Spring time pens (input encouraged)

[M_MULLINS]

I have 2 seven month old broken castor mini Rex bucks and a 5 month old small breed (not sure which one exactly) doe (again not 100% on this one but I haven't seen the tell take signs "it's" a buck) that belong to my kids. Right not I'm sharing my room with them and their cages. I've been reading up on rabbits a lot in the past couple months and I've decided I want to build each of them their own pen in the spring, similar to a dog kennel. The main reasoning behind this is:
1. It didn't take long to realize how active...and loud they are at night.
2. While I do let them out as much as possible, I want them to have as much room as possible to run around ect, I don't want them getting lazy and obese.
3. There's only so many toys and other enrichment I can put in the cages they're in now.
The bottom line is I want them to be physically fit, mentally fit, and I want to be able to sleep haha.
I plan on using pressure treated lumber for the framing and the floor, chicken wire or hardware cloth attached to the walls. I plan on building hides for them do they have refuge when it's too hot, raining, or too cold. I'm also gonna put gasps and padlocks on each cage so no other animals or people can get in them and make off with my kids pets. I decided not to take the hutch route because I personally haven't seen one that's any bigger than the cages their in now. Any suggestion, personal experience/issues, and tips would be greatly appreciated and welcomed. Thanks.

 

[Imbrium]

Yeah, no one ever warns you that bunnies tend to confuse "diurnal" with "nocturnal" and, as a result, can make an absurd racket in the middle of the night ><

First of all, I'm glad you're planning this for spring when the weather is mild and they'll have time to grow coats appropriate for the harsher seasons

A hutch isn't necessarily a bad thing, but yes, the pre-made ones are all pretty small - I always advocate having an adjacent run area and making it possible for the bunns to go in and out. Having a hutch isn't necessary as long as they've got some sort of hiding area (I recommend having it raised off the ground at least a little bit though, so that the bottom isn't soaking up rain water and won't ever let water into the hutch. Depending on your winter temps, it may be necessary to be able to lock them up in the hide area or hutch at night to insulate them if they can't be moved into a heated barn/shed/garage or brought into a cooler room of the house. Bunnies fare very well in cold temperatures but are susceptible to drafts/winds. Don't forget to consider strong winds and diagonal rainfall when designing the hide area!

One thing you didn't mention was digging-prevention - you'll want to make sure you do something to prevent them from digging their way out under the sides of the run! I'm not sure what works best, though, as my bunnies are kept indoors - it gets WAY too hot here in the summers (highs are routinely 100-110F) for me to consider outdoor bunns. One possible option, though, would be to use the same chicken wire or hardware cloth to line the bottom of the run and then covering it up with a few inches of dirt... though obviously you'd need to prepare pretty early if you wanted to plant grass and have it well-rooted and growing strong by the time you moved the bunnies in.

Here's a youtube video of a great outdoor setup... it's by someone in the UK, so it's focused on keeping bunns warm in the winter, but it still might give you some ideas:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXKe5tuw47A[/ame]

The creator of that video is very active on Yahoo Answers when it comes to bunny questions (or at least was back when I was on there answering bunny questions constantly) - she's exceptionally knowledgeable about pet bunny care . I always get a kick out of her referring to her rabbits as "troublemaker 1 and troublemaker 2".

 

[majorv]

Don't use pressure treated lumber. It has chemicals in it that will harm your rabbits. Ours was made from pine, because rabbits will knaw on the wood if they can get to it. If you put a roof of some type on it then the wood, for the most part, will not get wet when it rains.

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

I think I read that they can chew through chicken wire. It needs to be a really heavy duty wire, like a stucco mesh or something similar if you're going that route. Unless there is heavy duty chicken wire that I'm not aware of.

 

[missyscove]

Yeah, no one ever warns you that bunnies tend to confuse "diurnal" with "nocturnal" and, as a result, can make an absurd racket in the middle of the night ><

Actually rabbits are considered crepuscular which means they're most active at dusk and dawn. Unfortunately many humans don't want to wake up at dawn when their bunnies do.

I've definitely heard of rabbits chewing through chicken wire and you'll want to make sure that they can't dig out and nothing else can dig in.

Have you considered spaying and neutering them and bonding them to eachother? Most rabbits really do enjoy the company of other rabbits and if they're being moved out of a room where they're probably used to social interaction from humans, it would be nice for them to have eachother to hang out with. Plus, I always say that even if I could never touch my rabbits again they'd be worth it just to watch them cuddle eachother.

 

[Imbrium]

Bah, silly brain! I knew darn well they're crepuscular, but my brain pulled out the wrong word >.>

The point I was trying to get at still stands, though - 12-3 am is NOT dusk or dawn or anywhere remotely close to either at ANY point during the year for my geographic location... yet my silly bunnies will be bouncing off the walls at those hours more often than not! They definitely spend most of the day snoozing, too (though that's normal for both crepuscular and nocturnal creatures).

 

[ladysown]

go to your local tractor supply for good solid wiring or order it from a rabbit supply company. You NEED to use GOOD wire not cheap chicken or hardware cloth THOUGH some of the rabbit proof fencing they sell at Canadian tire (or the like where you live) is pretty good.

I don't know what you have in the way of predators but you need to consider... can a snake or rat get in? Can a coon or possum stretch a arm through to reach the buns? Now mind.. for the later two a good hidey hole is usually sufficient. But consider also weasels and their ilk. Is your backyard fully fenced to keep wayward dogs out?

Rabbits don't need as much protection from the elements as folks are often let to believe. As long as they have plenty of hidey holes, dry food and adequate water they will thrive outside. If you neuter everyone you may be able to colony them, just make sure you have plenty of hidey holes scattered everywhere.

If you want to allow digging, put something solid in the middle of the pen and find a way to reinforce it to prevent tunnels collapsing. Rabbits like to tunnel under something big or solid. Find a way to prevent digging next to the walls of the kennel/enclosure.

don't plan on any greenery growing. won't take long for the rabbits to decimate anything growing in the area unless you rotate the sections they are allowed on.

what will you do for minimizing/controlling parasites?

plenty here to think on... go at 'er.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

When we built my dad's chicken coop we double walled the wire out and in. Used a heavy guage 2" by 4" mesh and put heavy guage hardware cloth under it. Did it the same on the inside too so that if a predator could get thru the first layer they still had a second one to deal with. Also used three locks and 4 hinges on the door and a sliding bolt at top and bottom so there was no flex at all. Lumber, used kiln dried pine and overlapped the roof with galavinized tin. Foxes and skunks tried to get in but never did.

 

[M_MULLINS]

I think I'll go with heavy wire for the bottom, when I created this post I was thinking of a raised own for some reason which is why I said wood floor.
I have considered having them fixed, when my kids have them all out at once one of the bucks wants to do nothing but what rabbits so best, and oddly enough it's his brother 99% of the time.
I live in city limits so the big issue predator wise are coons, possums, and dogs but my backyard is completely fenced in.
I have a tiz whiz which is pretty much the same as TSC less than a mile away so I'll look and see what they have wire wise. I've gotta go get feed for them next week anyway.

I think I touched on all the questions asked....I had a very busy day so I wasn't able to reply to every comment individually.

 

[Imbrium]

Females reach sexual maturity at 4-6 months of age, so at this point it's no longer safe to have them all playing together - rabbits are induced ovulators (ie they ovulate as a response to having sex) and, while they do have high and low fertility times (seems to peak every 4-6 days, from what I've read), they can get pregnant at almost any time. During low fertility times, the buck will still want to mate but the female often refuses and a nasty fight can ensue. Because she's still growing at 5 months old, (assuming she's a she) pregnancy would be more dangerous than it is for an adult (more strain on her growing body, much higher risk of a kit getting stuck (which is potentially fatal), etc.).

Females really *need* to be spayed for medical reasons if they're not part of a breeding program because of their proclivity for cancers of the reproductive system - unspayed females live, on average, HALF as long as spayed females. If you're only able to get one of the three fixed, it should definitely be the doe. (By five months old, if you're not seeing testicles, you can be 95% sure it's a female as a male should be mature... the exception is that I've heard it's possible for a male to suck them back into his body when you go to look for them . For a more scientific way to determine gender, you can check out this site.)

The same isn't true of males because their reproductive system isn't constantly on "overdrive" the way a female rabbit's is, so neutering a solo male rabbit is pretty much a matter of whether or not you find their hormonal behaviors tolerable (some rabbits are far more obnoxious than others; bucks can spray pee 6+ feet in the air and some like to aim for faces). However, in order for it to be truly safe for a male rabbit (or female rabbit, for that matter) to interact/play with another rabbit (even a neutered male or spayed female), he MUST be neutered and the rabbits must be properly bonded. If even one rabbit in a pair or group is unaltered, it can lead to vicious or even deadly fights.

Rabbits are technically easiest to bond in pairs, but it's entirely possible to form a trio. This not only allows your rabbits to have companions to snuggle and trade grooming with, it makes caring for them much easier when they don't have to be kept apart and let out at separate times.

Great sites on bonding:
http://www.cottontails-rescue.org.uk/matchups.asp
http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/bond.shtml
http://www.examiner.com/article/bunny-bonding-part-iii-bonding-challenges
http://www.wheekwheekthump.com/?s=bonding (numerous great bonding articles on this site, so the link is to search results for "bonding"... this site also has some good info on bonding 3+ rabbits)

Getting rabbits fixed through your usual rabbit-savvy vet can be extremely pricey (it varies a lot depending on the vet and where you live, but is generally in the $80-200 range per neuter and $100-300+ per spay) - I paid around $465 for two spays when my girls hit 5 months old. Fortunately, some organizations (shelters, rescues, etc.) offer low-cost surgeries through *qualified* exotic vets as part of a spay/neuter program - if you decide to get one or more of your rabbits altered, this thread has information about low-cost spay/neuter options in various areas around the country.

Best of luck with your building project - it sounds like you've gotten a lot of excellent tips and advice from people who know far more about keeping outdoor rabbits than I do

 

[M_MULLINS]

Thanks got all the info. When I picked them up the males were in the same wooden hutch that's about the size of the cages their in now. Ill definitely look for a low cost spay/neuter clinic, $400+ is way out of my budget but if I have to ill just save up and get them fixed one at a time.

 

[Imbrium]

Yeah, vet costs can be ridiculous >< Hopefully there's a low cost s/n clinic that takes rabbits in your area!