Rincewind

We had a stray pet rabbit come to our door yesterday. We took them in and bought some supplies to keep them comfortable, but we're puzzled by dishes. What types of dishes are best for the various things a rabbit needs? Hay, greens, food and water is what I'm thinking of.

They're eating fine, but I know from experience with cats that the right shape makes all the difference.

Thanks for any advice you can give on this part. I'm checking with neighbors, vets, various rescue groups and the local shelter, nobody has reported them missing yet.

#rabbit #petsofmastodon #foundpets

Dec 10, 2025 at 3:57pmWeb
Show threadRincewindDec 11, 2025

Thank you all for your great advice. As an update: things are going great. We set up a large (58" diameter) enclosure for our guest, it has two litter pans that they're using regularly. For food we have two dishes, one with a small amount of kibbles and the other with a selection of fresh greens from the rabbit food pyramid at rabbit.org. There's a hay dispenser above one litter pan, and a water bottle as well as a fresh dish of water. For resting they have a larger cardboard box on its side with an organic cotton towel, and a smaller woven timothy hay hut that is sometimes on a towel, depending on where they move it to for burrowing.

They're eating, drinking and resting well. They alternate between grooming, snoozing and playing with the timothy hay balls and edible toys. They're no longer concerned when us humans come around, and they'll even eat and play with us nearby.

We've found a local vet who specializes in rabbits to help in case they have an emergency. So far we've had no response from our search for an owner who lost a pet rabbit, so we're reaching out to people we know in the greater SLC metro area to see if they're good with rabbits or know someone who is. This rabbit friend is staying with us until we find someone who's had previous experience with house rabbits and who we'd be confident could handle them.

Thanks again for all the great advice, I think you all set us in the right direction.

#HouseRabbits #RabbitsOfMastodon

Show threadBrian CampbellDec 10, 2025

@Rincewind Rabbits usually like to just have hay in their litterbox. Some people just put it straight in their litterbox on top of their litter, some people get racks or feeders that can hold the hay near the litterbox but try to keep it out to reduce the amount of hay lost to being peed on.

For litter, paper based litter like CareFresh is generally preferred.

As far as dishes, I've never seen them have much preference on shape. Heavy, smooth, or otherwise hard to pick up dishes are best, as otherwise rabbits will pick them up and fling food all over the place.

A rabbits diet should be mostly Timothy hay, plus a small amount of a high-quality rabbit pellet like Oxbow, plus some greens. Very small amounts of fruit can be good as a treat.

Show threadBrian CampbellDec 10, 2025

@Rincewind I use a no-tip bowl like this for their water, though I remove the rubbery part around the rim as they'll just chew through that.

And I just use a ceramic cylindrical pet food bowl for their pellets, also heavy and smooth enough that it's hard for them to pick up (though they do occasionally manage to flip it). And just a ceramic plate from the thrift store for greens.

Show threadRincewindDec 10, 2025

@unlambda Thank you, this is great information! They definitely tossed their pellet food dish around last night, so I'll be picking up some of those non-tip bowls today. I wondered about the feeder racks, I think I'll get that, too. Nobody wants peed-on hay.

#RabbitsOfMastodon #HouseRabbit #BunniesOfMastodon

Show threadJason PlayerDec 10, 2025
@unlambda @Rincewind For litter we do wood stove pellets. It's much cheaper than CareFresh and works just as well. Only really worth it if you are taking care of bunnies long term or have a bunch of bunnies... b/c it comes in 40lbs bags. 😉
Show threadPicasso Dec 12, 2025
@littlebunnyubu @unlambda @Rincewind Agreed. Wood stove pellets are a safe, economical choice for rabbit litter. Home Depot, Canadian Tire, TSC, etc carry them year round. For better odor control, I like to mix in about 30% pelleted newspaper (fragrance-free, non-clumping) in the corner of the litterbox Picasso uses most. Usually in the cat section.
Show threadC.Dec 10, 2025

@Rincewind

As others have said, the no-tip bowls are good - but we've always used heavy ceramic bowls instead. They can't get a good grip on the smooth, wide top edge with their teeth so they (usually) can't turn them over.

We use a typical open cat tray for litter. Some use hay in theirs, we use unscented paper pellets.

I cut down a fair sized box to about 3 inches high and fill it with hay. For smaller rabbits, it might need to be shorter than that. Don't be surprised if they prefer to hop in and sit in the middle of it, and scatter hay everywhere...

If you need more information - behaviour, health, whatever - on house rabbits, the House Rabbit Society has a ton of good info and resources on their site. One of their sites is at https://rabbit.org/ .

#HouseRabbit #RabbitsOfMastodon #BunniesOfMastodon

House Rabbit Care & Behavior - Rabbit.org

The most respected rabbit care and behavior website for over 25 years. We're here to provide the best in rabbit education for you and you bunny.

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Show threadRincewindDec 10, 2025

@cazabon Thank you, and thanks for that link! I wasn't sure what was reputable and what was AI slop out there.

I set them up in a larger enclosure, about 58" across, with a couple of places to hide. We have one litter box with hay-based litter, and after reading your message, one with unscented paper pellets.

Coming from a cat-based universe this has been really weird to have to consider how much they'll just chew things up. We had a fantastic cat who would tip his water dishes for fun, so we'll pick up some more of those.

#HouseRabbit #RabbitsOfMastodon #BunniesOfMastodon

Show threadBunnyMamaDec 10, 2025

@Rincewind @cazabon

Agree with everything above :) One handy rule of thumb is to give your rabbit a pile of hay as big as them every day to munch on,

Show threadC.Dec 10, 2025

@Rincewind

Some house rabbits can be really destructive; the best thing you can do for them is protect the stuff that's either really important to you (walls, baseboards, etc) or dangerous to them (cables, etc) with barriers of some sort. Finding alternate things they're happy to destroy instead of your Good Stuff can help - cardboard or paper, nontoxic chewable pet toys, grass mats, etc.

Others are hardly destructive at all, and will only chew on things you give them. We've had a couple like this. Unfortunately they're not the majority 😉

A large enclosure is good, but it's better if you can let them out to roam, at least part of the time (like when you're in the room). If the room or rooms they have access to don't have a natural barrier that stops them, you may find a baby/pet gate helps.

Depending on the flooring where you have the rabbit and how destructive they are, you may find a cheap big carpet from Walmart or whatever is a good investment. Many rabbits dislike hardwood, vinyl flooring, and other slippery surfaces, and won't get the exercise they need if they don't have something grippy to roam around on. For others, it can let them chew on the cheap carpet and not the expensive wall-to-wall good stuff underneath it.

I wish you all the best with your new vegetarian housemate. Keep #HouseRabbit and #RabbitsOfMastodon tags handy if you want to ask for more info from us rabbit servants.