Perhaps your kids are attacking you with requests – “I want a bunny!”, or you might be thinking of getting one yourself. Perhaps you clicked on this article because you’re wondering what kind of flooring you should use for your rabbit’s ‘living quarters’, whether that be a hutch, play-pen or your entire house!

Indoor Home Options For Your Rabbit

Rabbits are naturally playful and curious – they need to be entertained. For this reason, we highly recommend against keeping your rabbit in a cage. It’s torture for a highly mobile animal such as a rabbit. The rabbit’s need to move is just as important as that of a cat, or a dog – and you’d never consider keeping a cat or dog in a cage!

Rabbits adore toy houses or old boxes with entrances and exits, cork oak tunnels to hide in and sticks they can jump over. The options truly are endless. Though, it’s important to use only natural materials, since rabbits will nibble at literally EVERYTHING you give them! It’s also necessary to rabbit-proof your home to make it completely safe for the furry little creature. We have an article on that too: 5 Steps To Rabbit-Proof Your Home.

So… Should I Keep My Rabbit Inside or Outside?

The big dilemma rabbit owners face worldwide! Lucky for you, we also have an article on that: Should I Keep My Rabbit Inside or Outside? The quick answer is that it doesn’t matter – as long as your rabbit gets the following:

• Exercise
• Lots of high quality food
• Toys
• Bedding
• Hay
• Clean Water

With this in mind, we can move on to more pressing questions, like:

Should I Keep My Rabbit In A Hutch?

Here at BunnyHub.org, we understand the convenience of a hutch for pet-rabbit owners who can’t rabbit-proof their homes. As such, we feel a large hutch is the bare MINIMUM rabbit home option – IF you can ensure your rabbit can come out of its hutch and interact with you a few hours each day. That said, our favourite alternatives to a rabbit hutch are:

• Give your rabbit its own play room. This way it has some extra space, and you won’t have to worry about rabbit-proofing your entire house.
• Bite the bullet and rabbit-proof your entire house. This way your rabbit will have enough space to support its active lifestyle. Remember, you can keep the rabbit’s litter tray, feeding and sleeping area separate from the ‘living areas’ of your house so that you’re not creating any inconveniences for you, your family or your bunny.

The Most Optimal Flooring For Your Rabbit

We don’t want you to have to redesign your entire house, or change all the flooring so that it suits your rabbit; but it’s definitely important that you consider how flooring can influence the safety of your rabbit. The good news here is that no matter the flooring you have, there’s always a way to make it safer for your rabbit. Though – some materials are worse than others, and particular attention should be paid to them.

Slippery Surfaces (Tiled Floors, Laminate, Lino)

Slippery flooring often endanger small rabbits who are not used to such slippery surfaces. They may fall and get injured. However, as your rabbit grows, they’ll become more careful and cautious around these surfaces – and so the problem will likely disappear. For other reasons, slippery surfaces can be hugely convenient for pet owners, as they are easy to clean after any mess has been made. Here are a few points about the most common slippery surfaces:

• Tiles. Your bunny will find it pretty difficult to damage any tiled surface. Additionally, your rabbit will LOVE to lie on the tiles during the hot weather, to cool them down a little.
• Lino. Lino surfaces work great if they’re a non-slip type – as long as your the edging of the Lino is safely hidden from your rabbit. That way they can’t chew it!
• Laminate. Laminate surfaces are definitely not optimal for your rabbit. Purchasing a rabbit-safe rug, or covering might be ideal.

Overall, if you’re dealing with slippery surfaces, we would recommend placing rugs or carpets over some of the floor so your rabbit won’t slip as much. The following products from our store might help!

Non-Slippery Flooring

Wooden Flooring

Wood usually makes a comfortable flooring, causing no problems for you and your rabbit. Some wooden flooring may be slippery (in which case, read the above section on “Slippery Surfaces”), but in most cases your rabbit won’t slip.

Carpet Flooring

It’s next to impossible for a rabbit to slip on carpet flooring. It’s the most optimal flooring for your rabbit, but there are two main things to look out for:

• Be prepared for your rabbit to chew any free edges of the carpet. This involves ensuring no edges are visible to your rabbit, and that the carpet is made of non-toxic materials.
• Carpet flooring may lead to sore hocks in rabbits – a condition characterized by inflamed skin and abscesses on the feet. One way to avoid this is by trimming your rabbit’s nails. And, you guessed it – we have an article for that too: How To Trim Your Bunny’s Nails.

Do you already know how to trim your bunny’s nails and just need a pair of special scissors to do it? You can pick up our pair of rabbit nail clippers on sale from our store.

Got anything to add?

We love to update our articles with the first-hand information you’ve got! Feel free to leave a comment if there’s something you’d like to add.