are loners; rabbits are social creatures); and
• Bugs Bunny has long ears.

So some people think that Bugs Bunny is more likely to be a hare than a rabbit (info here).

But Roger Rabbit is more rabbit like. The evidence mounts up:

• Roger Rabbit is extremely sociable (not least, he is married to the delightful Jessica). Rabbits are sociable whilst hares are solitary.
• One of his relatives is a rabbit. His uncle is Thumper, from Bambi, as this line from the movie shows:
  “My Uncle Thumper had a problem with his probate and he had to take these big pills and drink lots of water.”
  (Could Roger Rabbit’s dad be one of Thumper’s sisters – Trixie, Daisy, Ria or Tessie?!)
• Let’s not forget, his surname is Rabbit.
• But the real clincher is that his creator, Gary K Wolf, has confirmed that Roger Rabbit is a rabbit:
  “Roger IS a rabbit, yet his last name is Rabbit. So does that make him Roger Rabbit Rabbit? That’s the kind of conundrum that makes a Toon’s head explode. And mine too if I think about it too much.”

All in all, we’re safe in thinking that Roger Rabbit is a rabbit and not a hare.

What type of ears does Roger Rabbit have?

One of the ways to tell rabbit breeds apart is through their ears. They can be classified in five different categories:

• Erect ears – this is the most common.
• Full lop ears – both ears hang down. Fish, one of our rabbits, has full lop ears.
• Half lop ears – one ear up, the other down. Chips, our other rabbit, often carries her ears like this (but at other times both end up upright).
• Oar lop ears – the ears stick out fairly horizontally – sometimes called helicopter ears.
• Horn lop ears – the ears stick out in front.

Roger Rabbit has erect ears, so we can rule out all the breeds of rabbits which are lop-eared (so definitely not the same breed as our rabbit Fish).

What colour is Roger Rabbit?

Another distinguishing feature of rabbit breeds is their colour. This is a simple one – Roger Rabbit has white fur.

What length of fur does Roger Rabbit have?

Some rabbits have really long fur – like the Angora breed. They need lots of grooming (high maintenance bunnies).

But Roger Rabbit has much shorter fur.

He’s not what you’d call ‘fluffy’ at all.

Again, this helps narrow down the possibilities.

Where does Roger Rabbit come from?

Roger Rabbit speaks with an American accent, and lives in California. We can assume that he’s an American rabbit.

Putting the clues together

So Roger Rabbit is a rabbit with erect ears, white short fur, and an American breed.

My conclusion: Roger Rabbit is an American White Rabbit.

Why? The American White Rabbit is a large breed (and Roger Rabbit is certainly larger than most rabbits…). The ears are long and erect (just like Roger’s), and the fur short. The breed is known for being friendly and with a sweet temperament (again, just like Roger’s). And it is American (just like Roger). You can find out more at the American Rabbit Breeders’ Association.

It all fits together. Case closed.

Convinced by this? Get ready to be convinced that rabbits are better pets than dogs – we have 7 reasons why.

Introduction

The sun shone brightly during the first few weeks since the bunnies arrived. Fish and Chips happily played and binkied in the garden, and we watched, enchanted. But then the weather turned nasty again. Temperatures dropped a bit, and for a couple of days we had periods of rain like stair-rods. We made sure our rabbits were safe and secure, and found gaps between the storms to let them out and exercise and run around. But it made me wonder – can my bunny go out in the rain? Can my rabbit get wet? And what should I do if my rabbit gets wet?

Just like everyone does, I googled it. But the results weren’t always helpful. People had different views from each other, and seemed to have different experiences. However, I think I found a consensus that most owners would agree with. To check this out, I asked our vet while our bunnies were getting their RHD-2 vaccination. So here’s what I found.

Can rabbits go out in the rain?

It’s okay for your pet rabbit to be out in the rain if your bunny is healthy, has the choice to get back under shelter, and has somewhere dry and draught free to retreat to. Young rabbits and poorly rabbits should be protected from the rain more. And if it is torrential, then make sure your rabbits are protected. But if it is drizzling down and your bunny is choosing to be outside, then there’s no problem.

What is the danger of rain for rabbits?

The main danger of rain for rabbits is them getting too cold – hypothermia. But remember that a comfortable temperature for rabbits is lower than that for humans – they are designed for colder weather. And their fur acts like a waterproof coat which helps protect them from both the rain and the cold.

If a bunny has the choice of getting indoors and somewhere warmer, then just like us they will move inside if they are getting miserable outside.

How do bunnies stay dryer and warmer than humans?

Rabbits have adapted to lower temperatures than humans. One way they have done this is through their fur. It has two properties that help.

First, the fur has some hydrophobic properties. This means that the fur repels water to an extent. If you look at a raindrop on a leaf, the raindrop beads up and isn’t absorbed into the leaf – that’s a hydrophobic effect.

A similar result happens when water falls on the rabbit’s fur – the water is more likely to bead up and roll off than to soak the hair.

This helps the bunny stay dryer (and so warmer) than us – the cold water never gets near the rabbit’s body. It’s a bit like if we wear a rainproof coat – we don’t get wet underneath.

The second way that the fur keeps them warmer is that rabbit fur is different from human hair.

Hair is made up of three elements – the cuticle (which is the outside layer, made up of scaly like cells); the cortex (which is the main body of the hair, and includes the pigments that make up hair colour); and the medulla (which is a central column of cells).

In humans, the medulla is a bit shapeless. But rabbits have a thick medulla full of cells which in turn are full of air.

This means rabbit hairs are like hollow columns, with permanently trapped air. This air insulates the rabbit. Rabbit fur keeps them warmer far better than our hair keeps our heads warm.

Strangely enough, one of the better sources of information on the different types of hair and fur comes from the FBI! Forensic scientists need to be able to tell the different types of fur and hair from different animals apart, and so have produced a technical guide on the subject – you can find it here if you want to know more.

The upshot is that rabbits can enjoy the rain more than humans because their fur keeps them dryer and warmer.

Can rain cause pneumonia?

If you look on forums, some people make sure that their bun is kept out of the rain because of worries about pneumonia or other respiratory diseases. I asked our vet specifically about this.

He explained it was a myth. Small animals like rabbits are more prone to respiratory diseases, BUT being out in the rain didn’t cause them. (Incidentally, if you suspect your rabbit may have any type of respiratory disease, seek out a vet’s advice as soon as possible.)

Pneumonia is an inflammation of the lungs, and is caused by infections (there are different types – bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic – for more information, see here).

But being in the rain isn’t one of the causes.

If you think about it, it isn’t that surprising that rabbits can go out in the rain. In the wild, rabbits have to be able to come out of their burrows and feed in all sorts of weather – they are not like Mogwai…

When should you make sure your bunny is in the hutch or inside?

Some bunnies will even stay outside when the weather is chucking it down. But most owners will recommend making sure that they avoid extreme weather. And if your rabbit is ill, or old and frail, it might make sense to ensure they stay warmer and dryer.

What to do if your bunny is wet

If your bunny has got too wet, then lightly towelling them dry is the main recommendation. Be careful about moving them straight from a really cold, wet environment to a hot environment and then back out in the cold – the dramatic changes in temperature can be stressful.

Can I give my rabbit a bath?

Some owners do give their rabbits a bath, but many bunnies don’t enjoy the experience. Generally, there shouldn’t be any need to give your rabbit a bath – they will keep themselves clean.

If specific areas do need cleaning, then it is best just to clean these areas rather than have a complete bath.

Conclusion

We love our bunnies, and want the best for them. It’s right to be careful and make sure that our rabbits aren’t becoming cold, miserable or ill. But so long as our rabbits have the choice of staying warm and dry (and so long as they’re healthy), we don’t need to worry if our rabbits choose to spend some time playing in the rain.

Want to keep your bunnies warm when it gets colder? We use a microwaveable heatpad by Snugglesafe, You can check out our review of it here.

As you care about your bunny’s health, you might also want to read our article on what herbs are safe to give your rabbit.

And you can find out why timothy hay is so good for rabbits in our article here.