|
  |
|
|
How to House your Rabbit
An important thing to know
about rabbits is that they can't stand heat. Too much will
kill them. Rabbits like some sunlight as long as they don't
get too hot. If you get into terribly hot "dog days" in July
or August, take your hose and soak the roof of the rabbit
hutch a couple times each afternoon. During the hottest
weather, make sure your rabbits always have plenty of
water, but feed them only a little during the day, mostly at
night. It will help if you set the hutch under a big tree or
where a large building will shade it from afternoon sunlight.
If you haven't taken these precautions against overheating,
you can lose a batch of very nice rabbits real fast. When
they die of heat, they look fine in the morning and in the
evening when you look again, they are dead. I've had that
happen to me.
PREDATOR PROTECTION: The biggest danger to your
rabbits, however, is not temperature or disease, but predators.
Rabbits have long done service fairly low on the food
chain, and the predators around you instinctively know
that. You have to consciously and carefully and diligently
protect your rabbits from carnivores, whether you live in
town or country. Predator protection starts with the good
fence around the place where your hutches are, whether
yard, garage, or outbuilding.
The common predators are dogs and cats, both wild
and tame, as well as big birds of prey, coyotes, and wildcats.
Wandering dogs may actually rip at cages trying to get a
rabbit, or bite the feet of young bunnies if they step through
the rabbit wire flooring the cage. Dogs have even managed
to bite through wire net and kill a rabbit. Even if they can't
get at a rabbit in a well-built cage, the scare from the dog
trying could cause a doe to kill her babies. Children have to
be viewed as possible predators, too. Like the dog, they
may upset a new mother and cause cannibalism, or leave a
cage door open, or feed a poisonous plant.
HOUSE RABBITS: Rabbits can be litter-box trained!
Rabbits have dwelt in houses, apartments, condos—even
(secretly, of course) in college dorms. Some house rabbits
are kept caged. Others run free, at least in 1 room—when
not confined to a paper-lined cage/house on the deck or
some such. The biggest problem with house rabbits is that
you have to be careful about taking them outdoors, since
they're accustomed to house temperature and comfort.
They are more likely to get sick if moved outdoors than an
outdoor-raised rabbit would be. To housebreak, just keep
papers down where you want the rabbit to potty. The first
time, it helps to demonstrate by putting some rabbit feces
and urine on the paper. Your rabbit has an instinct to use
the same place over and over as its toilet.
RABBIT RUNS: I got a letter from a lady who has about
80 rabbits living in her garage. The garage has a dirt floor.
That living arrangement is called a "rabbit run." Most rabbit
runs include an outside, fenced area. Advantages of a rabbit
run are low stress, potentially less feeding, better meat because
of exercise, better pelts from colder air, and healthier
rabbits in that fresh-air environment. The very natural setting
for the rabbits reduces their stress. They need less feed
because they will eat some grass or whatever good forage is
growing in their area. The disadvantages are that they're
harder to catch, less likely to act like pets, and harder to
keep breeding records on.
Rabbits are communal by nature and not inclined to
fight much. People have had up to 100 of them in this
arrangement without losing more than 2 or 3 to fights.
The letter-writer said most of her does run loose on the
floor, and each time they kindle they get a burrow in the
dirt ready. Her system of raising the rabbits in an enclosed
building is one sort of rabbit run. This housing plan has
been around since the time of the ancient Romans, who
kept rabbits in walled gardens, and the long-ago Chinese,
who kept rabbits in grassy, fenced areas. How high a wall?
Might surprise you. Rabbits can sometimes jump a 3-foot
fence if they take the notion, so a 4-, 5-, or even 6-foot
fence would be better.
The top can be either open or roofed. Rabbits in the
open will become alert to predatory birds and develop
places to hide. Or you can put a roof on. One modern variation
is a fenced pit with loose hay for bedding and a plastic
roof overhead to keep off rain. A variation on this system
has breeding stock in cages only a foot above ground level,
and the weaned offspring of the caged does running about
in the fenced compound below. Besides a wall or fence that
goes enough below ground level that rabbits won't burrow
under, you need a door to get yourself in and out, and water,
food, and bedding for the rabbits. To catch rabbits in a
run, regularly feed them in the same corner. Then when
you want to catch them, have somebody hold a solid gate
across from side to side of the corner behind them. Inside
that small space it will be easy to catch rabbits.
Flooring for Rabbit Runs. The rabbits will be happy in
any building if you don't mind the floor being covered with
manure. You can keep them in a floor run or in wood
hutches, or metal cages in a garage, shed, or any outbuilding.
A very good floor management system is to place
plenty of organic bedding such as straw under the cages
to collect the urine for your garden. Once in a while you'll
have to shovel out that soiled bedding. If the floor is cement,
you can then wash it after shoveling out. Rabbit
hutches on wood floors eventually rot the floor. You can delay
that by laying heavy plastic over the floor. Extend it so
the plastic goes up part way on the side walls. But better
flooring for rabbits in or out of cages is dry dirt. Or best of
all, put them on pasture!
Portable Pasture Runs. This may well be the ideal way to
manage rabbits in any season when you have green things
growing. The cage looks like a long A-frame.
It has a solid wooden shelter at one end to protect from bad weather. The
remaining sides are wire and let in sunshine, which, incidentally,
rabbits need to be healthy. There is no floor to the
cage. You place it over the green growing stuff, the day's
grazing for your bunnies. This way you won't need to feed
them as much other food.
|
Contributor's Note
This intel reflects only one of my activities. I also write about and/or have websites on Vespa Scooters, Lambretta Scooters, Hardy Banana plants, Medical memorabilia, reborn baby dolls and much more. Hope you enjoyed the read, Philip Davey
|
|
|
 |
|
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
No reactions yet.
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
Please login or sign up to add a comment.
The copyright for this content entitled "How to House your Rabbit" has been specified by the contributor as:
All Rights Reserved
This content may not be copied, distributed or adapted by anyone under any circumstances.
|
|
|
This intel was contributed by Phildave
Phildave
|
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
