Bilbies live in a variety of mainly dry habitats, including woodland, savannah, shrub grassland, and sparsely vegetated desert. Their distribution seems to have been associated with the presence of suitable soils for burrowing. Unlike the peramelid bandicoots, bilbies are powerful diggers and live mainly in burrows of their own making. An area occupied by the latter species had 58 burrows, none more than 168 meters from any other. It seems likely that each animal has a number of burrows within its range.
Bilbies are nocturnal and terrestrial.
They are largely carnivorous, taking mainly insects but also small vertebrates and some vegetable matter. Conical scratching in the earth around trees and bushes gives evidence of their foraging for subterranean insect larvae. Raw or cooked meat, insects, snails, birds, mice, bread, and cake are readily accepted by captives, but roots and fruit usually are rejected. These bandicoots are solitary. In the wild, the breeding season appears to be from March to May and litter size usually is one to three.