The Bunny Chat Thread - For Bunny Owners

[FortCluck]

I am putting in a rabbit cage (Penthouse) in the rabbit pen. Cage is for the males, pen is for the females. The Females get extra room because they will be having litters of kits, and under the males cage is where they will likely build their nests. I have posted the finished product before but I thought when building the 2nd one I would attempt to show how the blocks underneath are arranged. The blocks with vertical cavities are where the gutter area will be in the cage so their droppings will fall down into them. The first male rabbit in the cage I already built does his business in the gutter area, I got lucky!. I will be placing 12x12 inch pavers in the cage that will cover 6 square feet so the thin fur hocks on standard rex rabbits will not be on wire. The area without pavers will be that gutter area. The blocks with horizontal cavities are the tunnels and caves, I placed a middle one in there for structural reasons because the weight of the pavers would bend the bottom of the cage. I will be placing a thin board under the right side of the cage in these photos to create a slight pitch towards the gutter area so if the male rabbit urinates on the pavers it will go flow towards the gutter area, underneath the pavers I will use an old feed bag as a waterproof liner so urine does not drip down in the nesting areas.
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Looking good... are you using the offspring for food or are you selling them?

 

[Compost King]

Looking good... are you using the offspring for food or are you selling them?

I will sell them as pets and what I can not sell will be for fur and food. I really do not want to do the latter I just want to make as much manure as possible for the garden. If I do have to make them into food I want to learn how to make things out of the fur just for the sake of learning a skill. These are a premium fur breed which is related to why I got them. I just love petting Rex Rabbits because their fur is so smooth.

 

[FortCluck]

I will sell them as pets and what I can not sell will be for fur and food. I really do not want to do the latter I just want to make as much manure as possible for the garden. If I do have to make them into food I want to learn how to make things out of the fur just for the sake of learning a skill. These are a premium fur breed which is related to why I got them. I just love petting Rex Rabbits because their fur is so smooth.

My bunnies fur is insanely soft, but I don’t know what they are. I want to lurk how to spin fur into yarn, but I’ll get a sheep or similar for that

 

[Compost King]

My bunnies fur is insanely soft, but I don’t know what they are. I want to lurk how to spin fur into yarn, but I’ll get a sheep or similar for that

Rex Fur is very short and all the same length, it feels like velvet. Its also why the are prone to sore hocks. I have had Mini Rex on wire floor with no problems in the past but Standard Rex weigh more and its why I am going out of my way to get my rabbits off of wire floors.
I considered Angoras and spinning yarn from their fur that way I could have little poop machines and make yarn from their fur but I do not want to invest money into equipment to make yarn I wouldn't know what to do with. I would have to learn how to knit which is not a hobby I would be likely to keep up with. What ever I do with rabbits I am just going to be so glad to have access to those coco puffs they make. The best garden soil amendment I can think of.
If I do sell kits I am going to accept manure as payment, a 50 pound feed bag full of manure and bedding = $5.

 

[FortCluck]

Rex Fur is very short and all the same length, it feels like velvet. Its also why the are prone to sore hocks. I have had Mini Rex on wire floor with no problems in the past but Standard Rex weigh more and its why I am going out of my way to get my rabbits off of wire floors.
I considered Angoras and spinning yarn from their fur that way I could have little poop machines and make yarn from their fur but I do not want to invest money into equipment to make yarn I wouldn't know what to do with. I would have to learn how to knit which is not a hobby I would be likely to keep up with. What ever I do with rabbits I am just going to be so glad to have access to those coco puffs they make. The best garden soil amendment I can think of.
If I do sell kits I am going to accept manure as payment, a 50 pound feed bag full of manure and bedding = $5.

Sounds like a plan... People were telling me rabbit can’t be put straight in soil. I have many plants who disagree. My brussel sprout seeds popped up in 3 days with the soil and rabbit I know they’ll grow amazingly.

 

[Compost King]

Sounds like a plan... People were telling me rabbit can’t be put straight in soil. I have many plants who disagree. My brussel sprout seeds popped up in 3 days with the soil and rabbit I know they’ll grow amazingly.

I have been told that you can grow in straight 100% rabbit Manure. I guess you can but it gets all moldy and I wonder if its mold that can spread to the plant. I guess I would put mulch over it to create a barrier if I ever did that.

 

[Compost King]

Another rabbit problem....

Direct Sunlight on the new cage I built and installed for the male rabbit. Direct sunlight can kill a rabbit even in temps as low as 70 degrees.

Temp solution, I placed a board between the sun and the cage to give the guy shade. Now I need a permanent solution that does not obstruct air flow. One of the problems with keeping rabbits is that one problem comes up after another and I am spending too much time on rabbits and not enough time on chickens, gardens and greenhouse construction. It not real hot out there but we have a Post Flood humidity issue I am fighting affecting feed. Chickens can eat moist feed from humidity but rabbits will not.

(its only and hour maybe 2 that the sun reaches this spot, but I still need to fix it)

 

[Compost King]

I was wrong about the humidity. I found why the feed keeps getting wet. When I turn the hose on to bring water to the watering station a leaky hose connection was sending a mist into both rabbit pens. Its in an area that is hard to get to so I didn't see it until just now when I had to change out the water bin due to a baby bird drowning in it. I was wondering why the place would not dry out after the flood, it was because I was running water through that hose after the flood. Now I am drying out all the feeders. Poor rabbits were getting misted. No wonder they were so stressed out, it was more than just the flood causing problems for them.

The sun is no longer piercing into the pen and I was able to take some pictures of the new rabbit cage, same as the other cage in my other pen. The rabbit colors are reversed, white female in the pen castor male in the cage.

The white female was under the cage in the tunnel system.

 

[A Peacock called Penelope]

There's a problem I can't find any hay or grass here all I can find is haylage

 

[EverythingDucks]

There's a problem I can't find any hay or grass here all I can find is haylage

Have you looked online? And at a petstore?