Senses of rabbits

Vision (visual perception)
Field of view

Due to their protruding, large eyes located on the sides of the head, rabbits have a very wide field of view. Unlike humans, they can perceive their surroundings almost all around them (365 degrees) when holding their heads up, which allows them to quickly detect predators both from the air and from the ground. They can therefore also see behind them.


Three-dimensional (binocular) vision is only possible at the front and back (about 10% in the front, 9% in the back). Over the forehead and directly in front of the nose there is a blind spot where rabbits cannot see. In this area, they rely on other senses (smell and touch). This is why rabbits first sniff and feel treats before tasting them.

However, spatial vision is restricted in albino rabbits (they have mostly one-dimensional vision and weak eyesight). In addition, they are extremely light-sensitive and should be kept in the shade. Studies on albino rats have shown that even low light intensities of 60 lux can cause long-term eye damage (phototoxic retinopathy). These animals already avoid stronger light intensities from 25 lux onward. Non-albino rabbits, however, tolerate high light intensities without harm, e.g. 1200 lux over several weeks. Some albinos suffer from nystagmus or exhibit scanning movements to better perceive their surroundings. Lop rabbits (with floppy ears) have a restricted field of view compared to upright-eared rabbits due to their hanging ears (see illustration).

Albino rabbits are limited in their spatial vision.

Day vision and color perception

Each animal species perceives its environment differently. To put ourselves in the place of our rabbits, it can be helpful to understand how they see the world.

Rabbits are farsighted (0.5–1 diopter), caused by a corneal curvature (astigmatism). They are especially good at detecting movement (at a distance), while nearby, motionless objects are seen poorly.

What does the world actually look like to rabbits?

Normally, animals (including humans) can constrict or dilate their pupils depending on the amount of incoming light. Rabbits, however, can hardly constrict their pupils, which makes them very light-sensitive as crepuscular animals. Under strong sunlight, their vision is significantly impaired.

The eye contains different types of receptor cells responsible for vision. Rods enable the perception of various shades of gray, while cones are responsible for color vision. Rabbits have S-cones, which allow them to perceive violet-blue light, and M-cones, which allow them to perceive green light. Unlike humans, they lack cones that detect red light. Therefore, rabbits—similar to humans with red-green color blindness—see red and green as the same shade.

Rabbits cannot distinguish between red and green and are slightly farsighted. However, they are extremely good at detecting movement.

Night vision

Rabbits are better able to orient themselves at dusk and in the dark than humans. Thanks to their large, dilated pupils and highly light-sensitive rods, they perceive their surroundings in low light as comparatively bright, which gives them good overall awareness. However, their ability to see details is limited.

Hearing (acoustic perception)

Rabbits have excellent hearing. They can perceive sounds in a frequency range between 60 and 49,000 hertz, whereas humans can only hear between 20 and 20,000 hertz. This means rabbits can detect very high-pitched sounds that humans cannot perceive (ultrasound).

The auricle (outer ear) contributes significantly to a rabbit’s sound perception. It is freely movable and can be rotated toward the direction of a sound. Rabbits can rotate their auricles almost 360 degrees (in all directions), independently of head movement. Each ear can also be oriented independently.

Depending on ear shape, rabbits may be limited in their acoustic perception according to breed. Rabbits with particularly small or heavily furred ears perceive acoustic stimuli less well than large-eared rabbits.

The most problematic case is found in lop rabbits (floppy ears). Studies show that lops are extremely hard of hearing and, due to chronic ear infections—which occur in up to 80% of lops as a breed-specific issue—often even become deaf. (See Lop rabbit problems.)

Smell (olfactory perception)

Rabbits rely heavily on their sense of smell. With over 100 million olfactory cells, it is highly developed. Depending on the breed, their sense of smell is comparable to that of dogs (100–200 million) and pigs, and about five times stronger than that of humans. For humans, it is hard to imagine how orientation through smell can be as precise as it is for many animals. Considering that truffle pigs can detect truffles through a thick layer of soil, one can better grasp the extent of a rabbit’s olfactory abilities.

Taste (gustatory perception)

Rabbits, like humans, can perceive sweet, sour, bitter, and salty flavors. They have a particularly high tolerance for bitterness, which explains why they prefer especially bitter plants (e.g., dandelions). With around 17,000 taste buds (humans: 8,000–9,000; dogs: 1,700), rabbits have roughly twice as many as humans. This also explains why, as dietary specialists, they can detect subtle differences in food and selectively choose what they eat.

Rabbits first examine everything through their sensitive sense of smell before deciding to take a test bite. If the food is not suitable, they may spit it out again. This makes them very difficult to poison.

Touch (tactile perception)

For close-range orientation, rabbits rely on their whiskers (vibrissae) located at the sides of the nose and above the eyes. They also possess tactile corpuscles, particularly at the ends of their limbs. Each side of the body has about 17–23 whiskers, each measuring 3–7 cm in length. Unlike fur, vibrissae are not shed during the molting cycle.

Whiskers help rabbits perceive things hidden from their eyes, and they rely heavily on them for orientation. With their vibrissae, rabbits can not only select food but also judge distances, feel the ground, and even sense vibrations in the air. This allows them to assess their immediate surroundings—for example, whether they can pass through an opening—and provides excellent orientation in burrows, shelters, and in darkness. The whiskers above the eyes help detect objects that might otherwise injure the eye.

When touched, the movement of a whisker is transmitted to the blood-filled capsule at its base, where a nerve conveys the stimulus to the brain.

Cutting off whiskers means amputating an entire sensory organ and significantly impairs the animal. Under no circumstances should whiskers be trimmed or shortened when clipping the fur.

In Rex rabbits, whiskers are often strongly curled, shortened, deformed, or even absent. The absence of whiskers is classified as a form of torture breeding (Qualzucht) in Germany, and such breeding practices are prohibited.

Rex rabbit without vibrissae.

Sources include (among others):

Boback, Alfred W.; Das Wildkaninchen: (Oryctolagus cuniculus (Linné, 1758); 2., unveränd. Aufl.; Nachdr. der 1. Aufl., Wittenberg Lutherstadt, Ziemsen, 1970; Hohenwarsleben; Westarp-Wiss.-Verl.-Ges.; 2004; (Die neue Brehm-Bücherei; 415)

Engelhard, W. von et al (2014): Physiologie der Haustiere. Enke-Verlag, Stuttgart

Gormezano, I. N. Schneiderman, E. Deaux, and I. Fuentes (1962): Nictitating Membrane: Classical Conditioning and Extinction in the Albino Rabbit Science 138:33 – 34 [http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/Faculty/Freeman/Gormezano_62.pdf, Stand 10.11.2019]

Heffner, H. (1980): Hearing in Glires: Domestic rabbit, cotton rat, feral house mouse, and kangaroo rat. J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 1980, 68(6), S. 1584-1599.

Hughes, A. (1971): A Schematic Eye For The Rabbit, Vision Res. Vol. 12, pp. 123-138. Pergamon Press

Kraft, R. (1976): Vergleichende Verhaltensstudien an Wild- und Hauskaninchen. Universität Erlangen, 1976. Diss

Leicht, W. H. (1979): Tiere der offenen Kulturlandschaft. Feldhase, Wildkaninchen. Heidelberg, Quelle und Meyer

Niethammer, F, Krapp, J.(2003): Handbuch der Säugetiere Europas. Hasenartige. Wiesbaden : Akademischer Verlags-Gesellschaft, Bd. 3/2

Juliusson, B. et al (1994): Complementary cone fields of the rabbit retina, in Investigative Ophthalmology 8c Visual Science, March 1994, Vol. 35, No. 3 [http://www.iovs.org/content/35/3/811.full.pdf Stand 10.11.2019]

Leicht, W. (1979): Tiere der offenen Kulturlandschaft, Heidelberg, Quelle und Meyer; Teil 1, Feldhase, Wildkaninchen; Ethologie einheimischer Säugetiere, 1

Loeffler, K., & Gäbel, G. (2015): Anatomie und Physiologie der Haustiere (Vol. 13). UTB.

Nachtsheim; In: Nachtsheim, H. u. H. Stengel (1977): Vom Wildtier zum Haustier. 3. Aufl. Verlag Paul Parey, Berlin und Hamburg

Schleif, O. (2001): Ein Beitrag zur tiergerechten Haltung der Ratte anhand der Literatur. Diss, Tierärztl. Hochsch. Hannover

Schlingmann F.; De Rijk SHLM.: Pereboom WJ.; Remie R.: „Avoidance“ as a behavioural parameter in the determination of distress amongst albino and pigmented rats at various light intensities. Animal Technol. 1993a; 44(2), 87-95.

Schlolaut, W. (Hrsg) in Zusammenarbeit mit Lange, K.; Das große Buch vom Kaninchen; 3., erw. Aufl.; Frankfurt am Main; DLG-Verl., 2003; 488 S.

Nover, A. (1955): Untersuchungen über die Funktion der Tränendrüse beim Kaninchen, in Graefe’s Archive for Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology , Volume 156, Number 2

Walde, I. (2008): Augenheilkunde: Lehrbuch und Atlas Hund, Katze, Kaninchen und Meerschweinchen, 3. Auflage, Stuttgart

Wiesner, E. und Ribbeck, R. (2000): Lexikon der Veterinärmedizin. Stuttgart : Enke im Hippokrates Verlag GmbH.

Can Rabbits Wear Clothes?

Rabbits are very sensitive animals. They are put under stress when they are attracted. In addition, they can be seriously injured if they get caught on the clothing or try to get free.

Do Pet Rabbits Like to Swim?

Yes, rabbits can swim! But they suffer when they are simply put into the water and are afraid of drowning. Who wants to fight for their lives for minutes without being able to stand or go to the shore? Nobody! Neither does your rabbit!
Please pass on this information! Too often you see rabbits swimming on Instagram.
The only exception can be a medical indication.

If your rabbit has soiled bottoms, you can clean a rabbit’s bottom by gently holding it over a bowl or sink and wetting and washing its dirty areas.

Don´t bathe your rabbit!

Unless your rabbit has a disease, it does NOT need to be bathed. If your rabbit has soiled bottoms, you can clean a rabbit’s bottom by gently holding it over a bowl or sink and wetting and washing its dirty areas.
Rabbits are like cats, they groom themselves to stay clean. Never immerse them in water! Rabbits can easily die from shock and hypothermia, they dry out slowly and it can lead to bladder infections, pneumonia and other serious illnesses. The ordeal of bathing puts them under extreme stress. They can injure themselves when slipping or kicking. The rabbit in this well-known internet picture, supposedly relaxed in the water, has been put into a trance. This is a state in which the rabbit goes into temporary paralysis, trancing is a reaction from the wild. If a rabbit is attacked but has no means of escape, it will play dead. This rabbit is incapable of action and is afraid for its life!
Share and spread the word!

New RHDv-2 Variant in France

In the past, RHD mutated to such an extent that the vaccines no longer worked against it and new vaccines were developed. This variant was called RHDv-2 and has been successfully vaccinated for several years.

In the north of France and other parts of Europe, a particularly contagious variant of RHDv-2 has appeared in recent months, against which the RHD2 vaccine (Eravac, Filavac, Nobivac Myxo-RHD PLUS) does not seem to be sufficiently effective. Unfortunately, epidemics do not respect national borders. The French Agence nationale du médicament vétérinaire (ANMV) has therefore approved the development of an adapted vaccine (ATU Filavac VHD Var K) that is effective against this variant. So far, this vaccine may only be vaccinated if it can be proven that the regular RHD2 vaccine is not effective.

Weiterlesen

Important basic knowledge for newbies

What you have to know as a newbie

The internet offers a lot of information for beginners (often confusing and contradicting). But what do you really need to know and what is really important? What facts are useful and important for beginners?

How old do rabbits become?

Rabbits can become 8-12 years, in exceptional cases they also can die earlier or grow even older than 12 years. The lifespan rises, if the rabbit is treaten species appropriate which includes food and space needs, but also by good observation and fast reactions and right treatment of health issues.

Single-housed, pair or group?

Rabbits should never be kept alone because that is not species appropriate. That’s why it is forbidden by law in Switzerland and Austria. It is also against the German animal protection rights that determinates rabbits „should be kept according to their needs“.

A pair or a harmonic group of three (who already been adopted together) are very harmonic and the best combination for beginners. If you want to have a bigger group, you should start with a small group and get experience first before you enlarge your group. A group should contain the same amount of castrated males and females. Groups only of male or female often collapse. An exception would be two early casrated males that grow up together.

Rabbits for kids? Pet animals?

The rabbit is not an easy-care animal. Rabbits are more expensive and need more care than people think and they hate it to be lifted and be taken around. If you lift your rabbit it becomes anxious and timid. If parents support the welfare of animals, they can show their children a respectful treatment of the rabbits, by petting the rabbits on the ground and feed them from hand. Besides, rabbits are great for observation and you can build adventure playgrounds for them. As a parent you should be aware of the amount of work that a rabbit involves. The most work, like cleaning and the daily routine, is done by the parents, because children have often a lot of other hobbies.

Let the rabbits get to know each other, incompatible rabbits

Rabbits are very social animals. There is no rabbit that doesn’t like other rabbits. The problem often is part of the behaviour of the owner. A lot of owners treat their rabbits wrong while putting it to a new buddy. This is a mistake and it seems like the rabbit is not compatible with the other one.

As an owner you need to inform yourself how to integrate new rabbits into your group or how to get your rabbit a new friend.

Rabbits should never be put together in familiar territory and should be able to clear their hierarchy( fights, flying fur, mate, chasing). It takes several days until the rabbits get along with each other and are able to to get back to the normal territory.

How expensive is it to have rabbits?

Rabbits are not the cheapest pets. You may need 100€-250€ for building a proper and marten-safe enclosure for two rabbits. For the diet you can calculate 1€ per animal per day, if you buy saisonally and on a budget. In the summer you should switch to meadow plants which is very healthy and has no costs. Vet bills can’t be calculated in advance but if your rabbit gets sick you can calculate between 80€-200€. Some rabbits never get sick, some are regularly ill. It depends on the origin, the diet and how the animals are kept.

What to feed?

It is very easy but is often done wrong. The digest system of the rabbit is the same as the one from their wild relatives and for that they need the same food. This means meadow plants, leaves, branches and twigs, buds, blossoms, roots; everything nature has to offer. The main food of the rabbit that should always be available, besides hay, is diversed fodder. You can collect it in the nature in the summer (dandelion, grasses, hogweed, ribwort..) in the winter you can choose green leafy vegetables like bitter lettuce, herbs and cabbage and add fruits. Water should be given in a bowl because rabbits don’t drink much from drinking bottles, where the water only comes in drops.

Totally inappropriate for the rabbits diet is all kind of prepared food/ rabbit food from the store. There are very few food types that do not contain pellets or colorfully clumps and are put together properly and suitable for the rabbits digestion.

How are rabbits kept?

Even though the traditional way to keep rabbits uses coves, stables and cages, it is not species appropriate and is animal cruelty. Just ask yourself: would you put your cat in such a prison? Rabbits are very active and also nocturnal. The stable should have a fundamental free run that is marten-safe. If your rabbit is house-trained, you can keep it free in your house or flat or you can fence off a part of a room for the rabbit, instead of using a cage. It is also possible to keep your rabbit on the balcony.

Two rabbits, who have daily access to a free run for several hours per day, need at least 4 m² corral. Rabbit groups without access to free run or with irregular access to free run we recommend at least 10-12 m² corral. Other organisations recommend in this case 6m² as a minimum.

Are rabbis weatherproof?

Rabbits are perfect to be kept outside in the garden or on the balcony for the whole year, or can be kept inside.

As far as the rabbits are living in a big corral with parcial roofing, they can be kept outside, regardless of weather conditions. Rabbits love to dig snow, graze in light rain and rage during all weather conditions.

If it is too wet or too cold for the rabbits, they go to a safer place on their own. Rabbits should have access to free run at all the time and during all weather conditions and should have the opportunity to decide themselves where to be.

If you want to keep your rabbits outside, they should get used to the outdoor temperature slowly by putting them outside in the summer months.

Don’t make the mistage by putting the rabbits outside into a small stand in the winter. In this case the rabbit would vegetate in a little refrigerator and could even freeze to death.

How to keep the rabbits healthy?

Rabbits are flight animals and by this they will always lay low as long as possible to keep up with the group, even when they are already very sick.

When symptoms are recognisable, the disease has already progressed. To avoid „sudden death rabbits“ it is important to do a „Short Check“ twice a day:

  1. Do all rabbits eat with the same appetite as usual?
  2. Does the rabbit behave normal as usual or does it behave different? (sitting in other places, does not come to the owner as usual, is it more trusting than usual?)
  3. Does th rabbit move as much as usual or is it only sitting around?

If your rabbit does not eat properly or behaves differently, it is a sign for being sick and you should visit a veterinarian as quickly as you can, for example the emergency service.

We recommend to have emergency medicine in your medicine cabinet if the rabbit refuses to eat.

This emergency medicine is made of „Sab Simplex“ (Pharmacy), cooking oil and baby tea for belly welfare.

Give a shot of Sab Simplex into a small container like eggcup, add some of the belly tea powder (do not mix the powder with water), add 5 drops of cooking oil and pull it into a 1ml- syringe (without needle) and put it into the rabbits mouth. Repeat once an hour until the rabbit starts eating again.

If the rabbit does not eat small amounts of herbs or other food (held in front of the rabbits mouth) you need to cantact the emergency service.

Do a health check regulary. Everything you need to know about it, you will find here: Health check . Part of the health check is : faecal sample once a year, cutting claws, if they are not used enough and an examination of the animal.

In spring rabbits should be vaccinated against myxomatosis, RHD and RHD2, especially in infected areas.

Where to get appropriate and healthy rabbits?

Do not buy your rabbits at a pet shop, a construction store or at a small animal market. These animals come from mass breeding. By buying a rabbit from these markets and shops, you support the mass breeders. The animals are mostly sick and have intestants-parasites and from mass-breeders you don’t get a good consultation.

You should get your rabbits from an animal shelter or an emergency station, sometimes private individuals are also a good choice. There you get healthy, veterinary checked, neutered and often vaccinated animals. Here you get a good consultation, you can give the animals back in case of an emergency and you can get help if there are problems or you have questions.

Young animals should be adopted with 10 weeks, better with 12 weeks. If you get offered animals younger than that, than the offerer is not professional and serious.

Find more information about origin here: Where to buy rabbits?