As I mentioned in my
first article, cage building is a relatively simple process that
requires only a few tools and a minimal amount of skill. One of the
most important things you can do when building cages for your
rabbitry is to decide what size of cage will best suit your needs and
then stick to this standard. Using standard cage sizes will be
beneficial to you when your rabbitry begins to grow. Standardization
allows you to use cages and cage components interchangeably which is
important if you have limited space.
In this article I will
explain to you the sizes of cages and cage options and or accessories
that we use at 'TAP Rabbirty'. This level of standardization has
served us well over the last few years. While my cage standards might
not fit your individual needs, the theory and thought behind my
decisions will hopefully help you to avoid some of the pitfalls that
we experienced and give your some options that you were not aware of
before you begin to build your own building cages.
Cage Size (Because Size
Matters)
The biggest cost you
will incur when building your cages is the purchase of galvanized
steel wire. So there are a number of things you need to take into
consideration when getting ready to make your own cages. The factor
that will have the biggest impact on your wallet is the size of the
cage. The bottom line is bigger rabbits need bigger cages, and the
rolled wire that you will be buying comes in a variety of different
lengths and widths.
We raise New Zealand's
(white and red) and heritage breed American Blues for meat, both
breeds are in the 9 to 12lb range when they are adults so the two
breeds need the same cage size. When we started out breeding rabbits
all the books stated for a rabbit of this size you need a cage of
approximately 30 x 36 inches that is 18 inches tall. What we have
found out over time, is that this cage size is just to big for a
single doe, even with a next box, and unless you have a 36” reach,
you will find that getting that doe out of the corner of the cage
when you want to breed her can cause you both unneeded stress. When
we first started raising rabbits this was a real circus with me
trying to catch a rabbit I could not reach. So when I tell you I have
done this and it is not fun for either you or the rabbit, believe me,
a stressed rabbit will not breed, and a stressed breeder can easily
get discouraged with the whole process.
While my arm may only
span 24 ½ inches, a breeding age New Zealand or American doe is
approximately 12 – 16” in length even when she hunkers down in
the corner so I can grab her easily in a 30” deep cage. The doe
gets a slightly bigger cage than the buck because she needs room for
a nest box when the time comes for her to kindle. For the buck, he
only needs enough cage space to move around in and to be able to
stretch himself out for the occasional full body nap. No nest box
needed so the guys get a smaller cage. So our first rule in cage
building is never make your cage deeper than your arm length. The
average human arm length is 25” so none of our cages are deeper or
longer than 30” (2 ½ ft) for does, or 24” (2ft) for bucks. The
following are the standard cage sizes we now use for our bucks and
does.
-
Doe Cage Size – 30 inch x 30 inch square, 18 inches in height.
-
Buck Cage Size – 24 inch x 24 inch square, 18 inches in height.
-
Grow Out Cage – 24 inch x 36 inch, 18 inches in height.
For these breeds the
minimal cage height should be 18 inches. Usually the shortest width
of cage wire you can buy is 24”. We make all of our cages 18”
tall because we double stack them in both our outside hutch and in
our air conditioned buck and kindling barn. However, if you have the
room, and you just do not want to waste the wire, then make them 24”
tall. Just remember, if you are wanting to stack cages, taller cages
means you might just have to stand on a small stool to get to the
upper cages. My recommendation on cage size is to determine a
suitable size for your rabbits then make all of your cages the same.
Standardization will same you a lot of headaches when it comes time
to expanding your herd. I have listed a 'grow out' cage size only
because I took my original 30 x 36 cages and cut them down to 24 x
36-inches to use when I separate the kits from their mother at 5 to 6
weeks of age.
Door Size and Placement
(The Where and Why)
The first part is easy.
For large breeds like Californians, New Zealand's, and Americans you
need a minimal door size of 12” square in order to get a proper
sized nest box into the doe's cage when she is ready to kindle. Make
it bigger if you want, but no smaller, you never want to remove a
pregnant female from her cage to another cage because your nest box
will not fit through the door. Your only option if you make your door
opening to small and you have a pregnant doe is to allow your doe to
make a nest without a next box. I do not recommend this, but I know
some successful breeders who do not use nest boxes.
Now that you know the
minimum size of the door opening, where should you place your cage
door?When I first made my cages, almost every book I read recommended
that the doors be placed offset to one side of the cage (i.e. not
centered). I can tell you for me and my wife this was a nightmare.
When trying to retrieve a doe for breeding she would always head for
the opposite corner of the cage, and as my original cages were 30 x
36” my arm span was about 8” to short, and I simply could not
reach the rabbits. It was worse for my wife who is 4' 10” who has a
considerably shorter arm length. So by the time we could get the doe
out of the cage she was so stressed she was just not going to breed
even if she was physically ready. Essentially these cages almost
became useless to me, but I had already spent the money to make them
and was stuck with them for the time being.
The simple solution was
door placement. Had the door been placed in the middle of the cage my
reach would have been considerably increased and I would have been
able to get the doe out of the cage with less stress for both the
animal and myself. So on all my subsequent cages I place the door in
the middle of the cage. Because the door is placed in the center of
all my cages, on my smaller buck cages (24 x 24”) I have to use an
inside bowl type feeder as opposed to an outside cage hanger type. On
my doe cages (30 x 30”) there is room for an outside hanging
feeder.
For us, placing the
door in the middle of the cage made retrieving both our bucks and
does from the cages much easier and both the animals as well as
ourselves are less stressed when making transfers from cage to cage.
So my cage making rule number two is all door openings must be 12”
minimum and the door should be placed in the middle of the cage wall.
How Should Your Door
Open
I admit, I never liked
the idea of the cage door opening into the cage as recommended in
'Storey's Guide To Raising Rabbits'. We found that you always had to
push the rabbits away form the door when trying to open the cage, and
if you are using a crock or feeding bowl inside the cage, all I can
say is “good luck with that”. Our bunnies are ferocious eaters at
feeding time and trying to push them out of the way with a door that
swung up and in turned out to be a problematic at best.
So on our first cages I
made all the doors open from the top down and to the outside of the
cage (the door was hinged on the bottom with j-clips to the cage).
Some of my buck cages still have doors that swing down, but on my doe
and grow out cages I have the door swing open to the right (hinged on
the right side). This allows me to add a hay basket on the door to
hold the timothy hay in that we feed each morning. The reason we do
not put a hay basket on the bucks cages is that we want to reduce the
risk of any potential injuries to our stock during the breeding
process.
Remember, the does
should be placed in the bucks cage and sometimes during the mating
process they get rather rambunctious and start chasing each other
around the cage. I would rather not have one of them whack their head
or poke out an eye on the corner of a hanging hay rack, therefore we
place no hanging hay racks in the males cage. However the choice to
do so is totally up to you.
Baby Savers
Let's face it,
sometimes when a rabbit is kindling she will jump out of the next box
and one of her kits will still be latched onto her teat. This happens
primarily during the first seven days after birth. At this point the
kits are quite small and as their eyes are not open. After falling
off of the teat, they may wander around the cage until they fall
through the side wire of the cage and end up on the floor. During
our first round of kindling, we lost several kits this way. I did not
think that the kits would be small enough to fall through the side
wire, but I was sadly mistaken.
The solution to this
problem is baby saver wire. Now a baby saver is simply a small strip
of lightweight wire mesh ½ x ½ -inch that surrounds the entire
lower portion of the cage approximately 2 – 3” in height. You
only need to apply this to your doe cages, and as this lightweight
wire goes on the outside of the cage it's cost is very minimal and it
can save you a lot of kits.
Now, having said that,
I still lose the occasional kit during the winter time when it has
latched onto the does teat and is dragged out of the nest box simply
because it gets to cold and dies, but I have saved many more as they
are easier to find in the cage rather than on the floor behind the
cage racks. This winter, we have found a few on the cage floors, and
did not lose a one. We were lucky, but keep in mind that you will
still lose a few kits, but having baby savers can decease your loses
significantly.
Pee Guards
Pee Guards are small
strips of plastic or aluminum that line the interior or exterior of
the cage wall so that when your rabbit pees the urine is deflected
down into the drip tray and not onto the floor or onto the other
rabbits. If you have cages that are going to be outside, then pee
guards are not really necessary. Even if you have your rabbits in a
sheltered barn or building they may not be necessary. For instance,
my friend and fellow breeder Steve Coyne has a dirt floor in his barn
which he covers with fresh straw once or twice a month. He does not
use pee guards as any urine that finds it's way to the ground is
simply absorbed by the dirt floor. The same happens with our outdoor
hutch, all of the urine and feces simply falls to the ground to be
scooped up later and placed in the garden or compost pile.
However, in our buck
and kindling barn which is air conditioned, we have a solid wood
floor that is covered with rolled linoleum, therefore it is important
for the urine and feces to find it's way into the drip pans rather
than on the floor. On these cages, I make aluminum pee guards
(approximately 4” in height) out of thin aluminum sheeting and
place them on the outside of the cages to direct the rabbits waste
into the drip pans. So our inside cages have pee guards, our outside
ones do not. Whether you will need pee guards or not will depend on
your particular setup, but it is something to keep in mind.
Todd's Rules For Cage
Building:
1) Never make your cage
deeper than your arm length. Take it fromme, so rabbit's just like to
hide in the corner and do not like to be removed from the cage. If
your cage is deeper than your arm length, there is going to be a lot
of cursing going on as to try and get a good hold on a rabbit who has
decided to hunker down in the far corner of the cage. Been there,
done that, got the t-shirt.
2) Use 12” minimum
door openings or you will discover that your nest box will not fit in
the cage. Meat rabbits require larger nest boxes, ensuring your door
is 12 x 12 inches means that you can get the proper size nest box in
the cage when the time arrives.
3) Place the door in
the middle of the cage to make it easier to retrieve your rabbits.
Even if you follow rule No. 1, placing the door to your cage off to
one side may still leave you with that one corner that is difficult
to reach. Trust my experience, placing the door in the middle of the
cage will make life easier for both you and your rabbits.
Conclusion
Picking a cage size and
standardizing all of your cages will save you time, money, and
hopefully reduce the amount of wire wastage you have when making your
own cages. As simple as it sounds placing the door in the middle of
the cage made a big difference in our ability to get our rabbits out
of their cages with less fuss and stress for both us and the rabbits.
In part three, I will cover the one thing everyone has been waiting
for, the actual building of the cages.
It was important to me
however to give you some things the think about before you jump right
in head first to making your own cages. It is my hope that this
information will help you to avoid some of the mistakes that I first
made when I started making making cages for our rabbitry. Mistakes
can cost you both time and money. Those of us who decide to make our
own cages would rather not waste either as both our time and money
are precious.
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