Domestic rabbits often lead miserable, disease-ridden lives because their owners wrongly believe they need minimal care and handling, a new study has shown.

Researchers at the Royal Veterinary College collected data from 6,349 rabbits that attended 107 veterinary care clinics across the UK.

They found that the most common cause of death, recorded by vets, are flystrike, with 10.9 per cent of pet rabbits dying this way.

A further 4.9 per cent died of anorexia, 4.9 per cent of collapse and 4.3 per cent of and gut stasis.

The VetCompass study also revealed the average lifespan of pet rabbits was just 4.3 years, although survival up to 14.4 years has been recorded.

Male rabbits tend to live longer at 5.2 years on average compared to the 3.7 years females live on average but males are more likely to have overgrown claws, overgrown molars, overgrown incisors and dental disease.

The majority of health problems, said the study, were due to inappropriate housing or feeding.

However, evolution has meant rabbits can disguise external signs of disease so that they are less likely to be targeted by predators but this also makes it harder for owners to spot that their rabbit is ill until it is often too late.