Average age
2 yr 11 mo
- Average age of a rescue rabbit: 2 yr 11 mo
- Pet-shop rabbits: usually under 12 weeks
Rescue rabbits are mostly grown-ups, so the personality you meet is the one you take home.
Rescue rabbits by the numbers
Updated:
Every day, Rescue Rabbit Finder reads the listings of rescue centres across the UK. Here’s what those listings told us about the rabbits looking for a home.
Average time in rescue
2.3 months
About 10 weeks from arriving at a rescue to heading home. It’s an average, so some rabbits wait far longer.
Adopted within 30 days
44%
Of every 25 rabbits listed on a typical day, about 11 have found a home within a month. The rest are still waiting for the right one.
Neutered
91%
Vaccinated
90%
Most rescue rabbits go home already neutered and vaccinated, which are usually covered by the adoption fee, while a shop bought rabbit lacks both.
Bucks and does
56% bucks44% does
Slightly more boys than girls — about five bucks for every four does.
Adopted
Bought
~1,700–2,700
~2,200–3,500
Rabbits adopted from UK rescue centres every month (our estimate*)
Rabbits bought from UK pet shops and garden centres every month (our estimate*)
= 100 rabbits= upper end of the estimate
For every 10 rabbits adopted from a rescue, about 13 are bought from a pet shop.
Note: not every UK rescue appears on Rescue Rabbit Finder — many rescues don’t list their rabbits online, or only share them on social media. The rescue centres we do list recorded 234 adoptions in August 2026.
About these figures
- All rescue figures cover August 2026 and come only from the rescue centres listed on this site. Averages are weighted by the number of days each rabbit was listed.
- * UK-wide estimates. No official figures are published for pet-shop rabbit sales or for rescue adoptions across the UK, so we estimate both the same way. There are about 700,000 pet rabbits in the UK; 26% of owners got theirs from a pet shop or garden centre and 20% from a rescue or rehoming centre (PDSA PAW Report 2025). Although rabbits can live 8–12 years, vet records show UK pet rabbits most often die between 4.3 and 7 years old (VetCompass, Veterinary Record 2020). If every new rabbit replaces one that has died, that is roughly 1,700–2,700 rescue adoptions and 2,200–3,500 pet-shop sales a month — a sense of scale, not a count.