Enclosure

Even if you plan on having your rabbit free roam, it’s not a bad idea for them to have an enclosure they can use as a “home base”. You can put their litter box, hay, food, water and a place for them to sleep/hide in here. For an enclosure you’ll need to get an xpen, extra large dog crate or you can build one out of NIC panels.

Where to buy:

Walmart: Mainstays 3 Wire Cube

Jysk: ADJERF Wire Storage Cube

Amazon: Basics 6 Cube Grid Wire Storage Shelves

Petsmart: Top Paw® Exercise Pen

Rabbit Safe Litter

The best type of litter you can use for your bunny is something that’s made from recycled newspaper, pulped paper or woodstove pellets. AVOID: Cedar or pine shavings, corn corb litter or clay cat litter.

Where to buy:

Canadian Tire: Canawick Hardwood Pellets

Pet Valu: Fresh 4 Life Eco Paper Ultra Soft Cat Litter

Fresh 4 Life Natural Paper Small Pet Bedding (price varies)

Carefresh Natural Small Pet Bedding (price varies)

*Petsmart and Amazon also carry different varieties of Carefresh and Kaytee paper bedding.

Food + Water Dishes

Since bunnies are so active, you’ll need to get them a sturdy water dish that they can’t knock over. You can find different kinds of pet food bowls at Walmart, Winners, Homesense, Dollarama and many other stores.

Litter Boxes

You’ll need at least 2 litter boxes, each roughly twice the size of your bunny. Dollarama has litter boxes for about $3-4 each but you can also find them at your local pet store.

Flooring/Bedding

Bunnies do best with flooring that’s malleable (to cushion their feet) and textured (so they don’t slip) as bunnies don’t have paw pads on their feet like cats and dogs do. There are a number of different options for flooring but whatever you get, make sure your bun doesn’t chew on it!

Where to buy:

Giant Tiger: They usually have area rugs on sale for around $15-$30 and memory foam bathmats for around $5-$6 a piece.

Walmart/Canadian Tire: You can find interlocking foam mats here for around $12 for 4 mats. If your bunny starts to chew on these, try to cover them with blankets or switch to a different method of flooring.

Thrift Stores: Most thrift stores have a great selection of fleece, towels, baby blankets and other linens. It’s good to cover the floor of your bunny’s enclosure area with blankets because they provide a softer surface and they’re easy to clean.

* If your bunny has really bad sore hocks, Walmart sells memory foam for around $25 (for a double bed). You can use this underneath blankets and towels to cushion the floor.

Pellets

Bunnies need high quality pellets made out of timothy or alfalfa hay with at least 18% fibre content. The best brands around here at Martin Mills and Oxbow. AVOID pellets that contain corn, seeds, dried fruit or colored bits.

Where to buy:

Petsmart, Pet Valu and Amazon all carry Oxbow and Martin Mills pellets.

*Please note that alfalfa pellets should only be fed to babies, nursing mothers or under the advice of a rabbit savvy veterinarian.

Hay

Bunnies need access to timothy hay at all times as it makes up 80% of their diet. Most pet stores carry timothy hay but you can also buy it by the bale from local farms (try searching Kijiji) or through online retailers such as Freshay, Canadian Pet Connection and Amazon.

Oat hay, orchard grass and botanical hay are also acceptable types of hay to feed your bunny!

Toys

Rabbits need toys to play with or else they’ll get bored and can become destructive. For more information and examples of rabbit safe toys, see this article from rabbit.org.

Medical Supplies

All bunny parents should have certain supplies on hand in case of emergency:

• Heating/cold pad

• Simethicone – anti gas, found in baby medicine section of store or pharmacy

• 35cc or 60cc oral syringe

• Several 1cc and 3cc syringes

• Critical Care – for syringe feeding, can be found on Amazon or bought from a vet (good for 3 months, 6 months if frozen)

Some syringes can be found on Amazon but you should also be able to get them from your vet.