should dogs and cats live with rabbits? the honest answer.

Written By The Chias

This article is dedicated to Serenity. She deserved better. So does every rabbit who comes after her.

This article expands on our original thoughts on rabbit relationships with other animals from 2022. 

We are writing this article because our bravest mama rabbit died.

She was one of sixteen bunnies we fostered from a hoarding situation. The most resilient girl, she gave birth and nursed 18 babies across two litters. She was bonded to her daughter Venus. She was loved by the BCB and the community.

She was murdered by a dog.

We are not writing this to make anyone feel guilty. We are writing this because the rabbit community has been too polite about this topic for too long, and politeness will get rabbits killed. So here is the honest answer - the one we wish more people took to heart before it was too late.

The question isn't whether your dog is a good dog. It's whether your dog is a predator -

All dogs are predators. That is not an insult - it is biology. Thousands of years of domestication have not removed the predatory drive from dogs. It has simply suppressed it to varying degrees depending on breed, individual temperament, and context.

Some breeds were specifically developed to chase, catch, and kill small animals. Huskies. Shiba Inus. Terriers. Sight hounds. These are not bad dogs. They are dogs doing exactly what their genetics tell them to do. No amount of training, socialization, or love reliably overrides a high predatory drive when it is triggered, and a rabbit running across a room is one of the most powerful triggers that exists.

The problem is that most dog owners don't know their dog's predatory drive until it's too late. By then, your rabbit is dead.

"They grew up together" is not a safety guarantee -

This is the argument we hear most often, and it is the one that breaks our heart most often - because it is usually true right up until the moment it isn't.

Dogs and rabbits can coexist peacefully for months, even years. And then one day something shifts: your rabbit runs, your dog's drive activates, and what happens next takes less than a second. The dog didn't become a different dog. The predatory drive was always there. It was just waiting for the right trigger.

The only scenario where "they grew up together" meaningfully can reduce risk is when the rabbit is large enough that the dog genuinely understands the rabbit as a peer rather than prey - when the dog's predatory drive is genuinely low, not just untested. We are not hypocrites about this: we have seen it work when the rabbit was bigger (and stayed bigger) than the dog, and the dynamic was built on genuine mutual respect from the start. We have also seen it fail under identical circumstances.

If your rabbit is smaller than your dog, and most rabbits are smaller than most dogs, the size differential alone creates a prey-predator dynamic that no amount of "they're best friends" can fully override.

What people don’t say outloud -

Some dog owners think it is funny to watch their dogs chase smaller animals. They share videos of it. They laugh about it. They call it playful.

It is not playful. It is a rehearsal.

Every time a dog chases a rabbit, even without catching them, the predatory sequence is reinforced. The dog is learning this is acceptable behavior. Your rabbit is experiencing a level of terror that causes measurable physiological stress, even if they appear unharmed. Chronic stress in rabbits suppresses immune function, disrupts gut motility, and shortens lifespan. A rabbit that is "just being chased" is a rabbit that is suffering.

If you think it's funny - this article is for you. Wee mean this respectfully with every ounce of directness we have.

What about cats -

Cats are a different conversation - not a safe one, but a different one.

Cats communicate dominance and submission in ways that rabbits can actually read and respond to. A cat and a rabbit can establish a social hierarchy between them in a way that a dog and a rabbit typically cannot. This makes cohabitation more feasible with cats than with most dogs, under the right conditions.

However: a cat's saliva is toxic to rabbits. A single bite, even a small one, even one that doesn't look serious, can introduce Pasteurella and other bacteria that will kill a rabbit without immediate veterinary intervention. A cat that swipes at a rabbit and breaks the skin has created a medical emergency, whether or not either animal seems distressed afterward.

If your cat and rabbit live together, you need to know this. This is not as a theoretical - knowing this fact that could save your rabbit's life.

The question we actually want you to ask yourself -

Not "do my dog and rabbit get along?" But: "If my dog's drive activated right now, what would happen?"

If you cannot answer that question with complete certainty - if there is any hesitation, any "probably fine," any "they've never had a problem before" - then your rabbit is not safe.

We know that is hard to hear. We are saying it anyway, because Serenity could not.

What we recommend -

  • High predatory drive breeds (huskies, shibas, terriers, sight hounds, herding breeds): do not house with rabbits. This is not a training problem. This is a genetics incompatability.

  • All dogs, regardless of breed: never leave unsupervised with a rabbit. Ever. Not because they've been fine before.

  • Cats: can potentially coexist with rabbits with careful introduction and ongoing supervision. Know the signs of stress in both animals. Know that any scratch or bite from a cat on a rabbit is a vet emergency.

  • If your rabbit is smaller than your dog: the risk profile increases significantly. Please take that seriously.

  • If you think your dog chasing your rabbit is funny: it is not. Please reconsider whether a rabbit is the right animal for your home.

A final note -

We won’t disclose who, but one of the BCB owners was mauled by a dog when they were 3 years old. They still have scars on their face. They still have trauma and cannot safely walk past the kennels of LBACS or LAAS without flinching every now and then.

With that being said - we are still pro-dog. We still love dogs.

But we are also very pro-rabbit. We are pro-honesty. We are done being polite about something that is getting rabbits killed.

Serenity deserved to live. So does yours.

Sources:

The Chias
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