Does a rabbit remember a toy it has already seen? What a memory study shows
Published by Planète Pets · managing editor: Clément Lacaille · how our guides are written
Pulling out a toy you thought your rabbit had forgotten is sometimes all it takes to spark fresh interest. A Swedish study set out to measure exactly how long a rabbit holds onto the memory of an object it has already met, with a result directly useful for organising toy rotation. Our enrichment ideas are gathered in the rabbit toys and enrichment section.
Contents · 5 sections
Twenty-one rabbits put through a battery of tests
Hatice Gümüş, Afua Agyemang, Olga Romantsik, Rebecca Sandgren, Håkan Karlsson, Magnus Gram, Suvi Vallius, David Ley, Daniel van den Hove and Matteo Bruschettini published a study in 2018, in the journal Behavioural Brain Research, on twenty-one 70-day-old rabbits put through a battery of behavioural tests: an open field test, a dark-light box test, a visual object recognition test with several delays between the two presentations, an olfactory recognition test and an object-location test (see the study). The logic behind the recognition test is simple: a rabbit naturally explores a novel object longer than a familiar one, provided it remembers it.
A memory that lasts at least 90 minutes, but fades within a day
With a 30-minute delay between the first encounter and the test, rabbits spent markedly less time on the familiar object than on the novel one (0.40 seconds versus 3.17 seconds, p = 0.003): the memory clearly held. The same gap showed up with a 90-minute delay (0.87 seconds versus 7.65 seconds, p = 0.008). With a 24-hour delay, though, that preference for novelty disappeared: the rabbits no longer told the previously-seen object apart from an unfamiliar one. The olfactory recognition and object-location memory tests also showed a preference for novelty well above chance level.
What this means for toy rotation at home
This finding backs up a practice already recommended to owners: a toy left permanently in the enclosure quickly loses its pull, while one put away and reintroduced after a day or more off regains its full novelty effect. Our article on rotating toys to prevent boredom lays out a concrete rotation schedule to apply. The study also flags a litter-size effect: rabbits born into litters of more than three kits explored a novel object more than those from smaller litters, a factor that might explain why some rabbits seem naturally more curious than others about an unfamiliar toy.
The study's limits
The rabbits tested were young laboratory animals, 70 days old, in a standardised experimental setting, not adult companion rabbits in their familiar home environment. The objects used for testing weren't necessarily comparable to toys sold commercially, and the sample stays limited to twenty-one animals. The exact point at which memory of a specific object fades in a companion rabbit could therefore differ from what was measured here.
Frequently asked questions
Should you swap your rabbit's toys every single day?
Not necessarily: this study suggests a break of at least 24 hours is enough to restore interest in an already-known object, without needing to keep buying new toys.
If a rabbit ignores a toy, has it forgotten it or does it just dislike it?
Both are possible: some objects simply stay unappealing regardless of the delay. Find all our guides on the rabbit hub.
See it in the Planète Pets shop: Hanging chew garland for rabbits and rodents (€17.90) · the whole shop
This guide is part of Planète Pets’s Rabbits universe. Our advice is general in nature: for any health concern, your veterinarian remains the only reference.
