Free access to runs lowers rabbit stress, study finds
Stress hormone levels were higher in rabbits with limited run access.
A new study into the housing needs of pet rabbits has found that small hutches and limited access to exercise areas have a negative impact on rabbit welfare, leading to activity rebound and higher levels of the stress hormone corticosterone.
The research from the University of Bristol’s veterinary school involved twenty pre-established pairs of adult neutered rabbits who were kept for eight weeks in standard pet housing.
Half the pairs were kept in 0.73 square metre hutches and half were kept in 1.86 square metre hutches. Some of the pairs were given unlimited access to an attached run, whereas others had restricted access for three hours at midday.
The behaviour of the rabbits was observed at dawn, midday, and dusk, and faecal samples were tested for corticosterone levels. The researchers found hutch size and exercise access had a significant impact on the amount of corticosterone and rabbit activity, with small hutches and limited run access causing higher levels of stress.
Although similars studies have looked into the housing needs of pet rabbits in settings such as laboratories and farms, the only previous studies focusing on the housing of pet rabbits had looked at single rabbits, despite it being best practice for pet owners to keep rabbits in pairs.
The new study was funded by the RSPCA and the results have been incorporated into the charity’s advice on housing rabbits.
Drs Nicola Rooney and Suzanne Held, senior authors of the paper, said: “Rabbits are active and need to be able to hop, run, jump, dig and stretch out fully when lying down. Restricting rabbits’ opportunity to get away from each other and to move to times of day, when they would not naturally be as active, is likely to contribute to the activity peaks and high stress hormone levels in the pairs in the smaller hutches with limited access to a run.
“Housing guidelines for rabbits need to highlight the importance of allowing pet rabbits the freedom to exercise in the morning and afternoon, even if they are kept in hutches larger than the traditional hutch size.”
RSPCA rabbit welfare expert Dr Jane Tyson added: "The findings of this research are highly welcomed confirming what many of us have known for so long, that keeping rabbits in small hutches with limited opportunities to exercise compromises their welfare.
"Rabbits are often misunderstood animals but the findings from the study show that housing rabbits in an enclosure consisting of a sheltered area with constant access to a larger space is critical.”
The paper, ‘Run access, hutch size and time-of-day affect welfare-relevant behaviour and faecal corticosterone in pair-housed pet rabbits’, has been published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science.
Joanne Webster, a professor of parasitic diseases at the RVC, has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).
