Only thing I can think of is the digging--on the part of the bunnies on the inside or something on the outside that wants bunny for supper. You also need to protect them from hawks zooming down on them from above or some predator hopping the fence to eat them.

We are getting a bunny for our daughter soon, too, and we plan on it living in a hutch some 4 feet off the ground (the height is for the sake of our backs!), and we'll let it out during the day to hop around the yard when we are home, but put it in the hutch at night.

Velvet ~:>

Digging, accumulation of bunny manure, predators and parasites are four reasons many people prefer to keep their rabbits in cages or hutches.

Even two bunnies will produce an astounding amount of poop - which is fine if their yard is large enough to prevent accumulation. Otherwise, unless you have provision to clean out the yard, you will soom have them sitting in the stuff and that is an open invitation to disease.

The digging problem can be overcome by burying the wire deeply and this also can help keep predators out. Chicken wire is useless - half-inch hardware cloth would work but it is expensive. There would need to be wire on top as well to keep out predators.

If you have wild rabbits in your area, your bunnies could pick up parasites from them. I suspect that this is more of a problem in hot climates than cold ones. You would need to assess this risk based on local conditions.

I think the main reason people use cages or hutches is that they are cheaper, easier to make secure and convenient. Your bunnies could have a garden hutch with an attached exercise run so that your girls could play with the bunnies on grass and then put them safely back in the cages.

One other consideration... if you want to keep your bunny population at two, make sure that you don't house opposite sexes together-- or even let them visit. About thirty seconds of togetherness is all it takes. They will breed younger than you will believe possible, sometimes with fatal results for an immature doe. If you need it, I can post a link to some excellent photos of what to look for "down under". LOL

We've had bunnies for about 8 years, always as pets. We've never tried keeping them not in cages, although I think they would be perfectly happy that way. Predators has always been the major concern with open cages. Of course, they are great diggers and could dig out, although that has never been a problem when we have kept in a combination cage with outside run around area.

This has been covered by others, but one thing that I've always wondered about is their poop. Bunnies are that very special kind of animal that, like a cow chewing its cud, will eat its first poop. There's a technical name for this. What I've always wondered about keeping them in cages is that they never, or hardly never, actually get a chance to do this.

I assume that they eat their first poop for a very good reason. Does anyone have any info on this?

thanks,

bill powers

Hi Bill -

It is true that rabbits eat the "first time through" poops. Because they only have one stomach, unlike ruminants, they do this to retrieve nutrients that would otherwise not be absorbed.

Like you, I have forgotten the name for this, but I do recall reading that usually rabbits eat them immediately as they are eliminated from the anus. The reason we seldom see rabbits engaged in this behaviour is that it most often occurs in the early morning hours.

So the rabbits in cages are not being deprived in any way. The poops that fall through the wire are the darker "second time through" ones and are of no use to the rabbit (although pure gold for the garden!)

well its only been a week but so far so good L probably too early to tell yet huh? the area they are in is 30 by 14 feet and its inside another fenced in area so predators would have a good bit of work to get to them. wish me luck we'll see how it works out they are happy right now anyway. since they were from a pet shop I don't think they had ever been on the ground.

thanks for all the imput

CI

bjpowers, I heard only the cottontail rabbit does that...

I've had my bunnies (2) free-ranging for several months now and they seem to be doing well. They mainly stay inside the vegetable garden (so much for growing veggies this spring) but have been spotted all over the fenced in acre. They have picked the pump house for their digging, which is OK I guess! Anyway, they seem very happy and run around like crazy kicking their feet up in the air in the morning when they see me coming with breakfast.

I realize that I'm taking a chance with predators but I honestly could not deal with one more cage to clean and I don't enjoy pets that are caged up anyway.

Rabbits have a rather different type of digestive system, (one of the main reasons they have a separate classification from rodents)...perhaps because of evolution, the digestive bacteria in rabbits are located in the appendix and caecum (lower in the digestive tract than the area where the digested nutrients can be absorbed into the body)...so they deal with it by putting their food through their bodies twice (eating poop--but only certain poop)...technical name for it is coprophagy I think....

chickeningenue, what kinds of rabbits did you end up getting??

My rabbits are also "on the loose",they stay in my chicken run and occassionally get out into the lawn to really kick up! But they always seem to go in somewhere at night ,I give them lots of houses with straw here and there for them to escape into just in case. They seem really happy,every morning when I come out with food they greet me and let me touch them,I love them! My bucks live in hutches though...beside eachother,this also keeps the 2 females close by.

I have two rabbits, one is free range and the other is let out during the day and put back in the house in the late afternoon.
I used to worry about hawks and stuff, but they have done very well for about 3 or 4 years with this arrangement.
The outside rabbit's best friend is a tom cat!
They share the same sleeping quarters and groom and play together.
They are really cute to watch.
I think free ranging them is healthier for them physically and mentally.... unless it gets as cold as it has been here the past week.
The indoor bunny has not been out in almost a week and I can tell she wants to.
She sits perched in the window, and perks up when she sees either of he friends come near.
Whoever said rabbits were dumb or did not have feelings, never saw these three amigos!

as far as messing the yard up, they are pretty good. I have only noticed them scratching at the ground to move snow so they can nibble the grass underneath.
They have dug holes under bushes and in areas that are not noticable.
I have a gorgeous yard and I know the bunny poop helps to fertilize .... but they do have their "favorite" potty places... which is a good thing, I just scoop up the "Coco puffs" as my kids call them... and toss em in the garden when I am planting, or in the compost pile.
I also compost the indoor rabbits bedding, she is litter box trained.
Even though both rabbits are the same size, there is a marked difference in size between the male and the female's coco puffs!
Thankfully the cat goes somewhere out of the yard to do his business.

Word to the wise, if you cage a rabbit like in a chicken tractor.... make sure it is out of the sun! Rabbits are very susceptible to sun stroke. This happened in a VERY short time with one of our rabbits last year. She died... it was REALLY sad for all of us.
Also be prepared to find a hole, cause they will try to dig their way out of a confined area.
A yard must not be too confining, they have never tried to did out, although they have wandered(explored) when the kids leave the gate open. They know where home is and always come back.

Good luck with your bunnies and have lots of fun with them.
They can be trained to do all kinds of amazing things!

I posted that message about a year ago this month. we were supposed to have two boy LOL that was a joke. three reputable people by that I mean people that had experience raising bunnies, they assured us they were both boys. and low and behold it was a miracle those two boys had a nest full of babies by march. We found good homes for all the babies and when I found out they could have up to 154 babies a year!! we decided it was best to give them back to my brother in law, he was the one who gave them to the girls and had said he would take them if we couldn't handle them. Whats funny is that they didn't last but about six months with him, then they died. and the female never got pregnant once and I know she was pregnant when we gave them to him. and had two litters with us within just a short time. I think he didn't feed them well and they didn't have as nice a place with him as they did with us. I hated that part. they were kinda forced on us although I really enjoyed them when they were here. I really understand all the people that advise you to really know what your getting into and to think it through before getting animals.

CI

I'm sorry they died.

Rabbits can be spayed and nutered

One doe would not have 154 kits a year, That would be very unhealthy for her. You would separate the buck and doe, and breed her every 2-3 months. So max production from a single doe would likely be 40.