Making rabbit cages yourself
The accessories and layout of the rabbit cage largely determine the future fate of the pets. Anyone who wants to raise healthy animals with good reproductive ability should take a responsible approach to choosing a future home for them.
DIY rabbit cage
Of course, it is much easier to purchase ready-made automated cages, but experienced breeders argue that only with your own hands you can build the most comfortable home, taking into account all the features of a particular breed of rabbits.
Required materials and cage construction
Each step-by-step instruction for creating a rabbit farm should have a description of the work on the construction of a frame, at least four walls, a floor, a roof and doors. The material for the cage can be a tree or mesh, but metal sheets, including galvanized ones, are strictly prohibited for this purpose. The fact is that in the summer it will be very hot in the iron cage, and in the winter, on the contrary, it will be very cold.
For the construction of the frame and window frames, thick beams or profile pipes are perfect. When making a drawing of a rabbit cage, it must be borne in mind that the height of the legs should be at least 40 cm.If the structure will be located in an open space, then it is better that its height is about 1 m from the ground level. Firstly, maintenance of such a cage for rabbits will be much easier, and secondly, it will be more difficult for predators to reach the animals.
You can choose different material for walls and ceiling:
- plywood sheets;
- several wooden planks;
- a piece of mesh.
The optimum material for laying the floor is a batten or a piece of mesh. For buildings located outdoors in the open air, additional roofing is required, which will reliably protect against snow and rain. It is very important that all compartments are smooth and do not pose a danger to the inhabitants of the cage, then splinters or sharp metal ends of the net will not harm the animals.
If there is little space on the site where the farm is located, and the livestock is large, it makes sense to build multi-tiered rabbitries, the height of which is several times higher than usual. Often, a two-tier structure is used for these purposes, but in some cases even a three-tier one cannot accommodate all pets.
Cell types
There are several types of rabbit dwellings, distinguished by the type of construction of the rabbit cage. Most popular models:
- common rabbitry,
- Mikhailovsky,
- zolotukhinsky,
- walking,
- rabbit cages maklyak.
The first option implies a construction on high legs with two compartments: a feeder and a mother compartment. Between these parts it is necessary to install a continuous type partition with a manhole. How to do it right, you can always watch the video.
Doors for nests should be made of solid wood, and for feeding areas - from a net on a frame. You can build an open-air cage with a separate entrance on the ground next to the nursery.It is necessary to allocate as much territory as the area of the land plot allows. These portable single-tier structures are very light, and you can move the two-tier building if you wish at any time. For example, if the rabbitry is in the open air in summer, then in winter it is easy to place it in a barn, where it is much more comfortable for rabbits to survive severe frosts.
Mating in nurseries, where the couple has the opportunity to walk, is more productive than in ordinary cages, because it is no secret to anyone that active movement in natural conditions has a beneficial effect on the general well-being of not only a hare, but also a domesticated rabbit, and in particular on the reproductive indices of the rabbit, therefore, if breeding of eared pussies is in the plans, making an aviary is mandatory.
Mikhailovsky nurseries
The budget cages for rabbits described above are often created and used by non-professional rabbit breeders on their backyards, but the nurseries developed by Mikhailov have a technically more advanced system - it is not so easy to build such a cage for rabbits on your own.
The Mikhailovskaya farm has its own ventilation system, special shelves for fattening rabbits, a mother house for raising and raising rabbits, heated drinkers, but, most importantly, what makes Mikhailov's own rabbit cages different is a unique waste disposal system.
Zolotukhinsky nurseries
Zolotukhin believes that it is better if the branches have not mesh or slatted floors, as usual, but plywood or flat slate. The use of such materials makes the pallet a completely useless thing, therefore, it is absent in its cells.
The floor should be laid at a slight angle to the back wall, along which a piece of mesh approximately 15 cm wide is attached. Thanks to this design, animal excrement rolls down to the holes and is safely removed through them.
Another innovation of the author is the equipment of tilting feeders in nurseries, which for cleaning it is not necessary to completely remove their cages, they just need to be tilted and washed, then a specially installed spring will return the containers to their place. So that the rabbits do not have the opportunity to get out of the rabbit cage through the through hole in the folding feeder, it is imperative to divide it into 2 parts using a net.
As for the compartment for the mother liquor, then, according to Zolotukhin, there is absolutely no need for it in the summer. You can simply fence off the required area by yourself using a profile board or a piece of plywood and fill it with hay. The rabbits themselves will undertake all the further work on creating the nests.
Zolotukhinsky cages for rabbits
This method of raising offspring is considered to be as close to natural conditions as possible. As a result, rabbits develop good immunity to infectious diseases.
After the kids grow up a little, the board is removed, and the arrangement of the cage changes: it becomes very spacious. With the onset of winter, it will be necessary to put a warm house for the rabbit and her offspring in the previously fenced compartment.
To carry out the construction and arrangement of such nurseries, it does not matter whether they are single-tiered or multi-tiered, you do not need any special skills and expensive building materials. But without a mesh of metal, boards, flat slate, plywood or drywall, professional pipes and a sheet of metal, it will not be possible to assemble the structure.
The frame of rabbit cages, their frames and doors is made of wood. Slate or plywood and mesh are laid as a floor. Feeder doors are also made of mesh. Thin metal sheets are used to hammer bars and other wooden projections.
The nest should be located in such a way that direct sunlight and drafts do not fall into it, which have a detrimental effect not only on rabbits, but also on adults. That is why the door to the mother compartment is always solid. The entrance to the nest of the cage for newborn young rabbits must be equipped with a high threshold so that the cubs do not accidentally fall out of it (minimum height - 10 cm).
So that waste from the upper tier does not fall into other departments, but spills out, make a cage for rabbits so that the back wall of the second floor is at a right angle, and the lower one is at an angle.
Maklyak-6
Maklyak-6 is an improved version of the usual rabbit cage, it can be either one or two-story. To make the perfect cage for your pets at home, the author of the idea took the best from the Zolotukhinsky, Mikhailovsky and other rabbit cage schemes developed by rabbit farmers popular in our country. The result is a complex and efficient cell design. According to the Maklyakov scheme, mainly chipboard houses are erected, standing on the street all year round. If you want to place your rabbits in a barn, it is better to look at other options.
Key design features and benefits:
- Modularity. The farmer can easily independently change the purpose of each section. For example, a brood house for a rabbit can really be converted into a fattening place.
- Drinkers and feeders are heated. This means that even in severe frosts, animals always have access to warm drinking water and fresh food.
- Waste products are removed using an advanced system. In such conditions, the operation of the rabbitry is simplified.
- Heating of the uterine compartment. It is always warm and comfortable in the house, even if the temperature outside at this time is sub-zero.
Cage Maklak-6
If the farmer has at hand detailed drawings telling how to build a rabbit cage, a sketch, the dimensions and the correct height of this structure, he can try to make and equip such a not very simple, but very convenient rabbit farm on his own.
For the manufacture of such a structure, experience and certain carpentry skills are required. It is advisable to first study in detail the photo and video materials, which describe how to make a cage maklak and what features should be taken into account when carrying out work.
Making a cage ourselves
Step-by-step instructions on how to build a comfortable rabbit cage:
- Take standard 50 x 50 mm wooden blocks and assemble the frame. In those places where the feeders will be located, a metal mesh is fixed in order to then make a floor out of it.
- The back wall is installed and the floor is mounted in the mother liquors for the encirclement of solid material.
- They take a sheet of plywood and close the side walls of the nursery, cut out holes in the partitions with a diameter of about 20 cm so that both females and young animals have the opportunity to move around the rabbitry, attach the partition to the broodstock.
- Attach the cover to the slots.
- To divide the nursery into sections, a bar is mounted in the center of its frame, to which the feeders are attached.
- Turn the structure over and begin to lay mesh floors with slats.
- Install feeding bins and separate a place for roughage. As frames, you can use both rods and a grid with a section of 20 x 50 mm.
- Mount the nursery roof and attach the sliding door to the feeders.
- Mesh doors are attached to the frame, and solid doors with latches to the nests.
- For outdoor nurseries, a roof made of waterproof material is additionally installed. To do this, a rack frame is attached to an existing roof, and slate or other roofing material is laid on it. The roof structure must necessarily have an angle of inclination in order for the precipitation to slide off the rabbitry.
Before making a cage for rabbits with your own hands from improvised means, you must definitely draw it on a piece of paper.The drawing should take into account in detail all the features of the future design and contain dimensions.
Such a cage for rabbits is convenient because, thanks to the large feeding hopper, a lot of feed (6 kg or more) can be loaded into it at once. In these nurseries, the installation of one or more additional tiers is always available. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that it is necessary to make and fix pallets for waste collection under each floor. Also, options with too many tiers are not very preferable. To prevent rabbits (especially young animals) from getting stuck in the net, when setting up a nursery, it is necessary to use a material whose mesh size does not exceed 2 x 2 cm.
Recommendations
- It is necessary to choose in advance where the farm will be located, and only then begin the construction of permanent cages for rabbits. If the rabbitry is located outdoors, its inhabitants must be reliably protected from strong winds and precipitation. Experienced farmers do not recommend placing cages in the south of the site, as it is very sunny there, and the animal can get sick from the extreme heat.
- The optimal sizes of rabbit cages and each of its tiers are determined depending on the purpose of the breed and the number of rabbits. For example, a happy owner of giants should provide 3-4 times more space compared to medium-sized pets for large meat-type rabbits.
- It is better if the roof is removable: in this case, it is easy to sanitize each tier.
- When making a cage, you need to calculate its size so that one adult fluffy is kept in a separate compartment. An exception is the uterus: it must be kept with the rabbits.
- If the pets spend the winter in an open-air rabbitry, it is better to immediately lay the floors out of wood. The solid bottom section should be fixed like a pallet so that it can always be pulled out easily in case of need. It is better to make the upper part of the floor from a slatted board in 1.6 cm increments.
- It is much more convenient to clean up half-eaten food and dirty water if you make the feeders and drinkers removable.
- If you plan to keep young offspring outside in winter frosts, the farm should have well-insulated walls. This can be done using any heat-insulating material, for example, foam. So that the moisture in the cells does not decrease due to the insulation, it is hermetically wrapped with food or any other film before installation. Maternity wards must be additionally equipped with a heating system so that the bed on which the female and several of her rabbits will sit is always at a comfortable temperature.
- Decorative rabbits and representatives of dwarf breeds should make completely different dwellings. In addition, they definitely need an aviary on the ground. Usually small lop-eared pussies live in beautiful spacious houses, where there are comfortable ladders and shelves.
Making a home for rabbits with your own hands can also teach children to take care of our smaller brothers. You can hand the child a brush, let him paint the outer walls of the cage. So he will join physical labor and become attached to the animal.
Nursery construction guidelines
If you plan to keep a decorative pet in an apartment, he also needs a cage, but in this case a ready-made version is preferable to homemade ones, so instead of looking for information on how to make cages for adorable rabbits with your own hands, it is better to visit the nearest pet store. There are many comfortable and beautiful houses for decorative rabbits on sale, which are kept at home as favorite pets. You can choose from those that are relatively inexpensive. For example, ferplast or triol. The ferplast rabbit corner cage for dwarf decorative rabbits will perfectly decorate any interior.
Having chosen one of these houses, you will not need to puzzle over how to build a good cage for a fluffy and where to get detailed photo instructions for this. In this case, it is also important to cover the house with sawdust or other material, put a feeder and a drinker there and throw in twigs that the animals love to gnaw.