Housing

Indoors vs. Outdoors
Many people have the misconception that rabbits are smelly and belong outdoors. However, this is definitely not the case, and in fact, we recommend that you keep and house your bunny indoors as much as possible. If you get a rabbit as a pet, you should treat it as a member of the family. Family should not be relegated to live in a shed or hutch outside.

There are also other reasons to keep your bunny indoors.
 * Rabbits are safer indoors out of reach of predators. Rabbits can literally be frightened to death without any contact to a predator.
 * Rabbits are social animals, and in the wild, they live in enormous warrens. They enjoy the companionship from people and other animals. You can see many instances where bunnies have bonded with cats, dogs, and birds. Hutch rabbits are often never interacted with or socialized, and this lack can often result in a dull and uninterested bunny.
 * Indoor rabbits will probably live longer out of stressful influences such as predators and poor weather conditions. They can easily overheat or freeze to death. Poor weather conditions such as rain may also make you not want to go out to feed and check on the bunny. Rabbits are delicate, and any medical warning signs should be treated immediately or they will go downhill fast. Not being able to keep an eye on them can be disastrous to a bunny's health.
 * Rabbits need exercise. Unless you build an extremely big hutch with a run outside or let him run around outside occasionally, the bunny will be unable to stretch his legs. You may have seen videos of wild rabbits -- see how they love to run around? You can provide a safe environment indoors out of a predator's reach for them to do what they love.
 * Outdoors, you can never see your bunny binky in happiness and learn to appreciate their bonks for pets. Rabbits can show a personality not unlike dogs and cats. Housing a rabbit outdoors without ever interacting with them will result in a rabbit afraid of humans.

You might worry that keeping your rabbit indoors will result in destruction of your personal property and poop and pee everywhere. However, the destruction can be easily mitigated given proper bunny proofing and training. Rabbits are also easily litter trained to poop and pee in a box. Give a try to housing your rabbit indoors, and see your rabbit bond with you. If you have any difficulties, don't hesitate to ask questions on forums or /r/rabbits. We will all be happy to help you help your rabbit!

Cages and Enclosures
A variety of options exist for housing rabbits in either a cage or other type of enclosure. Although pet stores market cages specifically for rabbits, some of these cages may be too small to comfortably house adult rabbits, particularly larger breeds. From the HRS Housing FAQ page, "A cage should be at least 4 times the size of your bunny when he's entirely stretched out--more if he is confined for a large amount of the day. Cage sizes also should be decided in conjunction with the amount of exercise time and space the rabbit has. One guideline to go by is at least 8 square feet of cage time combined with at least at least 24 square feet of exercise space, for 1-2 rabbits, in which the rabbit(s) can run and play at least 5 hours per day." If you don't have enough floor space to give your buns too much room, you can also try to build vertically with multiple story condo cages.

Exercise Pens
An alternative to a traditional cage or NIC cube condo is an exercise pen, usually marketed for puppies and also called an X-pen.

Advantages over a traditional cage include the following:
 * Extremely portable (great if you travel with your rabbit)
 * Easy to reconfigure and move around the house
 * Can also be used outside (always with supervision)
 * Lots of room for litter boxes, hidey houses, toys, etc.
 * X-pen walls are easy mounting locations for bottles, hay racks, toys, etc.
 * Lots of space for your money

The X-pen represents an intermediate step between a completely free roaming rabbit and a caged rabbit. It is perhaps best suited to a bunny who can free roam under supervision but still needs to be confined at night. Exercise pens are much more portable than a traditional cage, and do not require as much up-front work as an NIC cube condo. The downsides are that you need to provide hidey-houses besides the X-pen itself, and this can take away from the portability somewhat. It should be stressed that the combination of an animal carrier and an X-pen to set up at your new location is probably the easiest way to travel with your rabbit. Bringing a large enough cage to comfortably house a rabbit in the car is difficult, but because the X-pen folds, it can easily fit in the trunk of a small car.

A decent size X-pen can be had for anywhere from $30-$100. They can be found online and in most pet stores. Exercise pens generally outcompete cages in terms of square footage per dollar. One popular brand is Midwest. If your bunny is not a jumper 24" is fine; otherwise 30" or higher is recommended. Some more xpens can be found on Amazon here.

Another handy use of an X-pen is to keep a free-roaming, fully trained bunny from getting into certain areas. Perhaps your bunny only has unsupervised access to the kitchen or the laundry room. You can use an X-pen to block off access out of these rooms. You can also use an X-pen to keep your rabbit away from the TV stand or similar cord jungle.

Tips

 * Set up your pen against a wall to maximize the space you get.
 * Buy cheap vinyl flooring to put under the pen and bunny can even live in a carpeted room. Another cheap idea is to buy a shower curtain and overlay it with a carpet or blanket, then set your X-pen on top of that.
 * Use an X-pen to confine a free-roaming rabbit when you're out of the house, cleaning, or the door is open.
 * Attach accessories like water bottles, hayracks, etc. directly to the X-pen.

Free Range Rabbits
Untrained rabbits should be kept in an enclosure during the night and while you are away from home.