Bonding Rabbits & Communal Housing

[genevieve]

I'm raising meat rabbits, and I hate housing my does the way they are housed now. They waste a fair amount of food because they eat a bit, paw the rest of the food onto the ground, and then are hungry until their next feeding. They have big cages, two story 2'x4', but the cages have the typical plastic tubs for the bottom. Their cages get dirty and they're a hassle to clean. So, I've been looking into wire cages and I've found that I don't like the commercial style cages. My grow out pens are just two 5'x5'x2.5' wire cages with wood supports, a roof, and a tarp for poor weather and the rabbits love love love them. I have 8 rabbits in one currently, and the other is empty. They run and hop around and they're obviously so happy.

Enough with the rambling, haha. I want to build two 5'x5'x2' structures for my breeding does. Two does would live in each one. There would be a 5'x2' "hutch" section that would be all wood sides and separated so each got their own place to nest. Would this set-up be reasonable for two does that grew up together (sisters or mother & daughter, maybe?) or would they fight too much? I understand that it would be easier just to separate the does with another piece of fence but I think it would be nice for them to have a big space to run around, especially after their kits start venturing out of the nest box.

 

[SA Farm]

There's never a guarantee that they'll get along, ao if you want to go for it, I would recommend being prepared to throw together a section to separate them if needed. Maybe build it so that it would be easily doable to separate should the need arise...

 

[secuono]

Old food or simply bad habits. Food wasting has little to do with how they live. Rabbits are not herd animals, they might kill each other or kill each other's kits.
Feed less, only 1/3cup and add a little more as they finish it off. Once they start dumping it, back off and only feed the total amount before they started to waste it. Old food, moldy food will make them dump it. Just having it there for them all the time makes them picky and snobby.
Give them toys.

Colony can work, but it needs a large space, tons of hide outs, several food stations. But once they get near kindling to right after, all heck can break loose.
Add everything in, toys, hide outs, water buckets and then spread food all over the place. Lastly, add ALL the does in at one time.
If any nasty fights start, spray them with the hose or toss them apart and wait. If they never stop fighting, cage one of them. If the other starts fighting with another rabbit after that, switch the evil one out with the previously caged doe.
Don't feed all together in just one pile or feeder until they start getting along and making friends.