Sunday, November 10, 2013

Our Rabbitry

Welcome to our rabbitry! This is always changing, I constantly have new ideas to make this place better but here it is after the most recent renovation.
When we first started out it was with four cages in a row outside with metal tin on the top to keep the weather out. That winter we moved into a metal shed (that's sitting behind the rabbitry now and has become the duck shed) and the following year we built this. Building the new shed was well worth the money.


Inside the shed, when we first made it, was stands made with wood to hold the rabbit cages. It worked okay but I hated it. We had to use plastic on everything to keep the pee from soaking in and that was a lot more to clean. Thankfully, my husband agreed to redo the stands this year so here they are! Better pictures will come soon.
The back wall that holds my 9 New Zealand does.
 This one will hold my 3 Holland Lop does. (The stand on the left holds my quail, which stay inside the shed during the winter.)
 This is the stand for my boys. 2 New Zealands and 1 Holland Lop with two extra cages for any rabbits that I may want to keep in the future.
 Here's the Holland Lop doe stand again.
My New Zealand boys. All of my stands are made with PVC now which is so much easier to clean. We can pull them out and bring them out into the yard to scrub down even.

Not only do we finally have stands that I like but I did a few new things with their cages too - which we make ourselves as well. I think it comes out cheaper that way and they get made the way I want.

 First of all was putting something over the wires in the door so that I didn't get scratched every time I reached inside. I was looking for something else (which I found and will make a post later) but came across small plastic tubing instead. With some j-clips, they work great!
 My next purchase was proper mats for the rabbits. We use to have plastic mats that my husband was able to get for free from work but they always squished poop on themselves and all over the mat, and these just work so much better!
 Next, I had my husband redo the fronts of the cages. He had the doors on either the left or the right side and, as a shorter person, that sucked for me because I couldn't reach to the opposite side of the cage. So the doors in the middle are perfect.

 These are the pee guards that we made (and will also work as a baby saver). It's actually metal sheeting that we found in the roofing section at our hardware store. It works great too. The first thing my New Zealand buck (Thor) did was spray it.
Here is the hay racks that my husband made out of the extra wire from making cages. They just hook on the top and bottom. I'm able to pull it down and load it up with hay then hang it back up.

We also have a metal shelving unit beside the back stands for anything we might need and here are our poop trays.
 We build trays out of wood and then cover them with plastic. They're heavy but they work great.
This is a tray that's 5 years old. There's a few corner spots that are getting wet but otherwise, it's still in great shape. We change plastic at least once a year, if not more.

Thank you for checking out our rabbitry!

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