Questions about garage housing?

[MCatCar]

Hello!



So, I'll be getting a bunny, but I have to keep him in the garage. So , would a hutch or a cagebe better? It gets very cold in the winter, and very hot in the summer.



Also, do you have any reccomendations for hutches? What should be put on the floor? How do you keep them warm in the winter, and cool in the summer?

 

[tamsin]

I would go for a pen with a shelter in for sleeping/hiding. There is no point in spending money on a hutch for shelter when the garage already provides it. You could either get a run or pen off a section using NIC cubes or simliar.

How hot is hot? Rabbits cope better with cold that heat. In anything down to about 6/7oC they just need a warm snug bed. If it drops below that you need to add some insulation - will depend on what sort of housing you go for.

It's harder to keep bunnies cool, especially in an enclosed space. If it gets very hot it might not be practical to keep a rabbit in there.

 

[MCatCar]

Outside it gets up to about 80 F.


I found a GREAT hutch! It's 4ft x 2ft. White, but with wire floors, so what could I put on the bottom?

 

[tamsin]

That should be okay temperature wise - my garage usually stays warmer than outside.

How are you going to provide exercise? 4'x2' is really only big enough when attached to a pen - in which case in a garage you might as well skip the hutch and just have the pen.

You could have a separate exercise run out 4'x6' is a good minimum but you'd want to give him around 6-8 hours in it per day minimum or you could exercise him in a room again you need a lot of time if the cage/hutch area is smaller.

 

[MCatCar]

I think I'm going to- after talking with my parents later- go for that hutch. Then I'll get a bunch of NIC cubes, and make a foldable pen that I can have in the garage, about an hour or more everyday.

 

[elrohwen]

Would you be able to bring him in for exercise? I worry that a hutch that size plus a pen for only an hour a day really isn't enough.

 

[MCatCar]

I'm going to get my brother to make my cage for me. I basically want it like this-http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753331

I want it to be where I can have a run attached, but also so I can Close it up, to where there's no access to a run.

So, if anyone has any tutorials on how to do this, I would greatly appreciate it. Or another design like this!

 

[MCatCar]

I'm drawing up a few designs that I'll post. I'm thinking I might need to put it on a table or something, because of bugs? But I want to be able to attach a run! So, any advice?

And what type of wood would be good for the wood, and what about the wire?

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

If you build a hutch just like that one in the picture, with the two levels, you can have the hutch about 4 to 6 inches off the ground, or even 12 inches, and put in a step-stool, or a ramp to connect to the ground in which case you could attach a run.

You don't want the bunny directly on the ground, but 4 to 6 inches up is fine.

Emily