Breeding and keeping pets involves a great degree of responsibility of the breeder and requires strict adherence to certain rules. One of the most important is the creation of acceptable living conditions for the animal. They should be close to natural.
Rabbits have a high degree of resistance to various diseases. They are unpretentious to food and conditions of detention, easily multiply. But despite all this, animals need a properly organized home.
The construction of a pet house must be approached competently. This takes into account the number of animals, their gender and age.
What do you need for rabbit breeding?
To start breeding rabbits at home, special cash costs are not required. It is necessary to have cages for animals, drinkers, containers for food. All this is easy to do with your own hands.
Hay and branches can be harvested in summer. Root vegetables and vegetables are easy to harvest in your own garden. The main item of expenditure will be the vaccination of animals and the purchase of concentrated feed.
Recommended cages for rabbits
In each cage must be placed same-sex animals of approximately the same age, weight and character. It is recommended to place adult animals and female rabbits in one- and two-section cages.
The size of rabbit cages have standard indicators:
- length - 100-120 cm;
- height - 50 cm;
- width - 70 cm.
For young rabbits, wooden cages covered with steel mesh are suitable. Their sizes correspond to the sizes of animals. For example, for 10 individuals, a cage with the same dimensions as indicated above will be acceptable, but its length should be 170 cm.
How to build a single tier cage?
Many are interested in how to make a rabbit cage with your own hands. Of course, if you have the right materials, this is not so difficult. The article presents drawings of rabbit cages. Recommendations are also given on the choice of materials for work.
For keeping rabbits outside in the cage system, the most popular are double single-tiered rabbit cages.
The length of such cells is 220-240 cm, and the width is 65 cm. The height of the wall in front is 35 cm..
Two compartments for food are built in the cage. The floor is made of metal mesh. The size of the cells should be equal to 18x18 mm or 16x48 mm. Wooden slats should be placed on the grid, the width of which is 2 cm, and the gap between them is 1.5-1.8 cm.
Do-it-yourself rabbit cages with the correct design should have a partition with a manhole, the width of which is 17 cm and the height is 20 cm.. The manhole is constructed at a height of 10-15 cm from the floor.
From the front side, two mesh doors are hung on the cage, which lead to the feeding compartment, as well as two solid board doors leading to the nesting compartment. Feeders with a removable structure and drinkers should be hung on the doors leading to the feed.
For feeding with roughage, nurseries are installed between the departments. They are based on two wooden frames, on which a mesh is stretched. The size of the grid cells should be 20x50 mm. The lower ends of the frames are aligned, and the upper ends are moved apart to the sides of the feed compartment. The result is a V-shaped roughage nursery.
What supplies do you need?
To build a single-tier cage for two individuals, the performer will need:
- 2 m plywood2.
- Metal mesh with mesh size 18x18 mm or welded mesh 16x48 mm (1.3 m2).
- Grid with cells 35x35 cm or 24x48 cm (0.6 m2).
Production of two-tier cages
The cost of building a bunk cage for animals is not that high. This is because the design is simple. In addition, cash costs will pay off in the first months of use.
What supplies do you need?
To make a cage with two tiers you will need:
- Two wood fiber boards.
- Beams size 60x100 mm (4 pcs.).
- Fence strips (50 pcs.).
- Roofing material 4x2 m for the construction of a pallet.
- Nails.
- Paint.
What equipment do you need?
- Two deep bowls covered with enamel (their diameter should be 220 mm).
- Manure collection tank (approx. 300 mm high).
- Pair of electric water heaters VPI-03 (also used for household purposes, immersed in water).
- Blowdown transformers 220x127 V (4 pcs. for 8 cells).
- 5 liter polyethylene canisters (4 pcs.).
Cage design
Rabbit cages need to be arranged according to how the light will fall. The blank closed wall, where the nurseries and feeders are located, should face north. This protects the animals from the winds and cold.
The roof is constructed so that it overhangs 90 cm from the north, and 60 cm from the south. From the west and east, the roof should be on a par with the protruding beams.
Bunny rabbit cages contain a stand-frame, lower and upper tiers. You can also build a roof from a roof. As a rule, transparent or translucent material is used. Roofing material can also be used.
The tier on top is a jigger, that is, it will serve as a place for rearing rabbits after the end of feedingmother's milk. This room is made from different cells. One of them must be larger than the frame.
The jigger is divided into two parts by means of a feed trough, which has outlets on both sides. A common canister drinker is also installed here. Each compartment should be equipped with a folding feeder for mixed fodder, nurseries for fresh and dry grass. They look like an opening door. A door adjoins the drinker.
The floor of the tier is horizontal. It can be based on slats of wood, which are located at an angle of 45º so that small rabbits cannot injure their paws. All walls and doors of the cage are made of lattice. The exception is the north side.
Below is the uterine tier. It consists of two compartments: nesting and walking. It may also include the same components that are present in the upper tier.
The nest compartment has a removable floor. It is located below the rest of the tiered area. A mother liquor will be placed in this compartment. Before the rabbit brings the babies, she will instinctively sneak into it herself.
The rest of the nest must be stationary. It is supplied with a wall with a manhole, overlapping with a valve. It is better to equip the door to the nest with hinges from below, so that when open it serves as a platform for the animal.
The walking compartment is supplied with a floor made of slats arranged perpendicularly. This provides structural rigidity. In the area for walking there is a canister drinker, a folding feeder and a bunker feeder for compound feed. The nursery door is hung onrack of the back of the paddock. The drinker must also have a door installed.
In the floor of the walking compartment, a window is constructed for the end of the conical shaft, which is fastened under the floor of the upper tier. The pitched shaft communicates with a bunker equipped with a removable door and a manure tank. Thus, the rabbit cages will be cleaned through special doors, which will also make the feed containers accessible. The containers themselves are located under the inclined grids of the feeders.
At the bottom of the cage frame is the electrical equipment compartment. In parallel, this place serves as a bunker for rabbits. It must be locked. For convenient loading of feeders, it is necessary to build it folding outward.
The design of the feed trough has a body with windows for rabbits, as well as a tray. It is constructed from a mesh with small cells.
All hinged components must be equipped with handles, hinges and latches, as well as mortise locks if necessary.
The side and front walls are tightened with a fine mesh, the working side can be closed with a mesh with large cells.
Mini bunk farm
You don't need a lot of space to build a small farm based on bunk cages. One cell occupies 1.4 m2. If you build a farm of two rows and use eight cages with an opening between them of 70 cm (measured along the legs) and a passage of 110 cm, then the area of \u200b\u200bthe farm will be 25 m2.
Each cage contains up to 25 rabbits at a time. At the bottom will sit a rabbit withnew offspring, and in the top - the previous offspring.
Two-tiered cages have been used on experimental farms for a number of years and have proven to be highly cost-effective and profitable. So their use is recommended to all farmers.
Making a family unit - three-section cages
Making rabbit cages with your own hands of this design is a more difficult task. But such family blocks are very convenient for breeding animals. The male lives in the central part, and the rabbits are on the sides.
Partitions made of wood between the cage compartments are equipped with manholes with plywood latches. They are designed for easy replanting of females to the male and returning them back to their compartment.
What materials are cages made of?
Bars can form the basis of the frame. The walls on the sides, the compartment for the nest with doors and partitions are built from lining.
Metal mesh is used for the front wall. An attic part is provided in the nesting compartments - this is a free space between the ceiling and the common roof, where female rabbits can rest.
An added convenience is that the layout of the feeders and drinkers is thought out in such a way that they are not subject to contamination and can be filled from the outside.
Cages for rabbits designed by breeder N. I. Zolotukhin
The famous rabbit breeder N. I. Zolotukhin has been breeding these cute animals for several decades. Such rich experience helpedhim to build a new cage for the rabbits.
Features of breeder cells
- The floor is solid. Its basis is slate or boards.
- There are no pallets in cages.
- A narrow strip of mesh flooring is only along the back walls of the structure.
- The rear walls are set at an angle so that rabbit waste from the tiers above does not fall on the rabbits in the lower tiers.
- There are no special queen cells. The rabbit builds her own nest before giving birth.
- Front to the doors are grain feeders that flip outward to fill.
The scheme of the rabbitry is presented below.
How to make cages for dwarf rabbits with your own hands?
If you want to have dwarf rabbits at home, their cages are built in a different way. There are many different models available in pet stores. But you don't have to buy them. You can make your own pet cage and it won't take long.
The structure consists of two walls on the sides, the size of which is 70x70 cm. The back wall is attached in such a way that a gap is obtained under the cage. The height of the back wall is 55 cm, the length is 100 cm.
Meter rails are nailed to the bottom of the cage. A metal mesh is fixed on top of them.
The lid of the cage is made from mesh on hinges. It is provided with a handle. A pallet is installed under the cage.
How to choose a grid?
In the manufacture of rabbitries, of course, you will need a net. In order for the manufacturer to better understand which mesh choice will be optimal, we advise you to use a number of tips.
Many people wonder: is galvanized mesh, steel or aluminum material suitable? It is better to opt for a steel structure, as it is durable.
To make a wooden cage with mesh doors and a floor, choose the mesh carefully so that it does not hurt the paws of the animals. Experienced breeders advise using it with small cells. Metal material is used. The mesh thickness is 2 mm, and the mesh size is 16x48 mm. For the construction of the side walls of the cage, a galvanized mesh is suitable.
For the construction of the door, any kind of mesh is used. It doesn't have to be welded. Wicker can also be used.
In the warm season, animals can be kept in a cage fenced with a net. A wicker construction with a thickness of 1.2 mm is suitable for it.
