Can You Train a Rabbit?

New to owning a rabbit? Then make sure that you start out building trust with your little furry one. Part of building trust is making sure that your rabbit has all its basic needs like food, water, and shelter. Training a happy and healthy rabbit is easier and better all the way around! Make sure they have the proper amount of grass hay (at least 80%) in their diet, always have fresh water, and have a hutch/cage that is on the bigger side to give them room to move.

Training Your Rabbit

When it comes to actually training and teaching your rabbit tricks, it’s best to work on it daily but in short sessions around 5-10 minutes. This allows you to add consistency without exhausting you and your rabbit.

Here are several ways you can train your rabbit!

Calling Their Name

When teaching your rabbit their name, it’s best to use their favorite treat as an incentive. Start by sitting close to your rabbit, holding out the treat while saying their name and “come.” When they approach you or reach forward for the treat make sure to give them praise and congratulate them. You can then step back a little further (but not too far!) and repeat the process of holding out the treat, calling them by name and saying “come.” If they end up following you before you’ve asked them to come, then just make sure to state and reinforce their name as they come to you. If they don’t respond, then move closer and repeat again.

As time goes on and they complete the process you can move further and further away. But repeating this action on a daily basis will help to teach your rabbit their name. Once they’ve gotten the hang of being called by name, you can switch out the treat with a toy or pets, but giving a treat will always be a larger incentive for them to come to you.

Responding to a Clicker

There are many ways a clicker can be used when training your rabbit. Start out with a limited number of treats, a small handful is good. This will help to dictate how long your training sessions are and so you don’t risk over feeding them. When they’ve completed the trick or task you wanted them to accomplish you can simply press the clicker and feed them their treat. This will help them to associate the sound of a clicker to a tasty reward.

Looking for ideas on ways you can clicker train your rabbits? Check out this video from 101Rabbits on how she trained her two rabbits!

Additional Tricks:

Using a Litter Box

Most rabbits spend their time in a hutch or cage, only to be let out when you have time to play and snuggle with them. Yet, in order for your rabbit to live a fully happy and healthy life, they require free time to move about.

Litter box training allows you to give them more time to roam free and enjoy, without you having to clean up the ‘presents’ they leave all over the house. For full instructions on how to set up your rabbit’s litter box, litters you can and cannot use, along with actual training tips to get them to use their litter box, download our Guide to Creating The Ideal Litter Box!

Rabbits can be trained, but it’s important to remember that positive reinforcement is the way to go! Negative reinforcement will begin to break the trust you have built with your rabbit. We think that Dr. Dana Kremples, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Miami Department of Biology says it well, “With love and patience, the human caregiver can teach the bunny what is acceptable and what is not. The only effective way to train a rabbit away from undesirable behaviors is with positive reinforcement and very gentle negative reinforcement, such as a squirt with a water bottle and a firm ‘No!’ when the bunny is being naughty.”

Have you tried training your rabbit? Share with us any tips or frustrations you’ve had below!