Champagne d'Argent rabbit housing setup

Getting a Champagne d'Argent's enclosure right from the start is exactly the right instinct — these are large, active rabbits and poor housing is one of the most common welfare mistakes new owners make. Most hutches sold in pet shops are far too small: rabbits need enough room to do at least three full hops, stand completely upright on their hind legs, and have clearly separate areas for sleeping and toileting. Before I point you in the right direction, a few quick questions: are you planning to keep your rabbit indoors or outdoors, is it just the one rabbit, and roughly how much floor space do you have available for the enclosure?

That's a great setup to work with. For a single indoor Champagne d'Argent, you want a minimum footprint of around 3m x 2m when you combine the living area and an attached run — Champagne d'Argents are a larger breed, typically 4–5kg, so they need more space than people expect. What I'd recommend is a large modular C&C (cube and coroplast) pen rather than a traditional hutch. The Kavee 6x4 C&C Guinea Pig and Rabbit Cage is a solid, well-reviewed option on Amazon UK — it's spacious, fully configurable, easy to clean, and the coroplast base keeps mess contained without being a sealed box. You can expand it later if needed. Have you already thought about litter training and what you'll use for bedding and enrichment inside the space?

Hay is genuinely the most important thing — it should make up about 80% of the diet and also acts as bedding, so you're on the right track there. A cardboard box works fine as a hide and rabbits enjoy shredding it, which is good enrichment. But you'll also want a proper litter tray in one corner, because Champagne d'Argents are quite intelligent and litter train reasonably easily — this keeps the rest of the space cleaner and makes your life much easier. Fill the litter tray with paper-based pellet litter like Breeder Celect, then pile hay on top of it so they're eating while they toilet, which is natural behaviour. Add a second level or a tunnel if space allows — vertical enrichment matters. Does your rabbit arrive as a kit or is it already a young adult?

Perfect timing — you've got enough runway to get everything set up properly before the rabbit arrives. At 10 weeks you can start with a slightly smaller sectioned-off area within the pen so the space doesn't feel overwhelming, then gradually open it up over a few weeks as they settle in. One thing to sort before arrival: rabbit-proof the room at floor level even if the pen is contained, because they will eventually get supervised free-roaming time and cables are a serious hazard. The Kavee pen setup I mentioned will give you a genuinely good foundation — it's a one-time investment that's far better value than buying an undersized hutch and having to replace it in six months.