Space comes first, and a hutch alone is not space
The biggest pre-arrival purchase is room to move. A rabbit needs a permanent base it can stretch fully in, hop several strides across, and stand up in without touching the top, attached to daily exercise space - most house-rabbit owners use a metal exercise pen around a litter and hay area, or fence off a rabbit-proofed room corner. A traditional small hutch by itself, however charming, confines an animal built for running and leads quickly to boredom behaviours like bar chewing and thumping through the night. Buy the pen, a non-slip mat or washable rug for flooring since rabbits slip on laminate and can injure a leg, and a large hideout or cardboard castle where the rabbit can retreat. Position the base somewhere sociable but not chaotic, because rabbits are social animals who settle best where they can watch household life from safety.
Hay, litter, and the feeding kit
Hay is the purchase you will repeat forever, so start with plenty: a rabbit's diet is mostly grass hay, available without limit at all hours for both digestion and tooth wear, served in or beside the litter tray because rabbits like to graze while they toilet. Buy a generously sized litter tray - a low-sided storage box often beats a small corner tray - and unscented paper-based litter, never clumping cat litter, which is dangerous if eaten. Add a sturdy hay rack or simply a cardboard box to keep hay clean above the bedding. For feeding, choose a heavy ceramic water bowl, which most rabbits drink more naturally from than a bottle, a second bowl for a measured portion of plain rabbit pellets, and a starter supply of leafy greens to introduce gradually once the rabbit is settled. Buy the same hay and pellets the rescue or breeder uses for the first week to avoid a digestive upset during the move.
Rabbit-proofing is a purchase, not an afterthought
Before arrival day, walk the exercise room at rabbit height and buy what the audit demands: split-loom tubing or hard covers for every cable within reach, guards for skirting boards if your rabbit turns out to be a chewer, a baby gate for doorways, and covers or relocation for houseplants, since many common plants are unsafe for rabbits to eat. Stock a box of sacrificial chewing material - plain cardboard boxes, apple wood sticks, woven grass mats - so the rabbit's constant need to gnaw lands on your supplies rather than your furniture. A soft brush, nail clippers made for small animals, and a pet carrier lined with hay for the journey home and future vet trips round out the list. Skipping the proofing shop is the false economy almost every new rabbit owner regrets.
The first days in a prepared home
Set the pen up completely - litter tray in a corner, hay piled in, water filled, hideout ready - before the rabbit travels home, then let the rabbit enter the pen from the carrier at its own pace and spend the first day mostly watching. Rabbits mark a new space with chin rubbing and droppings as they claim it, and they usually choose one litter corner within a day or two; move the tray to their chosen corner rather than fighting it. Keep handling low-key until the rabbit approaches you on the floor at its level. The daily rhythm of hay, greens, litter, and exercise is substantial, and KinsLe Care Teams helps a household divide those rabbit duties between named people, each finished task timestamped, so the rabbit's hay never depends on one person remembering.