My hay racks are commercially available racks that are made to hang outside the cage. They are made out of sheet metal and are a three sided, hopper style design. One is supposed to hang the rack outside the cage, with the open side facing in toward the rabbit. The bars of the cage then function to hold the hay within the sheet metal sides, with the bunny being able to pick at and withdraw hay through the cage wire. Most major rabbit supply houses sell these racks in 4" - 11" widths by about 8" high for $5.00 - $8.00.
The shortcoming of these hay racks is that they are designed to hang outside the cage for easier filling, but by the same token, their location tends to produce loose hay refuse/litteron the floor as the the bun(s) pull(s) hay through the cage wires.
I simply rework these racksto hang inside the cage by bending their wire attachment apparatus so that the sheet metal back of the rack is against inside of the cage wire wall and the bottom is on the floor of the cage. The "open" section of the rack now faces in toward the rabbit(s).
I take ordinary fence wire with 2" x 3" rectangular squares, and cut a piece slightly larger than the open side of the hay rack. Using the cut piece as a guide, I use a magic marker to mark where each horizontal "line" of wire will intersect the sheet metal of the two sides of the opening. I then drill a hole of a slightly larger diameter than the wire at each spot oneach of thetwosides that the wire will intersect.
I now cut away any vertical wire on either sidethat would interfere with my "threading" the horizontal wire through the aforementioned holes on the sides of the opening face of the rack.
The horizontal wires are "threaded" through the holes, filed to eliminate sharp edges,and bent 90 degrees to parallel the side of the rackand facing the back...away from the bun(s). I have, in effect, "caged in" the open face of the rack in order to enable it to hold the bun's(s') hay.
As the hay rack is inside the cage, any hay refuse pulled through the newly installed "wire fascia" does not drop to the outside of the cage, but remains neatly within. I hope the verbal description is clear enough. In truth, it takes just about as long to write about it, as to actually make the change.
All I'm doing is putting wire on the front of a rack designed to be hung on the outside of a cage and hanging that rack on the inside with the sheet metal back against the wire wall of the cage. I usuallywire or zip tie asuitably sized piece of Plexiglas, on the outside of the cage behind the rack, so virtually no refuse hits the floor.
Rack modification alone will reduce hay refuse on your floor by about 80%. Add the Plexiglas "backstop" and you're looking at a 95%+ reduction in hay litter onthe floor.
Buck
