RAISING RABBITS ON WIRE
NZW Doe with 10 kits
I raise my rabbits on wire in wire cages. The floor wire is 1″ x 1/2″ and sides are 1″x 2″. I have always had happy, healthy rabbits. I was ready to write up a post on raising rabbits on wire floors, but Shiny Satins Rabbitry has a few great posts on this subject and I could not agree more with what they have written. So go and check it out!
I know this is controversial subject and some rabbit raisers will disagree with wire floors. I do feel that some breeds of rabbits would do better on slatted floors such as Rexes as they are known to have less fur on their hocks and more prone to sore hocks.
These links were shared with the permission of Shiny Satin Rabbitry
http://shinysatins.weebly.com/wire-floors.html
Posted on March 20, 2016, in Uncategorized and tagged breeding, bunny berries, compost, domestic rabbit, healthy meat, healthy-living, manure, meat rabbits, nestbox, vermicomposting, wire cage, wire floor. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
Rise and Shine Rabbitry 
I just found your website while looking for ways to cook the leftover heart, kidneys, liver, and neck from the rabbit stew I’m making. You provide a wealth of info here… Your article on how to use all parts of the rabbit is so helpful! Someday I hope to have a small, sustainable farm and I’m glad to know that rabbits would be an excellent livestock addition.
Please keep up what you’re doing here, I love it! Thanks for sharing all of your knowledge.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful website and blog. I inherited a few rescue meat rabbits that we keep in wire coops- I give them hay in the open part as well as the enclosed boxes that have a wood floor- they lounge and like being in the open air it seems, this is where I feed them much as you advise I give them fresh cut “salad” daily and supplement with pellets, willow branches, feed hay and alfalfa depending on the time of the year. Clean up is easy enough, they are happy and healthy- we have 2 new bunnies as of this summer!
Perhaps you could add to this post? I am all for raising on wire… But perhaps you could share your years of experience to help the masses design better cages? We bought feed store cages and built a couple of our own- don’t love any so far. The feed store cages are too small for the nesting boxes they sell (and not so great even with homemade nest boxes) AND the mice, sparrows and snakes can get in the sides (had a gopher snake steal 4 babies right out of the nest box! Was too fat to get back out, though…) AND my babies fall out the sides if they hang on to mom too long and get out of the tiny nest box I had to build to fit in the tiny pre fab door…
BUT, the cages we built, we used wood and attached the wire to…..and the rabbits chew the wood, pee on the wood- which doesn’t really wash out- and their water bottles drip on the wood, which isn’t so good for the wood, and the wood makes the cage heavy….
Haven’t found anything that looks any better that we can afford and fit in our space….
Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
I love all your advice. We lifted our rabbits off the ground and use the coated wire mesh cages you recommended as well. Most humans naturally want to protect animals and plants. It is people like you who educate and inform us how to do this successfully. For us, so many things in our soil over the years and years of human interaction but this was not the primary reason we caged our rabbits. The preditors, bugs, mites, dust . . . so many natural dangers to their health we just lifted them up in the largest cages we could buy to protect them and keep them healthy. They have boxes in their cages to cuddle into and they love it. I have left the doors to the cages open and my rabbits have gotten out but it is not long and they are back at the cages wanting in. It would seem they would prefer to burrow in the ground but they come back from that too. We believe that natural environments are best because this is what we are led to believe as environmentalists. However, animals like to be protected too. We do not leave our dogs out in the heat and snow – and they are shepherds – or our cats out overnight for fear a coyote might get them. Rabbits and chickens and farm animals are the same. We protect them in the winter with shelter and systems that unfreeze their water, set up misters in the summer, and provide cool clean water to drink. Their food is clean and readily available, and most importantly they are safe from predators and pestilence. I absolutely LOVE all your advice and help.