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How to Attract Rabbits to Your Yard (and Live With Them)

Rabbits want cover first, food second. Brush piles, native grasses and a quiet corner bring them in — and the same layout keeps them out of the vegetables.

By Zakaria 4 min read Save to Pinterest — opens Pinterest in a new tab
An eastern cottontail feeding in grass among flowering white clover
Photo: Rhododendrites, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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A rabbit is a prey animal first and a herbivore second. A yard full of clover and no cover stays empty; a yard with a brush pile and a hedge line will hold rabbits on very ordinary food. Get the order right and the rest is easy.

Cover is the whole thing

Everything that eats a rabbit hunts in the open: hawks, owls, foxes, coyotes, cats. So a rabbit’s decisions are all about how far it is from somewhere to hide.

The brush pile is the single highest-value addition:

  • Base layer of larger logs or branches, criss-crossed to leave gaps underneath
  • Brush and prunings piled on top, roughly 3 feet high and 6 feet across
  • Sited against a hedge, fence line or woodland edge, never in the open
  • Left alone — the pile settles and improves over a couple of seasons

It also houses wrens, toads, beetles and overwintering queen bumblebees, so it earns its place even if no rabbit ever uses it.

Then the travel routes. Rabbits move along hedge bottoms, fence lines and shrub borders. A continuous strip of low cover from the brush pile to the feeding area matters more than adding more food — a ten-foot gap of mown lawn in the middle of that route will stop them using it.

What they actually eat

Wild rabbit diet by season
SeasonMain foods
Spring and summerClover, grasses, dandelion, plantain, chicory, vetch, young shoots
AutumnThe above, plus fallen fruit and seed heads
WinterWoody browse — bramble, sumac, willow, dogwood twigs, bark of young trees

Plant it in a block near cover. Scattered clover in the middle of a lawn is food a rabbit cannot safely reach.

Do not put food out

A wild rabbit’s gut is built for constant high-fibre grass and browse. Carrots, lettuce, fruit and commercial pellets cause real digestive upset. Worse, a feeding station concentrates animals in one spot, which is how RHDV2 and myxomatosis spread and where predators learn to wait. Grow the food instead of serving it.

What to stop doing

  • Rodenticide. It kills rabbits outright, and it kills the hawks, owls and foxes that eat poisoned animals. A rabbit corner has to be an untreated corner.
  • Broad-spectrum herbicide. Clover, dandelion and plantain are the food. “Weed and feed” removes precisely what you are trying to grow.
  • Mowing everything. A uniform short lawn is the least useful habitat you can maintain.
  • Mowing long grass in spring without checking. Cottontails nest in a shallow fur-lined scrape in long grass, not in a burrow. Walk the area first, and if you find a nest, mark it and leave a wide radius for two to three weeks.

The part that makes it sustainable

Fence the vegetables before you build the brush pile

Attracting rabbits and then discovering they eat beans is how these projects end. Do it in the right order.

One-inch mesh chicken wire, two feet high, sunk three to six inches into the soil. Cottontails dig under rather than jump over, so the buried edge is the part that matters. Two feet of height is enough.

Tree guards on young trunks from autumn to spring — winter bark stripping kills more young fruit trees than summer browsing ever does.

Rabbit-resistant planting for the ornamental beds: alliums, lavender, rosemary, sage, foxglove, euphorbia, ferns and most strongly aromatic herbs.

Living with the trade-offs

A yard with rabbits gets a working food chain — they are a keystone prey species, and hawks, owls, foxes and coyotes all benefit. Their grazing keeps grass varied, and their droppings compost well.

The honest costs are browsing damage, bark stripping and ticks. All three are manageable if the rabbits are concentrated in a corner you chose rather than spread through beds you did not.

Step by step

Time
P30D
Cost
$40
You need
Native grass and clover seed, Brush, prunings and logs for a pile, Chicken wire, for protecting the beds you care about
Tools
Loppers or a pruning saw, Rake

  1. Build a brush pile first

    Cover comes before food for a prey animal. Stack larger logs or branches as a base in a criss-cross layer, then pile brush and prunings on top to about three feet high and six across. Site it against a hedge, fence line or woodland edge rather than in the open. Rabbits will use it within days where they are already in the area.

  2. Let a corner grow long

    Stop mowing a section and let grasses, clover, plantain and dandelion come up. A rabbit will not cross a wide open lawn to feed, so long grass next to cover is worth far more than the same plants in the middle of the yard.

  3. Plant what they actually eat

    Clover and native grasses are the staples, with dandelion, plantain, chicory and vetch alongside. In winter they switch to woody browse, so native shrubs, brambles, sumac and young willow matter as much as summer greens. Plant in a block near cover rather than scattered.

  4. Give them a safe travel route

    Rabbits move along edges — hedge lines, fence bottoms, shrub borders. A continuous strip of low cover between the brush pile and the feeding area does more for rabbit use than adding more food. A gap of open lawn in the middle of that route undoes it.

  5. Stop using pesticides and rodenticides in that area

    Rodenticide kills rabbits directly and also kills the hawks, owls and foxes that eat them, and broad-spectrum herbicide removes the clover and broadleaf weeds that are the actual food. A rabbit corner needs to be an untreated corner.

  6. Fence what you do not want eaten

    This is the step that makes the rest sustainable. Put chicken wire with one-inch mesh around vegetable beds, sunk a few inches into the soil and standing two feet high, and use tree guards on young trunks over winter. Attracting rabbits to a corner only works if the vegetables are genuinely protected.

Common questions

How do I attract rabbits to my yard?

Give them cover before food. Build a brush pile against a hedge or fence line, let a corner of lawn grow into long grass and clover, and connect the two with a continuous strip of low cover so they never have to cross open ground. Then plant clover, native grasses, dandelion and plantain near that cover, and stop using pesticides and rodenticides in the area. Rabbits are prey animals, so a yard with food and no shelter stays empty.

What food attracts rabbits?

Clover above all, plus native grasses, dandelion, plantain, chicory and vetch through the growing season, and woody browse such as bramble, sumac, willow and young fruit-tree bark in winter. Put it next to cover rather than in the middle of the lawn. Do not put out carrots, lettuce or commercial rabbit pellets — sudden rich food upsets a wild rabbit's gut, and a feeding station concentrates animals where predators and disease find them.

Should I feed wild rabbits?

No. Their digestive system is built for a constant high-fibre intake of grass and browse, and rich vegetables or pellets cause serious digestive upset. Feeding also concentrates rabbits unnaturally, which spreads disease such as RHDV2 and myxomatosis and makes them easy for predators, and it habituates them to people. Growing the right plants achieves the same thing safely.

How do I keep rabbits out of the vegetable garden while attracting them elsewhere?

Fence the vegetables properly and give the rabbits somewhere better to be. One-inch chicken wire, two feet high, sunk three to six inches into the soil, stops cottontails reliably — they dig under rather than jump over. Tree guards protect young trunks from winter bark stripping. With a brush pile and a clover patch at the far end of the yard, the fenced beds stop being the most attractive food available.

Is it good to have rabbits in the yard?

For a wildlife garden, yes. Rabbits are a keystone prey species supporting hawks, owls, foxes and coyotes, their grazing keeps grass short and varied, and their droppings are a mild fertiliser you can compost. The trade-offs are real though: browsing damage to vegetables and ornamentals, bark stripping on young trees in winter, and ticks. Attract them to a corner rather than to the whole garden.

What is the difference between a rabbit and a hare in the yard?

Rabbits are smaller with shorter ears and legs, live in or near dense cover, and are born blind and hairless in a shallow nest. Hares are larger and long-legged, live in the open, and their young are born fully furred and active. Almost every backyard animal in North America is a cottontail rabbit, which nests in a shallow fur-lined scrape in long grass — one reason to check before mowing in spring.

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