In the pet space, rabbits and cats get compared a lot. They’re fluffy, furry, adorable, and can be great cuddle-buddies if you socialize them while they’re young. They’re at risk for similar diseases and ailments, and they both enjoy small spaces like drawers and cardboard boxes.
But rabbits have an extra need to burrow. It makes them feel safe, gives them good exercise, protects them from predators, and provides nesting for baby bunnies. If your rabbit can’t burrow, it gets restless and destructive! Let’s learn how to make a digging box for a rabbit.
Table of Contents
1. Make a DIY Digging Box For Your Rabbit! – Amy the Bunny Lady
Digging boxes are a great way to keep your rabbit stimulated. Physical and mental activity can make your bunny smarter, and as you can see with Ellie here, happy rabbits can learn tricks like jumping and kissing! Amy is a rabbit rescue expert with experience in bunny behavior. Her bunny burrowing box only takes a few minutes to make with just three tools!
2. How to Build a Digging Box for Your Bunny – Bunny Proof
The type of digging box you make for your rabbit will depend on your bunny’s personality. If your bunny likes tunnels and prefers its privacy during the day, you can make a digging box that’s partially covered so the rabbit has somewhere to hide. Also, while cats prefer empty cardboard boxes, rabbits like boxes with some type of filler that they can rifle through.
3. How to Make The Perfect DIY Rabbit Digging Box – Ruffles Snuffles
The filling material for your rabbit’s digging box should be something they can safely ingest. It’s okay if they nibble a bit of the cardboard box itself since the paper won’t hurt them. And the stuff you put inside the box should be equally harmless. Options include cardboard strips, shredded newspapers, old toilet rolls, straw, hay, or your rabbit’s bedding substrate.
4. Katie’s Shredded Paper Rabbit Digging Box – Pinterest
If you fill your rabbit’s digging box with paper, choose carefully. Most people use old newspapers, but the newsprint ink might bleed onto the box if it gets wet. Old magazines seem viable, but the chemicals that make the paper glossy could be harmful to your rabbit. Another option is to use the trash from your office paper shredder. Take all the staples out!
5. DIY Hidey House & Diggy Box for Your Bunnies – Hoppy About Bunnies
In the wild, bunnies dig in the dirt when they want weeds or leaves to nibble on. So you can make your bunny’s digging box more interesting by mixing edible treats into the stuffing. These should be aromatic treats like flower petals, dandelion greens, or pellets. Dried treats are safer because they won’t go bad in the box, and you can buy some from your pet store.
6. How to Make the Perfect Rabbit Digging Box for Enrichment
Does it matter what kind of box you use for your digging box? Well, it should be big enough for your rabbit to turn around so they don’t get claustrophobic. And it should have at least one shorter side so your rabbit can easily jump in and out of the box. Make sure you remove any tape or staples from the box since they might hurt your rabbit as it explores its new box.
7. Three Easy DIY Rabbit Digging Box Ideas – Urban Bunny
Bunnies are crepuscular, just like cats. This means they sleep most of the day and night but are active around sunrise and sunset. Bunnies also like to eat their night poops, which are called caecotropes. This is a special type of high-nutrient poop made from undigested food, so it’s a crucial part of their diet. It’s why you need to regularly check your bunny box.
8. DIY Rabbit Toy Digging Box – Pinterest – Bunny Lady
Caecotropes are smellier and stickier than normal rabbit poop. You won’t usually see it because your rabbit eats it all unless the rabbit is unwell. So if you find poop inside your bunny’s box, throw it out and clean the box. Old newspapers are a favorite filling for these foraging boxes because you can toss out the shreds every morning for convenient hygiene.
9. DIY Giant Rabbit Playhouse (You Can Add Foraging Materials)
How can you tell whether your rabbit needs a foraging box? S/he may seem anxious and uneasy, and you may find the bunny digging up your rugs and carpets. While cats do this to spread their scent, rabbits do it more for comfort if they’re nervous. It’s an instinctive habit when they need fibrous leaves. So make a digging box and place it near that frayed carpet.
10. DIY Bunny Dig Box – Pinterest – Bunny Approved
You can also tell your bunny has ‘the digs’ if s/he starts attacking your flower beds, potted plants, cushions, pillows, and upholstery. The rabbit may be uneasy about a perceived threat in its environment so it’s trying to ‘dig a hole’ where it can hide. Check if anything or anyone unfamiliar has been in your house, and make a safe foraging box to reduce the rabbit’s stress.
11. How to Cure Destructive Behaviour in Rabbits! (Diggy Box)
You might worry about your rabbit biting into the sides of its cardboard box. But it’s not harmful. If anything, it can be useful, since the cardboard (plus a healthy diet of hay) will help your rabbit wear down its teeth. Without this dental exercise, your rabbit’s teeth could get too big and cause severe health problems. After all, a rodent’s teeth never stop growing!
12. How to Make a Digging Box for Rabbits – Cotton Tail Club
If you’re using old newspapers to stuff your bunny’s foraging box, crumple them into loose balls so your rabbit can play in them. Digging through this rustling paper is like a ball pit for your rabbit. Scent helps your bunny identify their treats amid the mess, so try using pine cones soaked in apple juice. Just make sure there’s no soil or sand that could dirty the space.
13. DIY IKEA Bunny Digging Box – Crafts By M
What if your rabbit doesn’t like its foraging box? Well, maybe the box is in a busy part of the house. Try moving it to a quieter corner and adding treats to see if that helps. But it may also be that the box is too isolated. If your bunny is clingy, it will prefer playing near you, so move the box closer to your bed, your favorite chair, or your workstation so the bunny won’t be lonely.
14. Rabbit Digging Box: Ideas & DIY – Ask My Rabbit
You might want your rabbit’s foraging box to mimic nature. So you may want to fill it with sand or soil, just like they’d get outside. Or you might think your bunny wants to dig in the soil, especially if s/he’s been digging up your indoor plants. Soil is a viable filling option, but it can also make a real mess, so stick to items that are easier to clean like paper or dried straw.
15. Digging Box for Rabbits – Floppy Mini Lop
Rabbits are interesting because they often eat and poop on the same substrate. They eat hay, but they also sleep in it, and they consume their caecotropes at night, often immediately they excrete it. So if you line your bunny’s foraging box with hay and treats, your rabbit may start peeing and pooping in the box as well. If this happens, throw the box out to break this habit.
16. How to Make Your Rabbit Stop Digging Your Carpet – Spruce Diggy Box
If your rabbit does happen to poop in its digging box, will it eat the poop? No, because bunnies can tell the difference between caecotropes and regular stool. They only emit caecotropes at night – which is why we call them night poop. If the bunny happens to pee or poop during the day, it won’t ingest that. But the box will soon get smelly so toss it all out!
17. DIY Digging Platform for Rabbits – Stormy Rabbits
Similarly, if there’s an area in your home that your rabbit has been attacking, it could be a good spot for a foraging box. Your bunny may be scratching up the carpet, chewing on wicker furniture, or peeling the wallpaper as it tried to chomp around. Make a digging box and use it to hide the damaged spot. You can also make a digging platform or put a sisal mat in the box.
18. How to Make a Digging Box for a Rabbit – House Rabbit Hub
Cardboard boxes aren’t the only option for digging boxes. After all, your rabbit doesn’t need to dig its way out – it just needs to ruffle through the items inside. So you could try using a box made of plastic, reeds, or wicker. But be careful what type you buy, because your rabbit might eat the reeds or crack the plastic. Sharp exposed bits (of plastic) could hurt your pet.
19. DIY Rabbit Digging Box – Higimura Studios
Maybe you want to put hay or straw inside the foraging box but you’re worried the bunny will use them as a litter box. A neat trick is to get toilet paper rolls and stuff the hay inside them. It gives your bunny a little extra mental stimulation as they push the tissue roll around the box and angle it to get at the straw. Plus the cardboard on the toilet roll is fun to scratch too!
20. Indoor or Outdoor Digging Box – Rabbit Welfare
The usual advice is to make sure your digging box is twice as long as your rabbit, and twice as tall. This gives the bunny adequate room to maneuver its body. You could work with 50cm by 25cm, or maybe 1 foot by 2 feet, depending on how big your bunny is. Curiously, a plastic-covered cat litter box makes a good dig box for your rabbit. But only if you don’t own a cat!
21. Plastic Rock Rabbit Digging Box – Enchen Zero
Outdoor bunnies need diggy boxes as well, otherwise they’ll destroy your garden! You can make the digging box out of a plastic washbasin or a wicker basket, since cardboard may be damaged by wet weather. If you opt for a basket, double-check that it’s not varnished or painted. Any color or protective coating may have chemicals that could be toxic to rabbits.
22. Plastic Digging Box with Coloured Lid – Pinterest
Outdoor digging boxes for rabbits don’t have to be actual boxes. You could dig a hole and strengthen the sides with wood or plastic panels. Don’t use concrete as your rabbit may hurt itself trying to dig through the stone. The hole should be about one foot by two feet, framed on all sides. You can make a ramp to help your bunny get in and out of this top foraging spot.
23. Rabbit Enrichment Ideas – Wooden Outdoor Box – Erin’s Ark
If you’re using an outdoor dig hole, clear the soil to remove any rocks or stones. Pack loose soil into the hole so it’s about 8 inches full. This lightly packed soil is ideal for your bunny to dig through. You can put some leafy or floral treats in the hole. Weeds may grow there, and if they’re bunny-safe plants (e.g. dandelion greens), that’s fine. If not, uproot any toxic weeds.
24. Build Your Bunny a Digging Box – Sugar Bouche Quora
While old newspapers are the most common filling choice for rabbit dig boxes, brown paper is a far better choice. Not the fancy shiny type laminated with polyethylene, because the PE can hurt your rabbit. Look for the type of plain matte paper used for covering school books, packing meat, or wrapping packages. You can tear it into strips or crumple it into small balls.
25. Smores the Mini Lop Digging in the Sand Box and Binkying
You can add any type of treats to your digging box. But if you want to simulate the outdoor digging experience, borrow your kids’ sandbox! Add the kind of treats your rabbit would find in the wild e.g. root veggies sunflower petals, chamomile flowers, willow bark, or lemon balm. Dried plants work best. They won’t attract bugs and it’s easier to clean up any mess.
Have you tried making a digging box for your rabbit? Tell us how it’s going in the comments!
