Rabbit housing, step by step
Interactive lesson: hutches, a run and a movable ark — shade and air, sizes, mesh and bolts, summer and winter, cleaning.
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The whole lesson as text
1. What a rabbit needs
The rabbit is a burrowing animal: it likes half-light, quiet, a hiding place and a dry floor.
- Shade and air — Rabbits do best at 10–20 °C (50–68 °F); above 30 °C (86 °F) heatstroke threatens. In summer the rabbitry must never stand in the sun.
- Air without draughts — Ventilation above the rabbits, not a stream of cold air at floor level. In winter, shelter at the back from wind and rain.
- A dry floor — Urine drains away or is soaked up, and bedding is changed before it smells. Droppings fall below the hutch, not onto a lower tier.
- Room for three hops — A rabbit must be able to sit upright, stretch out and take three hops. For a medium breed the hutch is at least 60 cm (2 ft) high.
Why: If the hutch is dry, airy, shaded and safe from predators, the rabbit stays healthy without medicine. If it is wet, stuffy or in the sun, snuffles, coccidiosis, sore hocks and heatstroke follow.
- Crouch to rabbit height and sniff. Sharp ammonia is the first step towards snuffles: clean more often and ventilate better, don't shut the windows.
- Does breed better with 14–16 hours of daylight, but not in direct sun.
2. A row of hutches
The classic rabbitry is a block of 2–4 hutches, raised off the ground, under a roof or with a roof of its own.
- A spot in the shade — Permanent shade, back to the wind, no pooling water. That is where the block of 2–4 hutches side by side goes.
- A frame on legs — A frame of 5 × 5 cm (2 × 2 in) timber on legs 60–80 cm high, with the roof sloping to the back.
- Hutch sizes — Medium-breed doe with litter: 120 × 70 cm (4 ft × 2 ft 4 in), 60 cm high. Buck: 100 × 70 cm. Timber dry and untreated.
- Roof with an overhang — Overhang 30–50 cm at the front and sides. Light-coloured metal with insulation, or tiles: bare dark metal heats a hutch like an oven in summer.
Why: At 60–80 cm (2–2½ ft) you work standing up, the rabbits are further from damp, dogs and rats, and the droppings fall below. Most keepers keep does and buck in hutches, and growers in a movable ark in summer.
- Wood preservatives and old railway sleepers are poisonous, and a rabbit chews everything it can reach.
- Two tiers one above the other only with a solid, waterproof floor between them.
3. Mesh, doors and equipment · Locked
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4. Run and movable ark · Locked
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5. Summer and winter · Locked
Buy the Rabbit housing module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.
6. Cleaning and disinfection · Locked
Buy the Rabbit housing module and you get the PDF to download and print, plus lifetime access to this interactive lesson: all 6 chapters, 24 steps.