Bunnies Living Outside? Advice needed, please?

[RattiesSix]

Hello, it's been forever since I've posted on here. I've since gotten a second bunny, and both of my girls are indoors currently.

I live in Ohio, and the weather is getting warmer, and I hear a lot of people talking about their bunnies living outside, and being perfectly fine. And a lot of breeders keeping them in a shed and such.

I just want advice on this being suitable?

We have a large porch, that isn't enclosed, but does have a large awning over it, it keeps the water and everything out.

I want to put their NIC cages on the porch. Have large NIC cages out there, and build a small "bunny cage port" for the NIC cages to fit into. This way their will be a ply wood roof, and sides, and only the front will be open to the yard. The cages will be butted up against the house. And have a small tarp to go over the front open part when it's raining.

They'd live out there most of the time, and I'd also put the smaller NIC cages in my house so that in the case of extreme weather, they could come in.

I'm also going to build a large rabbit run in the yard with chicken wire, and wooden posts. We have a huge yard. I think they'll like it a lot, and they'll only be out there supervised in the run, of course.

Is all this acceptable?

Also, we live near some woods, and there are lots of wild bunnies. Should I be worried?

I've not lived in this house long, hence all the springtime building, and any advice would be great. :]

 

[Flashy]

I would worry about predators getting in to that. It would have to be REALLY reinforced. Do you have predators? What kind?

 

[anneq]

I have bunnies inside and out - we have a large outdoor run (wooden fencing about 9ft.high) and reinforced at the lower half with rabbit wire (bought at Lowes) and the bottom reinforced with stone and wood so they don't dig out.
Have their wire cages on a low platform and covered with plastic tarp when they are locked up at night.
Even though we have dogs on both sides of our house that pretty much keep away foxes, I would never let my bunnys loose at night in the pen - foxes and other predators could get in - not to mention maybe owls.
We have also an enclosed porch that buns visit in, and let them loose there too (not unsupervised, because they can (and DID) find a snag in the wire netting and chewed through it.ssd:
I'd be careful of chicken wire, rabbits have been known to even chew through and and can injure themselves (my Rosey did that last summer , so now we don't use that).
Mine love being able to romp and dig and chew roots (we have about 5 smaller trees that provide shade and cover for them in their pen) and being able to take dirt baths, haha.

 

[Maureen Las]

Unless it is built like a fortess
coyotes, foxes, racoons ,dogs etc can do unbelievable things when they want an animal

it can be done but should be made predator proof which takes thought and work

 

[Maureen Las]

http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=14535&forum_id=1

http://www.rabbitrehome.org.uk/care/hutch.asp

 

[Hazel-Mom]

Personally, I would NEVER trust NIC cages for outdoor living. They are just not sturdy enough. Unless you can put them in a sturdy shed, or garage, or something, I wouldn't risk it with NIC cages.
There have been plenty of unfortunate accidents, one very recently, an aweful experience for someone here on this board.

If you need to house your rabbits outdoors, please build or buy them a really sturdy hutch, one that is meant for outdoor rabbits.

 

[irishlops]

i agree ^^^^^^^^
i have a "study"ish shed.
and cats getin. but the hutch stops them getting to my rabbits.
once ui walked in on a cat, and it was "fishing" through the wire to get my rabbits. but one of mine bit the cats paw!
but i would get a hutch.

 

[RattiesSix]

Those hutches are really cool! Our neighbor has a Jack Russel who I haven't seen loose, but I'll count him as a predator. And a raccoon, but are raccoons a threat to bunnies?

If you think they aren't sturdy enough, then I'll definitely use hutches. We already have one, I just like the look of the NIC cages better. And it'll be no trouble to build a second hutch, though I may just build them both from scratch. No sense in doing things halfway.

Do you think the NIC cages would be a good way to build a run then? Just for supervised play, if they're zip-tired. I imagine it'd be somewhat like those big dog cages people use. And I had no idea bunnie could bite through chicken wire. :nerves1

Thanks for the links, I think I'm going to base my hutches off the first ones shown in the thread. :]

 

[tonyshuman]

Oh yeah raccoons are a threat. They will eat anything, and may come after your guys just because they want the food in their cage. They have been known to nibble off toes and anything they can get at, and a bunny protecting his cage from a curious raccoon may start a fight that gets bad. Raccoons also carry awful parasites that could kill them. You definitely want something more than wire between them and the outside world, except when supervised. Even a wire-bottom on a hutch is something dogs and raccoons can get at them through.

NIC cages would be fine for a supervised run. You might want to put them on top too so that birds of prey don't swoop down on them.

 

[Maureen Las]

Predators are particualry adept at out-maneuvering the human ..

I even heard of a hawkswooping down and taking arabbit off a tiny condo patio while a person was sitting out there reading a book.

 

[anneq]

"neighbor has a Jack Russell" terriers have a very strong 'prey instinct' - most all terriers & hounds were bred to chase down & hunt small prey - and that's pretty much what your bunnies will look like to him.