Rabbits, intelligent creatures that they are, enjoy playing with toys and can get bored without them. Provide toys for your rabbit, and you’ll both be entertained. Deprive your rabbit of toys, and s/he may decide that chewing the furnishings could be fun.
When deciding what to put in your rabbit’s toy box, consider safety first. Here’s an interesting fact about rabbits: Unlike dogs, cats and people, rabbits can’t cough up foreign objects. Everything indigestible that goes into the rabbit has to pass all the way through the rabbit. Therefore, toys must be either digestible (chew toys) or hard and non-breakable, and be free of lead paint and other toxins. In addition, toys must not have strings, loops, or holes that any part of your rabbit could be caught in.
Chew toys are usually a big hit. Rabbit-safe chew toys made of unpeeled, organic willow and sea-grass or timothy-grass mats, baskets or bungalows are all good. Grass mats should be water-fumigated and free of strings.
One of the most popular, multi-purpose rabbit toys is the cardboard house designed specifically for rabbits to jump on, hide in, and chew. Like the willow chews and grass mats, these are available either online or through your local rabbit group.
Most rabbits love toys that make noise or “music,” which they particularly enjoy playing late at night. The hard plastic balls with jingle bells inside, sold in most pet supply stores as cat toys, fall into this category.
You needn’t spend a fortune on your rabbit’s toys. You can make your own chew-and-fling toys by cutting untreated pine lumber into small cubes. You can make a little house for your rabbit by cutting a hole in a cardboard box; just watch for glue, staples, inks, etc. And you can make a jingle toy with a mason-jar lid.
Be a good bunny caretaker: provide your rabbit with a variety of toys and save your furniture!
Michelle Kelly is the founder of Los Angeles Rabbit Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation dedicated to house rabbit welfare. If you would like more information on rabbit-safe toys and where to find them, please write her at larabbits@earthlink.net.
