If you are a first time rabbit owner you may want to know the best way to know just how old your rabbit is and how you can effectively track their age as the years pass.
Well, after years of raising rabbits ourselves and working alongside our local veterinarian, the truth of the matter is that without yearly records from birth it is almost impossible to know a mature rabbit’s exact age.
But when your bunny is still quite young there are specific developmental milestones that make it easy to tell how old a rabbit is.
Bunny Age Stages
The only time you can truly determine the age of a bunny with accuracy is before they reach 1 year old.
Overall, the younger the rabbit is the more accurate you can be in determining their age, especially for baby rabbits.
| Recognizing Age of Baby Rabbits | |
| 0-7 days | Low mobility, no fur, with skin covering the eyes. |
| 7-14 | Short fine coat of fur, potentially open eyes, sloppy movements inside the nest. |
| 2-3 weeks | Longer, soft coat of fur, open eyes, moving around in the nest actively. |
And after your rabbit reaches 3 weeks to 1 month of age, the following distinct life cycle stages can be key to determining the age of your bunny.
4 Stages of Rabbit Life Cycle
Stage 1: Newborn
Newborn rabbits are born in their mother’s nest hairless, deaf and blind.
These little one’s will stay within the nest for the first 2-3 weeks and only venture out once they are quite mobile, with a soft coat of fur and wide open ears and eyes.
Stage 2: Immature Adolescent
An immature adolescent rabbit from 1 to 4 months of age will have a soft, downy baby coat of fur and will be eating hay and gradually nibbling more and more at other rabbit foods such as high quality rabbit pellets.
Immature bunnies at this time are also gaining lots of healthy weight and growing quickly day to day.
Note: quickly maturing bunnies will have begun to shed their first coat of fuzzy baby fur and will have a more coarse coat around 4 months.
Stage 3: Sexual Maturity
At around 4-6 months almost all rabbits breeds reach sexual maturity.
This looks like the development of female rabbits’ dewlap (fat band under their chin) and the dropping of males’ testicles.
Sexually mature rabbits will also start to exhibit certain behaviors such as urine spraying and increased territorial behavior.
Stage 4: Adult
A fully matured, adult rabbit has arrived at their adult weight and is not noticeably growing anymore.
This includes being fully grown into their body features, for example:
- their heads do not seem a bit small for their eyes or ears
- they have no signs of soft, wispy baby fur
And as time passes their nails will become thicker and more yellow in color and their hocks may become slightly worn and, eventually, they may demonstrate some gray hairs around their face, legs, and hind end.
Note: Not all rabbits will look the same at the same age; this is completely normal! Each individual rabbit will reach their full size and mature uniquely, which is why it can be very helpful to ask your local vet to help you determine the age of your adult rabbit.
Our Thoughts On A Rabbit Age Size Chart
We haven’t found rabbit age size charts to be very helpful when thinking about the age of our rabbits.
This is because, as stated, each breed and each individual rabbit is a little different when it comes to growth, development, and overall adult size.
What can be helpful is to know the maximum and average adult size of the breed of rabbit that you have.
In that way, you can estimate if your rabbit has finished growing and can see if it exhibits all the features of an adult of its breed. This in turn can help you determine an age-range.
Frequently Asked Questions Related To How Can You Tell How Old A Rabbit Is
How To Tell The Age of A Wild Rabbit?
Unless a wild rabbit is a baby or immature adolescent, determining its age requires the same guesswork of telling the age of an adult domestic rabbit.
How Old Is My Rabbit In Human Years?
Rabbits mature at a much faster rate than humans, and a 1 year old bunny that is just about fully grown and sexually mature is equivalent to about a 20 year old human.
For more tips on how to tell how old your rabbit is, check out this great video!
Final Thoughts On How Can You Tell How Old A Rabbit Is
The key to telling how old your rabbit is keeping a record of their age since birth.
If this is not possible we suggest bringing your new or adopted rabbit to your local vet to receive assistance in determining as accurately as possible the age of your bunny!