New Cage Set-Up

[HappyFarmBunnies]

I'm trying to restructure our cage set-up, and am wondering what my options are. If I'm correct, the only three are: pull-out trays, the drop method (waste drops directly on to the hutch floor) or commercial cages. We looked into the commercial cages, but when I priced out 12 cages it came to well over $1,500! Right now we only have 8 rabbits but would like to expand to 10 or 12 by the end of the year.

Currently, we use lovely wood and wire cages with pull-out trays. None are stacked and each rabbit has a considerable amount of space. Of course, no one shares a cage and Moms with babies get a double-wide cage to themselves. I don't want to sacrifice their standard of living, but am wondering if there is a better, more efficient way to do things? Right now there is a lot of cleaning involved.

Any help or resources would be greatly appreciated.

 

[mistyjr]

Holy cows! With my 12 stacking cages I could have bought 5 sets of 12 cages. I got mine from www.kdcages.com And I want to buy bigger cages for just momma and babies! So thats my plan for this year!

 

[SNM]

Wooo, I guess you could try to find somebody who builds them super cheap. I get my 3 tier cages w/ pans for $60

 

[CCWelch]

Misty, I tried going to KDCages.com and the link takes me to something other than a cage store.

 

[HappyFarmBunnies]

CCWelch wrote:

Misty, I tried going to KDCages.com and the link takes me to something other than a cage store.

It appears to be www.kdcages.net

 

[HappyFarmBunnies]

SNM, my father-in-law is incredibly talented with building things--he built most of the cages we have now, and they all use pans. But I was hoping someone had other, perhaps more efficient ideas as dumping pans all day long can become very time consuming with 12 rabbits!
Misty, do your cages use a pan/tray method for waste clean up?

 

[SNM]

You're going to be shoveling poop regardless unless you want a flush keen system .

 

[HappyFarmBunnies]

I had found that one; wondered if there was another similar thing out there I was perhaps overlooking. I'm not as experienced as some other breeders out there. I think the Flush Kleen was about $1,000 though...

 

[mistyjr]

opps, sorry about that! But I gotten my stacking cages and my carriers from them, And we love our stuff!


Mine are just slide out trays, We empty them into our poop pile for our garden!

 

[GorbyJobRabbits]

12 cages isn't much to clean out lol. Craigslist is a good place to find cages. Look up some rabbitry sites that are more in your state and a lot of people sell old equiptment. It will probably be your cheapest route.

 

[HappyFarmBunnies]

I know it might not be a lot in comparison to some other breeders; I'm just the type of person who always wants to try and make things better and more convenient and as streamlined as possible. Plus the less time we can spend cleaning out cages the more time we can spend doing other, more fun bunny-related things, is my thinking.

I think I will have my father-in-law build a series of bunny apartments with trays. He's a great engineer as well; he very well may come up with a system similar to the Flush Kleen that he can build himself.

I was just wondering if anyone had any other ideas other than the ones I've already discovered out there.

 

[The Haven Rabbitry]

Just a personal opinion, I have hanging cages, where the feces and urine drop to the bottom of my barn (of course, it's a dirt bottom floor, so probably not ideal for someone who has an actual wood, etc... floor) and I LOVE IT! It keeps the cages very clean and the rabbits very far from their fecal matter and urine. I just go in, shovel it up, throw it in the garden and throw down some more hay! Works GREAT! But like I said, depending on what type of floor you have, it may not be as convenient!

 

[mistyjr]

We have cement floor, But when im going to be looking another set of 6-9 hole cages this time, There are breeders out there that are also selling out on their bunnies, that maybe you can get a good deal and also look on craigslist (like crystal said),

 

[CCWelch]

My rabbit cages are suspended about 3 feet above the ground, we shovel out under all the cages about 4 times a year and put lime down between times. Flies have been minimal with pour system of doing things. We use garden lime rather than barn lime because we also till our droppings into the soil.
Right now I have 18 bunnies with 3 litters due in the next couple days and more litters due mid month.
Our cage sizes are dependent on the breed, our Giants are in a 48"x48" cage our mini lops are in a 24"x24" cage and our English Spots are in 18"x24" cages. We use what we can find on craigslist then build a wood frame for them so they sit up off the ground and have a roof. Most of our cages started as dog pens and we put a 1x1/2 wire bottom in them. The others we built ourselves, if you can cut a straight line, measure openings, and figure out how to use J-clips it is simple to build a cage.

 

[mistyjr]

Yeah, I a good friend of mine, Built her own cages! We did that once and i didnt like it (hubby not a good built for cages but can build nesting boxes ) But I will looking end of this year or around Feb/march for new cages just for mommma's only! I love my cages just a tad to small, But you gotta do what you can!

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We have litter pans inside our hutches--they get cleaned daily and the pan under the hutch gets almost no waste so they get changed once a month unless they need a quick spot-change.

 

[HappyFarmBunnies]

So there are basically five options:
1. Drop Method
2. Litter pans inside the hutch itself (essentially litter training, to some degree)
3. Pull out trays underneath a wire floor
4. The commercial Flush Kleen system
5. Some other system perhaps designed by someone else that no one has thought of yet! (Perhaps ripping off the Flush Kleen idea?)