Fun Ideas With Rabbits

While traditionally not thought of as particularly interactive pets, rabbits need mental and physical stimulation just like dogs and cats, and they can be fun and active companions. There are a variety of ways to play with your rabbit from providing it with toys to basic training of tricks to more advanced competitive activities like agility and hopping.

  1. Rabbit Toys

    • Toys are essential for your pet rabbit's mental and physical stimulation. Have fun and be creative in your toy selection. Use cat tunnels, cardboard tubes or boxes, or empty concrete forms for burrowing. For your rabbit's digging instincts fill a box or basket with hay or newspaper. Offer a broom or phone book for it to shred. Provide boxes, ramps and/or cat condos for your rabbit to climb. Baby toys, balls and Slinkies can be fun for the rabbit to throw.

    Clicker Training Your Rabbit

    • Clicker training is a method that involves associating a noise (the clicker) with a reward. Your rabbit will learn that when it hears the click, it's going to get a treat. You can click your rabbit for any number of natural behaviors and build from there to create fun tricks. Teach it to roll a ball, stand up, or flop over, all on command.

    Rabbit Hopping

    • Rabbit hopping, also known as rabbit show jumping, is primarily done in Scandinavia, but it has spread to the U.K. and the U.S. It's a formal jumping competition for pet rabbits. There are straight and crooked courses, which involve a series of jumps either set out in a straight line or on a course where the rabbit must follow the numbers in order. There are also high- and long-jump competitions. There are rabbit jumping clubs around to help you get started.

    Rabbit Agility

    • Rabbit agility is similar to traditional dog agility but with appropriate-sized equipment for rabbits. The rabbit runs through a series of obstacles in a particular order. The obstacles include: the hoop jump, teeter totter, open and closed tunnels, tire jump, A-frame, balance beam, bar jump, bridge, pause table and window jump. You can construct these obstacles at home with wood and PVC, and you can use clicker training to start training your rabbit on each obstacle.