Teaching a rabbit to come when called

[Cherryminx]

I'm interested in getting rabbits.

We've got quite a big garden so plenty of room to have a quite big run but I would really like them to be able to go out and explore (supervised) rather than stuck in a cage all the time.

However our garden doesn't have rabbit proof fences and is too large/ awkward for us to be able to do this. I've been to other people's houses where the rabbit is just running around in the garden and comes when called.

Is this an easy thing to teach a rabbit to do? Would it be reliable/ safe?

my late bunny would come when called, if I was waving a digestive biscuit at her .

The idea of a free range rabbit is ideal but IRL as you say they need to be protected against predators.

If you have a big enough garden, do runs and tunnels inter linking. You could look on the Run Around website for inspiration

Tunnels can be coovered to make them like burrows. The corner boxes (junctions) can be covered if you want.
High "Binky Boxes" give them headroom to leap.

Wild rabbits run 5 miles a day. But you're not keeping wild rabbits. Domestic animals trade in a part of their 'wild' when they have the security of protection.

You could get a shed rather than a hutch to give more room.
And most animals thrive on routine so you might (might) find they'll automatically tootle over to you if they associate you+ treats+going to their home.

I have trained my rabbits at all, but I can't stop the little horrors from almost tripping me up any time I go near them. The 'trick'? Food. They know I'm probably going to feed them. Or that I have something interesting for them. If you feed them and get them in at the same time each day/evening and feed them their pellets/greens then, they'll learn to come.

Free ranging in an insecure garden is a very quick way to lose them though and I wouldn't suggest it. I don't let mine free range at all, as we have brazen foxes about and even if I'm in the garden it would take two seconds to nip over the fence/hedge. We have a large kennel/run attached to a large aviary using a runaround pipe.