How to become BFF with all the fluffers — a guide to befriending rabbits in The Sims 4 Cottage Living

My heart melted the moment I saw you could befriend rabbits in Cottage Living, the latest expansion for The Sims 4. I made it my mission to discover everything there was to know about them as soon as I got my hands on it. Below is some useful information I’ve discovered while playing on how to become besties with all the rabbits!

How to locate rabbits:

Chances are high for you to have a wild rabbit visit your property if you’re playing in Henford-on-Bagley, the new world that comes with Cottage Living. If they don’t, you can look for tree stumps in the wild on the map and try to use the “Lure Out Rabbits” interaction. If it’s grayed out, that means there are no rabbits in the stump at the time.

The best place to try to look for them is in the Isle of Volpe Park, located in the Bramblewood section of the Henford-on-Bagley map. There are several tree stumps scattered throughout this location. I’ve not had luck getting a rabbit to come out at night, and if you see Zzz’s coming from the tree stump they are sleeping and won’t come out.

How to become besties with your bunny:

Once you’ve found a wild rabbit, the next task is befriending them. Every wild rabbit will like and dislike different things, and the only way to find out is by trying to use different interactions on them.

If you’ve taken the Animal Enthusiast Trait and have the Country Caretaker Aspiration that are new with Cottage Living, you’ll have an easier time befriending animals and you’ll also have some extra interactions with wild animals that other Sims don’t, such as showing them your dance moves. Sadly the only animal that appreciates my dance moves is my goofy llama; my rabbits all hate them!

If you’re having a hard time pleasing your new fluffy friend, it might be best to “Admire Wild Rabbit”, which will have your Sim simply look from a distance. Some rabbits are really shy, but usually warm up to you if you do this action a few times.

You can also give your rabbits gifts, and once they like you they will give you gifts in return. I’ve gotten several cross-stitch patterns from my rabbit friends, some fruits, and even lactose-free milk. Just like interactions, each rabbit will have different gifts they like and dislike, but I’ve yet to find one who doesn’t like carrots!

Positive interactions with your rabbits will give your Sims various positive moodlets, while negative ones will obviously give your sim negative moodlets. My Sim has even become terrified after being bitten by a rabbit.

Don’t push a hesitant rabbit too far. If you get several negative interactions in a row, it might be best to leave it alone for the time being. I have not had it happen in my particular game, but I do know that rabbits can and will attack your Sim, and can potentially kill your Sim if pushed too far.

Once you have befriended a wild rabbit, you can place a Wild Rabbit Home onto your own property. You can find it in the store, under the gardening section. You may also choose to set your own name for your new friend.

Dressing your fluffers up:

The most adorable thing about Cottage Living is the fact you can dress the animals up. There are a few ways to go about getting clothing for your new rabbit bestie. Once you locate Michael Bell, the Creature Keeper of Henford-on-Bagley, he will sell you a variety of clothing, and his selections will rotate daily. You can normally find him hanging out at his cottage in Bramblewood, but once you’re friends with him you can just call him to come to your house.

You can also give Michael Bell items and he can craft clothing for you. He’ll send the newly crafted clothing via the mailbox in a day or two.

The other way to obtain clothing for your animal friends is by helping Michael Bell with his errands. This is a quest feature with Cottage Living where you can interact with a handful of important townsfolk to get the “Offer Help With Errands” social. You can have up to three quests at a time, and normally at least one of them will reward you with animal clothing.

I personally think we could take it one step further and implement the ability to knit clothes for our animals if the Nifty Knitting pack is owned, but alas these are our only options for now.

Help with gardening:

Once you get to a certain level of friendship with your rabbit, you will see “Ask For Gardening Help” appear when you interact with them. Since Cottage Living also introduced a bunch of new seeds and oversized crops, it’s likely you’ll be spending a lot of time in your garden, and your new bestie would love to help you! Rabbits will keep weeds in check and also “fertilize” your crops to keep things nice and healthy.

Keeping your cottontails safe:

Wild foxes are also part of Cottage Living, and there is a new Lot Challenge called…wait for it…Wild Foxes which, if enabled, allows said foxes to come onto your property. While you can befriend these foxes, I’ve found them to be more trouble than they are worth. They constantly steal eggs from my chicken coops, and where I drew the line is when I saw one attack my rabbit. They can apparently kill your rabbits, and while I think the foxes are super cute, I disabled the lot trait because I find the rabbits gardening help very beneficial, and I love my little fluffers way too much to see them get mauled to death by a fox.

If you’d like to enable or disable the Wild Foxes Lot Trait you can go into Build Mode, in the upper left corner hit the house icon, then the question mark to open the Traits Panel. Wild Foxes will be at the very bottom.

Animal Enthusiast Trait along with the Country Caretaker Aspiration and how it can help:

The final thing I’d like to talk about is the Animal Enthusiast Trait and the Country Caretaker Aspiration which are both new with Cottage Living. If you take both of these, your Sim will breeze through becoming friends with not only rabbits, but also the cows, llamas, birds, and foxes that come with the expansion.

Completing the Country Caretaker Aspiration isn’t hard to do, and you are rewarded with “Nature Conversationalist” which has many benefits. Not only will you befriend animals easier, but they will live longer, happier lives. They will bring you better gifts, and more frequently. You also get new interactions with your crops and plants, and yield bigger harvests. And, if you live on the Henford-on-Bagley map you’ll get a discount on grocery delivery and a discount on your bills!

I highly recommend taking advantage of these two perks if you want to become the ultimate bunny bestie and live your best farm life.

Final Thoughts:

You can read my full review of Cottage Living on Gaming Trend’s website, but this expansion has been such a breath of fresh air for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed befriending and caring for not only my little rabbit friends, but all of the farm animals. The Henford-on-Bagley map is gorgeous and I’ve had a lot of fun doing all the NPC quests.

You can pick up The Sims 4 Cottage Living, which is currently selling for $39.99. Let us know what part of the expansion you’ve loved most, and stay tuned for more coverage!

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