DIY rabbit toys are easy and fun to make!
Just because bunnies are quiet, doesn’t mean they don’t like to play. In fact, rabbits are naturally intelligent, playful animals.
And they need toys to enrich their environment and keep them happy and stimulated.
Bored rabbits can easily become depressed. Providing your pets with toys is a great way of keeping them occupied and preventing potential health issues that can be caused by inactivity.
Unfortunately, there aren’t a lot of rabbit toys out there on the market, so DIY rabbit toys are often the best way to go.
Also, DIY rabbit toys are cheap to make, which is very important as rabbits can be pretty destructive when the mood takes them!
When your bunnies have destroyed their toys, all you need to do is make more!
In this article, we’ll look at how to make rabbit toys, and what DIY rabbit toys will help to replicate your bunny’s natural behavior.
Safety first!
When making a DIY rabbit toy, you must always have your pet’s safety in mind.
Be sure to only use materials that are safe.
Remember that your rabbit will undoubtedly chew and gnaw on his toys, so there must be no sharp edges he could hurt himself on.
Also, if you use natural wood, be sure that it has not been treated with any chemicals or pesticides that could harm your rabbit.
If you bring wood in from your garden, always check it thoroughly to ensure there are no pests living in it.
How to make a DIY rabbit tunnel
In the wild, rabbits live in networks of tunnels called burrows.
Providing your bunnies with a makeshift tunnel system will allow them to replicate their natural behavior in their cage.
A DIY rabbit tunnel is the perfect way to enrich your pet’s cage by enabling him to indulge in his natural wild behavior.
There are a few ways of making a DIY rabbit tunnel. Here’s one.
- Take a piece of poster board by its short edge and roll it over to form a tube.
- Use a staple gun to attach the two edges of the board.
- Use a thick layer of tape to cover the staples.
Keep an eye on your bunny to make sure he doesn’t ingest the tape, or chew through to the staples.
Or try experimenting with twine, stretchy headbands or even a compression stocking to hold the tube in shape!
Other tunnel ideas
Alternatively, ask in your local hobby or home improvement store for a cement mold cardboard tube or a short piece of plastic guttering.
These items don’t have staples to worry about and are robust enough to stand up to the most boisterous bunny’s attentions!
Another great DIY tunnel can be made from discarded cardboard carpet rolls.
Ask at your local carpet retailer to see if they have any in their trash that you could recycle.
DIY rabbit toys – hideaways
Rabbits are prey animals. It’s therefore very important that your bunnies have somewhere to hide when they feel threatened.
A hideaway is also essential if you have more than one rabbit.
Rabbits have a distinct pecking order and that can sometimes lead to arguments.
Providing your pets with somewhere to hide allows them to give each other space.
Of course, if you’re concerned that one of your rabbits is being bullied, you may need to remove her from the cage and seek advice from your vet.
How to make a DIY rabbit hideaway
To create a DIY rabbit toy hideaway, take a large terracotta flower pot and place it on its side.
You’ll need to secure the pot so that it doesn’t roll around, and clay pot “feet” can be used as wedges to keep the pot stable.
Alternatively, an old square wicker basket stuffed with hay or shredded paper can make an ideal place to hide.
You will need to check your rabbits’ hideaways regularly and remove any that have been chewed too much!
Homemade rabbit chew toys
As a rabbit owner, you know that bunnies love to chew!
They will chew their cages, their food dishes, even themselves and their cage mates!
Providing your pet with a chew toy offers her a way to keep her teeth in good condition without endangering herself.
The simplest DIY rabbit toy for chewing is a simple piece of tree branch or a block of wood.
The following kinds of wood are safe for rabbits to chew, as long as the wood hasn’t been treated with any form of chemical or pesticide.
- Untreated, seasoned pine
- Apple
- Willow
- Pear
- Hazel
- Hawthorn
- Raspberry canes
Blocks of wood can be placed on the floor of your rabbits’ cage. Branches and twigs make great toys when fixed to the roof of the cage.
That will encourage your bunnies to sit up on their haunches to nibble at the wood, mimicking natural feeding behavior.
Cardboard and paper make great DIY rabbit chew toys. Toilet paper tubes are perfect, as are old cereal boxes.
Always choose cardboard that has minimal ink printed on it. Don’t use glossy magazines with paper that could contain toxic chemicals.
Make a DIY bunny house!
There’s no need to spend a fortune on a commercially made rabbit playhouse. Why not make your own from discarded cardboard boxes?
Your rabbits will love to play hide-and-seek in a cardboard rabbit house.
This is a great job to delegate to older children as well, to keep the whole household busy.
- Cut a rabbit-size hole in each side of a cardboard box.
- Add a few smaller holes to create windows that your bunnies can peek through.
- Add more rooms to the bunny house by lining up other boxes with matching holes cut in them to form passages into the neighboring boxes.
If your rabbits are shy of playing in the house at first, try tempting them inside by scattering a few treats around.
Be ready to replace some of your bunny castle’s rooms from time to time as they will undoubtedly get chewed!
Tempting tubes!
One of the easiest and cheapest homemade rabbit toys that you can make are foraging tubes.
This simple DIY rabbit toy encourages your bunnies’ natural behavior and keeps them busy for hours.
Try stuffing an empty toilet roll with grass or hay and hide a few treats inside.
Your rabbits will have hours of fun pulling out the grass in search of the tasty reward hidden within!
Grass mats
Another very easy DIY rabbit toy that you can make is a grass mat.
Don’t worry what your finished work looks like; your rabbits won’t care!
- Choose some tall grasses from your garden or use hay or straw and arrange them in small bunches lengthwise.
- Plait and weave the pieces in and out to form a flat mat.
Put the mat in your bunnies’ cage and watch them rip your handiwork to pieces!
How to make a digging box for rabbits
Digging is a totally natural pastime for rabbits.
However, if your bunnies live in a hutch or cage and have no access to the outside, they won’t be able to indulge themselves in this important bunny behavior.
So, you’ll need to provide your pets with a digging box!
Just take an old plastic or cardboard storage box and fill it with soil, sand, shredded newspaper, or hay.
Spice up the action for your bunny by hiding treats in amongst the mess!
Your rabbits will spend hours rummaging among the material in the box to find the treats or just enjoy digging!
Nesting
Female rabbits, or does, often have the urge to build nests.
Rather than giving your bunnies a potentially messy nesting material such as hay, try providing your lady rabbits with an old rug, towel, or blanket that she can turn into a comfy nest.
For the ultimate in nesting material, consider shredding old clothes too.
Toys for rabbits that you can make
Sometimes it’s the simplest things that make the most popular and fun toys for rabbits!
And what could be simpler than an empty paper bag!
Paper bags make great hideaways and can also be used to create a foraging toy.
Just fill the bag with hay and treats, scrunch the whole thing into a ball, and watch your bunny work out the puzzle and find the treats.
Rabbits are curious, nosy creatures. Take an empty toilet paper roll and stuff it with hay and treats.
Thread a piece of string through the toilet paper roll and hang it from the roof of the rabbits’ cage, just high enough that they have to sit up to reach it.
If you have any old clothing that you’re thinking of throwing out, try cutting it into lengths and making a rabbit doll!
Just take a few lengths of fabric and tie it together with a large knot in the center.
Your rabbits will have hours of fun chewing the doll or throwing it around their hutch!
Make a homemade treat dispenser
Many pets enjoy treat balls and these DIY rabbit toys can be a great way of teaching rabbits to use their intelligence to get at the tasty treats.
Treat balls also encourage your pets to move around and exercise themselves!
You can buy treat balls made of plastic or willow pretty cheaply, but you can also make your own.
All you need for this job is a clean plastic bottle, a sharp knife, some bunny treats, and a clever rabbit that enjoys a challenge!
- Make a hole in the lid of the bottle, just big enough to allow a treat to drop out.
- Put the treats inside the bottle and close the lid tight.
Your rabbit will smell the treats inside the bottle. As he pushes the bottle around, he will be rewarded with a treat or two!
As with any plastic toy, always remove the treat dispenser when the plastic becomes damaged or sharp.
DIY rabbit toys – A summary
There’s really no need to spend a fortune on expensive toys for your rabbits when you can make your own!
As you’ve learned in this article, making a DIY rabbit toy is easy and very inexpensive.
We reckon you can probably think of lots of other ingenious ways of entertaining your rabbits with DIY rabbit toys.
Why not share your favorite DIY bunny toys with us in the comments section below?
References and Further Reading
- RSPCA, Enrichment.
- Wood Green The Animals Charity, Rabbit Enrichment.
