*update video pg 7* Newfreewill Rabbit Adventure

[DutchBunny03]

That nest box design is awesome, btw. The rabbits like to climb on top of them, and it preserves heat very well. They're really easy to make, too.
Personally, i hate wood shavings, but they might work in your predicament. Use them in place of hay for bedding, they absorb way better.

 

[Marie28]

That box looks great. I need to pay our bills before we can go buy wood. We don't have any wood shavings but we just shredded some paper and paper bags from the grocery store and I will be adding that tomorrow.

She tore the box open again and has been using the pieces to add to her nest, I tore a box up for her so she could have more things to use andI guess she decided it wasn't enough. She emptied her hay feeder and was going for the dirty floor stuff until I caught and I decided to start tearing up a different box.

 

[Pastor Dave]

Looking at my nest boxes last night when I fed them their hay and put em up for the night, I checked the length again, and it's closer to 18"

 

[Hopalong Causually]

Here's another option for a nest box. I built this one according to specs provided in the book, "Rabbit Housing" by Bob Bennett. It's made completely of 1/2" x 1" wire with the tops bent in to prevent snagging and also provide a location to slip in cardboard sides, front, back, and bottom. The front is shorter and I hinged it along the bottom to allow simply swinging down the front to allow kits passage once they start jumping out. That way they can go in and out at will without getting "locked" out. The door front can be snap-locked shut until that time. It measures 18" x 10" x 8". The front is 6" high.
I punched holes in the bottom cardboard to allow waste drainage. Once the litter no longer needs the nest, the box can be easily cleaned by discarding all the cardboard and washing the wire. I had one doe use this nest box for two litters and it worked great.

I recently built two wooden boxes close to the dimensions Pastor Dave mentioned above but I put 1" x 1/2" wire bottoms in them and put a cardboard floor on top of that. They're going into use tomorrow. I'll report on their usefulness once these nestings are completed. I can't imagine anything easier to clean and sanitize than the all-wire box, though.

 

[Hopalong Causually]

Here's another picture of the all-wire box in use. I put a wooden roof on the back to give the doe a place to escape the little ones, but the kits took to perching on it themselves.

 

[Marie28]

I love the easy cleaning of the wire. Not sure if she would rip up the cardboard though...
We live in Northern WI, so we made the hutches with hide spots, the does will have a enclosed space for kindling and to get away from the wind (bucks have a corner blocked off). We plan on adding the box so the kits can safely be removed and easy cleaning. The wire would be less bulky, we will have to see if she would leave the cardboard alone lol.

Well day 31 and no signs of going into labor. She's been eating and drinking. We will wait till tomorrow and then remove the box. If nothing new happens tomorrow we will be taking out her box.

 

[DutchBunny03]

The cardboard ones seem pretty popular, but i dont know how well they would hold up. They would quickly soak up urine, and be chewed to bits in a couple days.
If you stuff her hutch with shavings, straw. etc., she may stop tearing up her cardboard boxes. Cardboard isn't really desirable nest building material.

 

[Hopalong Causually]

I would NOT propose that the all-wire nest box is appropriate for all situations. In my application, it was installed in an all-wire hutch which allowed urine to drip/evaporate out the bottom. Putting it in a solid bottom portion of a hutch might not be best but would actually be no different than a solid wood bottom nest box. The cardboard was only used to help contain the hay nesting material. Four or five days after kindling, I assumed the need to replace the hay but found that it was NOT wet or even damp. The cardboard on the bottom wasn't even damp. So, I left the original nesting hay in the box until the entire box was removed from the hutch. None of the kits in two litters developed nest box eye. The doe did not chew the cardboard either. Others certainly might. I was so impressed with having a porous or semi-porous bottom in the nest box that I put a 1" x 1/2" wire bottom in the wooden nest boxes I most recently built. It would be a simple fix if I find the need to put in a different bottom later.

 

[Marie28]

Well so far it looks like this has been just a ploy to get more food. She is the reason we don't free feed them at this age, they get about a 1 cup of pellets a day (3/4 in the morning and 1/4 at night) and unlimited timothy hay. She eats everything while the boys will have food left over from the last feeding. We plan on giving more fresh once we get the garden going.

This is a cute picture I took of her sleeping in her food bowl today.

Its getting warmer this weekend so we will be finishing the outdoor hutches! We need to make the "table", put shingles on the roof and give them a coat of paint.

 

[Pastor Dave]

Sounds hormonal. If you were wanting to breed her, she should be very receptive now.