Background Confinement inside a restricted space causing movement restriction is a stressful condition, potentially leading to spontaneous changes of respiratory parameters that are expected to return to normal values as the stress subsides. Barometric plethysmography is a non-invasive method to study surrogates of pulmonary mechanics in conscious animals enclosed into a plexiglass chamber. This chamber greatly restricts the animal movements but does not cause its immobilization. Methods Respiratory parameters from six rabbits were recorded during 90 min/day for 5 days while the animal was confined inside a plethysmographic chamber. Modifications of respiratory parameters were evaluated by dividing the total length of the recording in three 30-min periods. Results During the 90-min recording, enhanced pause (Penh, a lung resistance surrogate) showed a decreasing trend, coinciding with a decline of the mid-expiratory flow (an airway obstruction surrogate), and time of braking (an end-inspiratory glottis closure surrogate). Respiratory frequency increased from 346 to 363 breaths/min, coinciding with a progressive decline of tidal volume and minute ventilation. Because rabbit responses to stressful situations are predominantly parasympathetic in nature, an increased parasympathetic tone during the first minutes of confinement might explain the initially augmented lung, airways and glottis resistances, and these, in turn, could be responsible for the low initial respiratory frequency. Subsequent changes of these variables probably reflect progressively lower level of stress due to adaptation to the new environment. This pattern did not change in the 5 days studied. Conclusions We concluded that respiratory parameters in rabbits display subtle changes during the first 90 min of movement restriction, probably driven by an initially augmented parasympathetic tone due to stress, with subsequent normalization as stress diminished due to adaptation to the new environment.