Until you meet one, having a pet rabbit may seem strange. I mean, they’re cute and cuddly and everything, but they just don’t seem very … interactive. But that’s where you’re wrong! A well-socialized bunny will jump into your lap for a cuddle and can even learn some tricks!!
The secret is to keep your bunny mentally stimulated, and DIY rabbit toys are a good way to do that. They’re so much cheaper than store-bought bunny toys, and they can be fun to make and experiment with. Let’s explore some popular DIY rabbit toys you can make in minutes.
1. Five Easy DIY Food Toys for Rabbits – Bun’s Best Life
Bunnies and cats are similar in lots of ways. While cats are carnivores and rabbits are herbivores, their body chemistry and proportions are similar, so they get attacked by the same pests and diseases. Both pets also have a tendency to overeat, so food toys are perfect! They force your pet to work for its food while slowing down its pace of eating. Win-win!
2. Five DIY Toilet Roll Toys for Bunnie – Amy the Bunny Lady
If you’re into crafts, you might notice that you spend more cash on DIY projects than buying ready-made ones from the store! But not this time. These DIY rabbit toys are all made from toilet rolls, so all you have to do is raid the bathrooms of everyone you know! You can stuff the rolls with hay or fill them with pellets and arrange them in a carton to make a diggy box.
3. DIY Rabbit Toys!! | Rabbit Care – Catching Tales
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDtbNVCUvWk
The best way to get your rabbit interested in your DIY toys is to sneak rabbit treats into the toy. And since most pets love chasing balls, a spherical toy full of snacks is perfect for your bunny. Grab any cardboard tube (toilet paper rolls, saran wrap, pastry cans, etc.) and slice it into half-inch strips. Interlink the strips to make a ball then slip some treats inside the ball.
4. Homemade Rabbit Toy Ideas From Around the House – Spruce
Rabbits love ball pits, so you can keep yours amused for hours by loading a bunch of balls into a large carton and letting your bunny roll around in it. But plastic balls can be harmful if your rabbit punctures them or swallows the broken bits. Instead, buy a hamster ball made of straw and stuff it with hay. You can also offer apple juice-soaked pine cones instead of balls.
5. Four Easy and Cheap DIY Bunny Toys – Benny Bunny
We’ve explored several ball and toilet roll ideas already, but here are a couple more. For an alternative hay roll idea, stuff the cardboard tube with hay and pellets, then fold the sides shut. This way, your bunny has to hustle to tear the roll open, poke holes in it, or nibble the food out! As for balls, use cardboard circles with slits and jigsaw them together to make toys.
6. Bunny DIY: How to Make Your Own Homemade Rabbit Toys
Just like cats, rabbits love cardboard boxes. Digging boxes, hidey holes, and cardboard castles are all amazing DIY rabbit toys. The type you choose to make depends on your level of complexity and the time available. You can make a simple dig box by filling a box with hay and putting treats under the grass. Or you can combine the cartons into towers and tunnels.
7. DIY Rabbit Toys – Isoline My Bunny
Not all DIY rabbit toys are food related. Sometimes, you just want something your bunny can toss around and chew on. It works off their excess energy and stops them gnawing furniture and baseboards. You can cut out a jigsaw cardboard star if you don’t mind tracing stencils and intricate scissor work. You can also braid cardboard or brown paper for a cute twisty toy.
8. How to Make Homemade Rabbit Toys – WikiHow
We’ve talked about the common points between cats and bunnies, so when you’re making DIY rabbit toys, it can be helpful to raid a second-hand cat store. Repurposed cat litter boxes are great for diggy boxes and hidey holes, and a cat tunnel makes a nifty addition to your bunny castle. For a no-fuss toy, give your bunny an old phone book or hand towel to shred and rip.
9. DIY: 5 Egg Carton Toys for Rabbits! – Captain Jasper Rabbit!
Egg cartons are a crafting staple, and they’re as versatile as toilet rolls when it comes to DIY rabbit toys. Wrap some rabbit pellets or dried treats into brown packing paper, crumple them into balls, and stuff them in a closed egg carton with holes. Or fill the carton with loose hay and greens. Or flip the carton and stick celery, carrots, and edible roots in the craters.
10. Twenty+ Free or Cheap DIY Rabbit Toys (Easy to Make)
Twisty toys can be fun for rabbits because as they unfurl, they make a rustling noise that appeals to your bunny. Rabbits also enjoy the texture of these toys, with or without treats. And they’re so easy to make! Cut a toilet roll diagonally to make a coily spiral toy. Or wrap dried treats inside brown packaging paper and twist it shut like candy or Christmas crackers.
11. Three Homemade Toys For Rabbits with Recycled Materials
We’ve looked at toilet roll ideas, and here’s a slightly tweaked one. After filling the cardboard tube with hay, hang it on a string so your bunny has to jump or stand on its hind legs to get at the snack. It’s good exercise, and fun too! Or suspend food items off a string using clothes pegs. Make a no-cost tunnel from an old cereal box to mimic underground bunny burrows.
12. DIY Rabbit Toy Ideas – Bunny Approved
You don’t always want to do a lot of cutting and pasting when you’re making DIY rabbit toys. So while this article has some complex ideas like bunny limbo and exploratory wooden box treats, you sometimes want a lazier option. Attach a slinky to a doorknob and slip lettuce through it. Or hide treats inside see-through disposable cups and turn them upside-down.
13. Ten DIY Rabbit Toys – Lulu’s Littles
You may have heard your (grand) parents whining about ‘kids these days’ and how ‘back in my day, we could play for hours with a box and a stick!’ Well, the same applies to your rabbit, and this first DIY rabbit toy is a bunch of willow twigs tied with a bit of string. Most rabbits love it! You can also get scissor-happy with toilet rolls and cardboard tubes for multiple toys.
14. Eight Easy DIY Rabbit Toys You Can Make at Home – Pet Keen
Digging boxes aka foraging boxes make great DIY rabbit toys. But you can elevate them by making a bunny shag rug. Cut fleece or soft fabric into strips and thread them through a sink mat to make a fluffy mini carpet. Hide dry treats on the carpet for your rabbit to hunt. Also, simulate how rabbits eat branches in the wild by making a ‘tree’ from toilet rolls and twigs.
15. Fifteen Free Rabbit Toys in 5 minutes! – Jades Jungle
So far, we’ve looked at DIY rabbit toys made of toilet rolls filled with rabbit pellets or hay. Are those your only options? No, you could use fruit instead. Get a cardboard tube and slit the ends so they can easily fold over. Stuff your bunny’s favorite fruit inside. Preferably non-mushy fruits like blueberries or raspberries. Close the tube and watch your bunny play!
16. Toilet Tube Toy for Rabbits – Pinterest
Once again, we offer you (and your rabbit) the mighty cardboard tube. But this time, you don’t have to snip, cut, or glue anything. Just get three or four tubes that are roughly the same size. Toilet rolls will do nicely. Squeeze some into narrow folds and stuff them into the host tube. The inner tubes will form a tight mesh that you can stuff with dried bunny pellets.
17. Three Easy DIY Rabbit Toys for Your Bunny – Jackie the Bun Mom
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to DIY rabbit toys. Just think of what your bunnies enjoy and turn it into something they can play with. A good example? Hay. Tie some into a bundle using a ribbon, a shoelace, or a thick piece of string. Suspend the bundle of hay so your rabbits can jump at it and get some exercise while they eat. It’s that simple!
18. DIY Toys For Bunny Rabbits – Tara Mills
People often use the words straw and hay interchangeably. But in case you’re wondering, they’re different. Straw comes from wheat and grains, so it’s mainly used for bedding. Hay comes from grass and legumes. It has no seeds and is high in protein so it’s good rabbit food. You can safely use straw in a digging box or litter box, but rabbits should eat hay, not straw.
19. DIY Hay Toys Made Out Of Hay Only – Art & Beauty Freak
Now that you can distinguish straw from hay, here are a few more ideas for how to use it in DIY rabbit toys. We’ve looked at bunny playthings made from braided or twisted materials. This toy has a little something extra because after plaiting the hay, you can coil it into a ring or wreath. This circular shape is more stimulating than the straight strands they’re used to.
20. DIY Bunny Toys – Ohio Rabbit Rescue
You don’t always have to ‘make’ a DIY rabbit toy. Sometimes, you can take an existing item and simply repurpose it. For example, we know rabbits love rolling things. And we know toys for (human) toddlers and infants are durable enough to handle rough play. So go to goodwill or a garage sale and buy a bag of baby toys. Ideally, look for toys with wheels, balls, or rattles.
21. How To Make DIY Rabbit Toys – Bunny Obsessed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZvy2BLx2-o
Rabbits that aren’t sufficiently stimulated can get destructive. But sometimes, breaking things is fun! So make your bunnies some DIY toys that they can trash without getting in trouble. One idea is to make an origami box out of card paper and fill it with noisy treats. They motivate your rabbit to break open the box and get at their snacks. Like a piñata!
22. DIY Toys for Rabbits – Small Pets Select
A common toy we’ve seen in almost every video is that lovely bag of hay. You take a brown paper bag and poke holes in it, maybe even making a smiley face. Fill the bag with hay, tie the top with a string, and hang it somewhere above your rabbit’s head. But if you don’t want to use grass, you can snip, twist, and braid the bag to make a sort of paper tree for your pet.
23. Making DIY Rabbit Toys Your Bunny Will Love – Tiffany’s Bunny Gang
Toilet rolls offer the simplest solution to DIY rabbit toys. But some bunny moms do want to reinvent the wheel, so here’s an idea. Get some cardboard strips and place rabbit treats on them. Dried fruit and hay are perfect. Then fold the cardboard into a roll and secure it with bunny-friendly twine. Other options include plastic digging boxes and braided hay wreaths.
24. How to Make a Toy for Your Pet Rabbit – Dremel
When you’re making DIY toys for your rabbit, you could choose to do things the easy way or the hard way. Say you want wheels that roll. You could cut two big cardboard circles and put a thinner strand of cardboard between them. But if you want to use your power tools, you can make the whole toy with wooden circles, dowels or wooden rods, and a Dremel machine.
25. DIY Free Rabbit Chew Toys! – Lennon the Bunny
Pine cones are perfect toys for rabbits because they roll around and are fun to nibble. As we said earlier, you can soak the pine cones in apple juice for a bit of extra flavor. You can also stuff parsley, cilantro, and coriander between the scales so your bunny can dig out these snacks. Another organic DIY toy is a seedless grape stem. Your rabbit will love gnawing on it.
Do you have any other ideas for DIY rabbit toys? Tell us how to make them in the comments!
