Rabbit's DON'T belong in cages!!!

[chicken farmer]

I seen the coolest thing my rabbits have ever done a little bit ago!!! I put my new zealand white doe in my tractor(moveable pen) an it's her first time on the grass that I know of and I was standing there watching her like I have been and I seen her tilt her head to the sky a little bit than her pupils got real big than run into the box real fast than I turned around and looked and there was a red tailed hawk flying over head. I got goosebumps it was so amazing,I thought it was real cool cause her instincts told her that the hawk was a predator and to hide when she's been in a hutch almost her whole life. And she has never had contact with a bad bird and the dog and cats walk around her hutch and tractor all the time and she doesn't mind but she ran in the box when she seen that hawk and it amazes me and I love it. She has great instincts!!Here's the tractor and her in it earlier. Thought I would share this with you guys!!

 

[insanity]

Yea if you leave them there for at least a month they will start digging

If you get the giant breeds they don't really dig. My doe will make pot holes(6-8 inch deep) on occasion and at 24lb it's to much work for my buck. No burrows yet in six months. I do have wire underground just in case, and provide above ground burrows as well. When I had polish and mini rex they dug at every opportunity. I think breed choice makes a difference, I personally would not colony/free run small breeds.IMO they are to high strung, it would be very difficult to keep the tame.

 

[insanity]

Well good news here. Both my mini and french lop does kindled. Eight kits each.They are both kept in free range runs and sem to be doing well.

 

[lovingmyhens]

That looks very similar to the ones I had back when I was raising rabbits. I used to raise and show rabbits, and the hardest part of raising them in tractors was getting their feet cleaned of grass and dirt stains before a show. The judges were always impressed with the body type and muscle tone of my rabbits, but then when I said how they were raised, I was berated and told to NEVER, EVER allow a domestic rabbit on the ground, as they will pick up all sorts of diseases from the soil, and that I was putting everyone else at risk by possibly transmitting such diseases to the other rabbits at shows. From then on I just kept my mouth shut, and eventually just stopped showing, and then stopped breeding them, despite having a binder full of GC certificates and pedigrees with red/white/blue seals.

But back to raising rabbits in tractors...I kept the does in one and the bucks in another. Regarding fights over territory, if your tractors are big enough, they don't fight.  I also put in a couple full bales of hay for them to eat on, dig under and hide behind. When it came to breeding, I would take the doe that was to be bred out of the doe tractor and the buck out of the buck tractor and put the two in a breeding pen for a few minutes, then returned each to it's respective tractor.  There was never any problems with the does having their kits in with the other does. My tractors were about 8'x12'.  

I've been out of rabbits for a few years, but I've missed them (and my garden really missed the wonderful fertilizer they produce), so recently I obtained a couple breeding pairs of New Zealand Blacks and Palominos...and hubby is building me a couple of new tractors. 
 

I have 3 bucks, neutered, and all 3 must be separated because they will fight. I have them in 3 runs, 10 x 10 and the each have a hutch they use whenever they want. But these bucks would fight to the death if I had them where they could get to each other regardless how big the space is. Could just be their personalities though

 

[lovingmyhens]

Well good news here. Both my mini and french lop does kindled. Eight kits each.They are both kept in free range runs and sem to be doing well.

What do you do with them???

 

[lovingmyhens]

How would the rabbits in cages feel like prisoners?  If the cage is the only place they have ever lived, it would feel like home to them.

It's cruel. Their instinct is to jump and hop. Not much different than keeping a child in a closet or keeping a dog in a small kennel 24/7.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

My two bucks are also neutered and literally raised together. They are best buds and never even a nip of each other.

 

[CityFarmer202]

I agree!! My rabbits are currently in large cages, but i am working on building out door runs for them. Some get along fine so they will live together, but some hate everything and will each get their own run

 

[insanity]

What do you do with them???

I have two runs and keep the breeds separate. The mini lop is silver tipped black doe with a REW buck. The french lops are a black tipped brown(castor) buck over 3 does, a broken black tipped grey(the new mom), a solid silver, and a solid(castor)black tipped brown.Sorry I am not good with this breeds color names yet. I used to do Polish and Mini Rex.

 

[insanity]

What do you do with them???

They will probably be sold. The minis are low show/high pet lines,good for 4Her's. The french from strong show lines and are all sold already my waiting list is a mile long.