Wire Shelving Rabbit Cage Build

So - I built a rabbit cage out of 6 foot wire shelving panels. This thing is awesome, thought I'd share. It's 6' long, has two holes with a small center section I can stick a flake of hay (and J-Feeders) into, 32" wide, and will be mounted a few feet off the ground with U-posts. It's definitely more sturdy than my commercial rabbit cages. My plan is to have the rabbit poop and spoiled hay fall down, and the rabbit "barn" is right outside the chicken coop so in the winter the chickens can come in, scratch around and mix it all up, etc. I love it and I'm already planning on building a couple more.

I admire your personal grit & dedication.  Interesting video.  How about taking one or two still photos of your cage(es) and posting them, along with embedding your video, on this exisiting thread?  It fits the theme, I believe.

Repurposing projects        https://permies.com/t/12412/projects

Joel Bercardin wrote:I admire your personal grit & dedication.  Interesting video.  How about taking one or two still photos of your cage(es) and posting them, along with embedding your video, on this exisiting thread?  It fits the theme, I believe.

Repurposing projects        https://permies.com/t/12412/projects

Good idea! I hadn't seen that thread before, will pop over for sure. I do have one I can attach here also, but I'll probably take more photos once I've got it mounted and finished up. I already know how I'll make a few changes when I do my next one, a couple minor things but the overall idea is really solid. I'm glad I found the idea!

Are these rabbits for meat or pets?

If they are for pets then a wire cage should never be used as it hurts their feet. It is like us working on a ladder all day, our feet "curl" around the rung instead of laying flat upon a solid surface and over time it harms the rabbits feet.

Of course if the rabbits are for meat then it does not really matter, so carry on.

You would not know it I know, me being an old sheep farmer, seeing plenty of lambs die, able to put down my own dogs, but I am a pure softee when it comes to rabitts. We have a pet bunny (named Bunny) who lives right in our kitchen. I have always loved rabbits!

Travis Johnson wrote:Are these rabbits for meat or pets?

If they are for pets then a wire cage should never be used as it hurts their feet. It is like us working on a ladder all day, our feet "curl" around the rung instead of laying flat upon a solid surface and over time it harms the rabbits feet.

Of course if the rabbits are for meat then it does not really matter, so carry on.

You would not know it I know, me being an old sheep farmer, seeing plenty of lambs die, able to put down my own dogs, but I am a pure softee when it comes to rabitts. We have a pet bunny (named Bunny) who lives right in our kitchen. I have always loved rabbits!

Yep they are for meat :) I do also have nesting spots and resting plates for them as well, once I move the buns in.

Any worries they will chew on the white coating?

William Bronson wrote: Any worries they will chew on the white coating?

That remains to be seen - I've talked to a few people who made cages like these and some said the rabbits chewed a bit and some said their rabbits didn't touch it, so I suspect it may depend much in the same way that goats tend to escape their pens if they are unhappy/bored/etc. My intention is to make sure they have 1. plenty of space, 2. toys/stuff to chew on and 3. a resting mat for comfort and hopefully that won't happen.

I love your videos!!
what kind of resting mats do you use? I think I have the opposite problem as you (we get some serious heat), so I've been using either ceramic roof tiles or pieces of marble countertop I found, but I have been considering rubber mats as well (I have a girl rabbit who chooses to pee in the one corner of her enclosure that is a wood floor rather than wire) and I'm a bit concerned about her chewing on it.
Like you said, I give her a lot of other stuff to chew on, but it gave me pause.

Tereza Okava wrote:I love your videos!!
what kind of resting mats do you use? I think I have the opposite problem as you (we get some serious heat), so I've been using either ceramic roof tiles or pieces of marble countertop I found, but I have been considering rubber mats as well (I have a girl rabbit who chooses to pee in the one corner of her enclosure that is a wood floor rather than wire) and I'm a bit concerned about her chewing on it.
Like you said, I give her a lot of other stuff to chew on, but it gave me pause.

I use the plastic kind, I'm not even sure where to buy them! They are specifically made to be rabbit resting mats. When I first got rabbits, I had a couple that came with my bunnies. I don't think I'll buy more of them though, I think as I expand I will use either tiles like you or just pieces of plywood. I do get heat in the summer (we have a true 4 seasons - so decent dumpings of snow and coldness up to -15 or so, but in summer we have at least a month of 90-100 degrees), so I gotta be careful and I think tile would help so I will probably go that route. I think plywood would work well too, and if they chew on it no harm no foul.

My house bunnies have hay feeder that snuggles up to a busboys tray filled with potting soil.
They live on a hardwood floor, and poop all over their  enclosure,  but they pee right there in the tray.
Makes for a nice soil amendment.
We have had concrete mixing troughs filled with potting soil in with them.
That much soil is enough to dig in,they really like it,  but people tend to feed them in the trough,  and it gets heavy with pee!
A dish pan or busboy tray could be enough for a nice place to lie down for a rest, but light enough even when saturated by micturition(got tired of writing pee...)

Side note,  if you want to grow your own fodder, try growing and drying jchoke stalks.
The buns love them, not sure about the nutritional value.

What size hog rings were needed to make rhis rabbit hutch out of shelving? 1" or larger? Thanks!

Love this! Just wondering how are they/ did they hold up over time?

Thankd for share this information