Rabbits are prey animals and as such they need to be able to scan their environment for threats. Providing platforms allows your rabbits to perform this important behaviour and will help them to feel safe.

To ensure the platforms you provide are safe for your rabbits, please read and follow our guidance for using enrichment.

A 'look-out' point

Platforms can act as a ‘look out’ point, allowing rabbits to scan their surroundings for danger. Provision of platforms is therefore likely to reduce anxiety and many rabbits may also use them as a potential ‘bolt hole’, somewhere safe to go to if they are afraid (i.e. performing the same function as hiding places).
 

Exercise for your rabbits

Platforms are also useful in building rabbits’ physical fitness and bone strength, as jumping on and off a platform is an important weight-bearing exercise. If your rabbit has previously been kept in a restricted environment with little or no opportunity to exercise and jump onto objects, speak to your vet for advice before providing platforms, to ensure your rabbit does not injure him/herself (as they may be prone to fractures due to poor bone strength). In this situation (and following veterinary advice), you may need to provide low platforms initially and gradually increase their height as your rabbit’s fitness and bone strength improves.
 

Give your rabbits' plenty of room

Ideally when on a platform, rabbits should be able to stand up on their hind legs without their ears touching the roof of their enclosure.

 

Ensure the roof of any platform is made of non-slip material to avoid injuries when rabbits jump on or off the platform. Platforms must also be strong enough to withstand the weight of one or more rabbits jumping onto it (depending on how many rabbits you house together). Ensure the height of the platforms is suitable for your rabbits (i.e. at a height that they can easily jump onto) and, if necessary add interval platforms or a solid, low ramp (which is not too steep and has footholds) to allow rabbits to gain access to the platform easily. Many platforms can also act as hiding places and vice versa.

Examples of suitable platforms include straw bales, the top of a strong cardboard box, a wooden crate, the stump of a tree (stumps from fruit trees that have not been treated with chemicals will be safe for rabbits), a low hutch in an outside exercise run and a wooden shelter with a low, flat roof. If your rabbits are housed in a shed, the addition of low shelves will increase the floor area which is available to them and provide them with elevated resting platforms.


Find out more about making sure your rabbits' have a suitable place to live.