One Day in the Life of your Rabbit! (Daily Routine and Schedules, Exercise Tips )

Every rabbit has its own personality but the majority of them follow a similar pattern when it comes to the daily routine.

Rabbits are crepuscular which means they are most active during mornings and evenings. This characteristic makes them wonderful pets. They will be around you, very active while you are getting ready for your work or school.

They will say goodbye and after you leave your home, they may play for a short time and go to bed. In the afternoon or evening when you return from work, you will find your bunnies fresh, happy and ready to play again.

To provide the best care for your pet, you need to know how does its daily routine look like. Do bunnies like routine? When does bunny eat? What if you forget to give your bunny food? Does he know to ask for? When it is the time for play? How long bunny should play outside of its cage? When does he sleep? How much does he sleep? Do they sleep during the night at all?

Keep reading our article and get to know your pets better. If you know each other the bonds between you will be tighter and you will be spending much quality time together.

Bunnies Daily Routine – Do They Like the Routine?

The short answer is YES. Your rabbits will be happier and will feel much safer if you follow a certain routine when looking after them. Their natural body clock will dictate them a sleeping schedule. So rabbits are early risers and most probably they will be awake and active once you open your eyes in the morning.

They also prefer a routine when it comes to meals. It is really important the exact hour when you feed your bunnies, but once the time is set, you should stick to the schedule. So meals should be always at the same time. They should have an unlimited supply of hay, two main meals – one in the morning and one in the evening and optional treats.

How Does Daily Rabbit’s Routine Look Like?

As mentioned before, rabbits are early birds. They wake up before you ( unless you get up very, very early) After they get up the rabbits like to do usual morning stuff such as grooming, going to the toilet.

Rabbits really like to be clean so grooming is an important part of their life and it is something on which they spend most of their time. Bunnies usually don’t need your help with grooming but this can be a good opportunity to make even tighter bonds with your pet.

Rabbits are shedding approximately every 3 months so in that period you can take a good brush helping the loose fur to come out. You will spend a great time together doing something nice and useful.

After you wake up, your rabbits know ”It’s breakfast time”! Even if you forget about breakfast, your bunnies won’t. They will remind you by standing on their back feet and literally begging you for food or they simply will be running around your feet. You will surely understand what do they want.

Before you give them the food, take out the veggies leftovers, wash the food dish as well as a water bowl, pour fresh water into the bowl and prepare veggies for breakfast. You can also clean their habitat a little bit, taking out poop from the litter box ( or near it ), swipe the area removing hay or poop or other dirt. This doesn’t take too long, a couple of minutes maybe but leaves clean and healthy habitat for your pet.

When you feed them, check if they are all eating( in case you have several rabbits). Observe them a little bit so you can spot if some of your pets express different behavior or suffer from lack of appetite.

After breakfast, it’s Playtime! This doesn’t mean that they are not playing before the meal but after it, for sure. They might explore some new toy or they will find fun with some chewing stick or their favorite cardboard box or tunnel. They also like to dig but if you give them the opportunity they will follow you around the house to see what are you doing. They are very curious.

Around noon or maybe some hour later they are tired and ready to sleep. Some owners prefer to give some treats to their pets right before they go to bed. They sleep for most of the day, let’s say for 7-8 hours, waking up at dusk, refreshed and ready to play again. The routine is similar to the morning one, a little bit of grooming, litter box visit, eating, playing, running around…

Rabbits usually stay up till midnight or even a little bit later and then go to sleep.

When Do Bunnies Eat?

Bunnies need to have an unlimited source of hay as it is very important for their digestive tract. They have to eat it constantly in order to have enough fibers necessary for digestion. Another thing, rabbit’s gut shouldn’t be empty, something always has to be in it to provide the proper function of the gut. Almost 90% of the rabbit’s diet is hay.

Hay is also very important for keeping the rabbit’s teeth in the right shape. Rabbits have teeth that grow constantly so they need to trim them regularly. Hay is very helpful though.

Rabbits have two main meals, one is in the morning and the other one is in the evening. For both meals, you will usually serve some green vegetables, like mixed salad.

You can give some treats to your rabbit but it should be rather a small amount such as less than a tablespoon of treats once per day. This is for adult rabbits ( older than 6 months ) Don’t feed your rabbit with commercial, human sweets although rabbits really like sweet food. Too much sugar is very harmful.

Remember that rabbits should have natural, vegetarian food rich in fibers. Because of that give your pet some safe kind of fruit such as banana or cherry or apple. Squash is also a very good treat, same as carrot or broccoli. Always remember to serve very small portions of sweet fruits/vegetables to your rabbits to ensure the good health of your pet.

When Is The Time For Play?

Well, any time when they are awake. Of course, rabbits have other things to do beside playing ( grooming, litter box visits, eating) but they really enjoy the activity.

They are very social creatures so they don’t like to spend time alone. Although they have their rabbit friends, they certainly like to play with you too. Playing with you is also a great exercise. They need to stretch, run, dig, climb.

Here are some ideas: rabbits like to knock things over. They simply love it! You can play bowling games with your furry friends. Put bowling pins and observe how your bunnies knocking them down. Since your pet is a great digger and he simply loves to dig, you can provide one deeper cardboard box and fill it with shredded paper. You can also put some toy in the box, he will be thrilled to find it.

If you keep your bunnies in the cage or any other type of enclosure, remember that they should roam freely at least 3 hours every day.

During this time you should be playing with your pet as rabbits get bored and depressed without human interaction. Note that free-roaming requires the area to be bunny proofed for the safety of your pet but also your belongings.

When & How Much Do Bunnies Sleep?

Bunnies sleep for approximately 7 hours during the day, from noontime to early evening, let’s say 7 pm and then again from midnight till dawn.

Most of the bunny owners are at work or school when bunnies are sleep but if this is not your case, don’t fall into the temptation to wake up your bunny just to play with him. If it’s the time when your pet is sleeping and you try to wake him up, the only thing you will get is a grumpy rabbit in the mood for nipping. Don’t do that.

Bunnies are considered as quite animals. They don’t make too many sounds. They communicate with each other using body language. But if you notice that your bunny is making great noise when you are trying to sleep ( during the night) that means that most probably he didn’t have enough playtime during the day or that you are not paying enough attention to him. He simply wants to get your attention by being noisy.

Final Thought

Rabbits like routine. Once you set up the time for meals, play, do stick to the schedule. Routine makes bunnies happier. They feel safe if you follow a certain timetable. It doesn’t mean that you literally need to give them breakfast at 7 am every morning no matter what. It means simply that they would appreciate it if you do that most of the mornings.

Don’t forget to spend some time with your pets every day. It is important to give them fresh food, the keep their cage clean, to provide chewing toys and take them to vet when necessary. But your presence and interaction with you on daily basis is irreplaceable.

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