Enrichment Explained: How to Keep Rabbits Happy, Healthy and Active
- Team Nibbles
- 4 days ago
- 9 min read
What Does Enrichment Really Mean for Rabbits?
Many people are confused about enrichment — and if that’s you, you’re definitely not alone.
The word is often used to describe toys, treats, or things we give rabbits to stop them getting bored. While these can play a role, enrichment actually refers to something much broader and far more important.
Enrichment describes the environment we provide for our rabbits and the opportunities within it. It’s about how that environment supports rabbits to behave in ways that are natural to them — to move, explore, forage, chew, rest, and interact throughout the day.
This blog will help you understand what enrichment really means, how it links directly to rabbit welfare, and how small, thoughtful changes to a rabbit’s environment can make a meaningful difference to their quality of life.
If you’ve searched for things like “rabbit toys”, “boredom breakers”, or “ways to keep rabbits entertained”, you’re already thinking about enrichment — even if you haven’t used the word. Those searches usually come from a place of care and concern, and they’re a great starting point.
Rather than focusing on individual items, it can help to think about enrichment in the same way we think about our own living spaces. Our wellbeing isn’t shaped by one activity or object, but by having an environment that allows us to move comfortably, rest in different places, make choices, and feel secure. Rabbits are no different.
Good enrichment isn’t about keeping rabbits busy or constantly stimulated. It’s about creating an environment that works with their natural instincts and behaviours, allowing them to live active, confident lives that reflect who they are as rabbits.
Understanding enrichment in this way is the first step towards improving welfare — not through doing more, but through doing things more thoughtfully.
Enrichment, Welfare and the Animal Welfare Act
In the UK, rabbit welfare is protected under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, which sets out a legal duty of care for anyone responsible for an animal. This includes meeting five key welfare needs — one of which is the need for animals to be able to exhibit normal behaviour patterns.
This is where enrichment becomes essential.
Providing food, water, and shelter is only part of good care. Rabbits also need an environment that allows them to behave like rabbits — to move freely, explore, forage, rest, hide, and interact naturally with their surroundings and their companion.
Meeting basic needs alone is a bit like having a room with a bed, a toilet, and meals provided. It meets the essentials, but it doesn’t allow for movement, variety, or choice — all of which play a huge role in quality of life. For rabbits, an environment that restricts behaviour in this way falls short of true welfare, even if it appears adequate on the surface.
Enrichment is how we bridge that gap. It is what turns a space into a living environment — one that supports both physical health and emotional wellbeing. By offering rabbits appropriate space, variety, choice, and opportunities for natural behaviour, enrichment helps ensure their lives meet not just the minimum standards of care, but the spirit of welfare protection intended by the law.
Understanding this link between enrichment and welfare helps us move beyond thinking about what rabbits have, and start thinking about how rabbits live.
The Natural Behaviours Rabbits Are Designed to Perform
To understand enrichment properly, it helps to start with rabbits themselves.
Rabbits are intelligent, active prey animals with a strong instinct to interact with their environment. Their behaviour is shaped by thousands of years of evolution, and many of the things rabbits want to do each day are not optional extras — they are fundamental to their wellbeing.
In an environment that meets their needs, rabbits will naturally want to:
Move freely and at speed
Rabbits are built to run, hop, stretch, and change direction quickly. This kind of movement supports muscle strength, bone health, balance, and confidence.
Explore and investigate their surroundings
Rabbits are curious animals. They use movement, scent, and touch to explore new spaces and objects, and they benefit from environments that encourage this natural curiosity.
Forage throughout the day
Rather than eating one or two set meals, rabbits are designed to graze and forage little and often. Searching for food is a key part of their daily behaviour, not just a way of getting nutrition.
Chew and gnaw
Chewing is essential for dental health, but it is also a natural way for rabbits to interact with and manipulate their environment.
Dig, scrape, and move materials
Digging and digging-like behaviours are instinctive for rabbits. Even when they don’t have access to soil, the drive to dig and rearrange materials remains.
Hide, rest, and observe from safe spaces
As prey animals, rabbits need to feel secure. They naturally seek out sheltered areas where they can rest, retreat, or quietly watch what’s happening around them.
Live closely with a bonded companion
Rabbits are social animals. Grooming, resting together, and responding to one another are all part of normal rabbit behaviour and play an important role in emotional wellbeing.
These behaviours are all interconnected. When rabbits are able to move freely, forage, explore, and rest safely, they are more likely to feel confident and relaxed in their environment.
When these behaviours are restricted or absent, rabbits may become inactive, withdrawn, frustrated, or physically unfit over time — even if they appear calm or “easy” to care for. Understanding what rabbits are naturally designed to do helps us recognise why enrichment is so important, and why it must go beyond simply providing food and shelter.
How Enrichment Supports These Behaviours
Once we understand what rabbits are naturally designed to do, enrichment becomes much easier to think about.
Rather than asking “What should I give my rabbits?”, it helps to ask “What behaviours does my rabbits’ environment allow them to express?” Enrichment is how we shape that environment to support movement, choice, curiosity, and comfort throughout the day.
Space and Movement
Space is one of the most important — and most overlooked — forms of enrichment.
Rabbits need enough room to move freely, stretch out fully, run, and change direction. This kind of movement isn’t just about exercise; it supports muscle strength, bone health, digestion, and confidence. An environment that limits movement also limits how rabbits can interact with everything else around them.
How that space is used also matters. Enrichment can encourage a wider range of natural movement by offering gentle challenges and points of interest within the environment. Items such as low platforms to jump on and off, tunnels to run through, raised resting areas, or changes in layout help rabbits move in different ways — hopping, climbing, stretching, and weaving — rather than simply travelling from one end of the space to the other.
These small variations support coordination, balance, and muscle use, and they give rabbits opportunities to choose how they move through their environment. Just as we benefit from moving in different ways throughout the day, rabbits benefit from spaces that invite varied, purposeful movement.
If you’d like to explore this in more detail, our blog How Much Space Do Rabbits Really Need? looks at what research tells us about space, why it matters so much for welfare, and what good rabbit housing can look like in practice.
Foraging and Feeding Behaviour
In the wild, rabbits spend a large part of their day foraging. Enrichment should reflect this natural pattern.
Rather than food simply appearing in one place, enrichment encourages rabbits to search, sniff, dig, and explore. This supports mental stimulation as well as healthy digestion and helps turn feeding into a natural, engaging activity rather than a passive one.
Simple changes — such as scattering forage, offering hay in different locations, or providing safe items to investigate — can make a big difference. For guardians looking for a practical starting point, our Make Your Own Healthy Forage Bags download is a simple way to introduce foraging enrichment using safe, low-cost materials at home.
Chewing, Digging and Interaction
Chewing and digging aren’t unwanted behaviours — they’re essential ones.
Rabbits naturally need to chew to help keep their teeth healthy, but chewing is also one of the main ways they interact with and explore their environment. Digging and digging-like behaviours are just as instinctive. Even when rabbits don’t have access to natural soil, the need to scrape, pull, tug, and rearrange materials remains.
Good enrichment works with these instincts rather than trying to prevent them. Providing safe items designed for rabbits — such as willow balls, woven grass mats, seagrass items, or hay-based enrichment — gives rabbits appropriate outlets for chewing and interaction, allowing them to engage with their environment in a natural way.
Digging boxes or designated digging areas can also be a valuable form of enrichment. When filled with untreated, unfertilised top soil, they allow rabbits to dig, nose through, and investigate in a way that closely reflects natural behaviour. Hay, dried grasses, or forage can be added for extra interest, helping to support both physical movement and mental engagement.
Offering opportunities like this helps direct natural behaviours into positive, purposeful activity. When rabbits are given suitable ways to chew, dig, and explore, they are better able to express their natural behaviour and feel more settled and confident in their space.
Safety, Rest and Choice
As prey animals, rabbits need environments that allow them to feel safe.
Good enrichment always includes choice: the ability to move away, to hide, to rest undisturbed, or to quietly observe what’s going on around them. Offering a variety of safe resting and hiding spaces allows rabbits to regulate their own comfort and feel more in control of their surroundings.
Just as we don’t rest in the same place all day, rabbits benefit from having different options depending on how they’re feeling at any given moment.
Social Enrichment and Companionship
Rabbits are social animals, and companionship is a vital part of enrichment.
Living with a compatible, bonded companion allows rabbits to express natural social behaviours such as grooming, resting together, and responding to one another. This kind of interaction cannot be replaced by toys or human attention alone.
If you’d like to learn more about this aspect of enrichment, our blog Do Rabbits Have to Live in Pairs? explains why companionship is so important and how it supports both emotional wellbeing and confidence.
By thinking about enrichment in terms of behaviour — rather than individual items — it becomes easier to see where small, thoughtful changes can have a meaningful impact. Space, layout, feeding methods, materials, and companionship all work together to shape how rabbits experience their world each day.
Why Enrichment Is So Important for Rabbit Welfare
Enrichment plays a vital role in supporting rabbit welfare because it brings together physical health, mental wellbeing, and confidence.
When a rabbit’s environment allows them to move freely, explore, forage, chew, rest, and interact naturally, they are better able to stay active, engaged, and comfortable in their surroundings. These everyday opportunities support muscle strength, coordination, digestion, and dental health, while also helping rabbits feel more settled and secure.
Mental wellbeing is just as important. Rabbits living in enriched environments are more likely to show curiosity, confidence, and a wider range of natural behaviours. They are better able to cope with change and less likely to become withdrawn or inactive over time.
When our own environment works well for us, we tend to feel more relaxed, more confident, and better able to cope with day-to-day life. The same is true for rabbits. Enrichment helps create an environment where rabbits don’t just exist, but actively engage with the world around them.
Importantly, enrichment doesn’t need to be complicated or expensive. Small, thoughtful changes — adjusting how space is used, offering choice, encouraging natural movement and behaviour — can have a meaningful impact. Understanding what rabbits are naturally designed to do is the first step towards providing enrichment that genuinely supports welfare.
By thinking beyond individual items and focusing on the overall environment we create, we can improve the quality of life for the rabbits in our care. Improving environments improves lives — and enrichment is a key part of making that possible.
Learn More in Our Rabbit Care Hub
This blog is part of our growing Rabbit Care Hub, where we share clear, evidence-based guidance to help guardians meet their rabbits’ welfare needs.
You’ll find information on housing, space, diet, behaviour and more — all designed to support healthier, happier lives for rabbits.
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