floor in the hutch

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bubba man

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hello - hope all is well - question is how many of you have screen floor in the hutch - now when i say hutch i mean where they sleep at night - i was using a wood floor but man oh man in a weeks time the wood was saturated with poop and urine so today i went with a screen and of course hay for bedding - i live in N.C. where it dosen
 
All my cages have 1"x0.5" 14g or 12.5g wire bottoms... they all have plastic resting mats and only does with litters have a box (either hanging from the cage or in the cage)

No matter if it's wire or wood, some rabbits are just dirty bunnies....

If you have a "house" for them to sleep in, chances are you should check that space daily that they aren't using it for a litter box.... some of my does need this check prior to baby day as they are sure I left that box there for their potty!!.... usually they don't have issues once they start hay stashing... but.....
 
I've done various caging wire, premade more bar floors, and various solid floors. I like the metal conduit bar floor idea. I was trying to figure out something similar for guinea pigs that in other countries are kept on curved bamboo floor slats but I can't get equivalent wood products in the US. Guinea pigs get sore feet a lot more easily on wire but it has potential for larger rabbit cages over what thin wire I can get locally.

For solid floors or really any wood item you can solve a lot of problems with a can of rustoleum enamel. Completely nontoxic once fully dry, waterproof, and wipes clean like plastic. The myriad of polyurethanes work too but some may have toxic ingredients. I've only found definitely safe marine polyurethane for boats once around here. The enamel is in practically any hardware store and cheap so I have coated a lot of wood bases for guinea pigs, chickens, rabbits, gerbils, degus, and reptiles in it. Just don't scrape it off with rock or metal edges and it lasts 5-10 years or more. It can also be repainted as needed. The only thing with small mammals is you sometimes have to protect the edge of the wood or they will keep chewing off your seal and it's probably not as safe to ingest as it is to live on. We ran piano hinge aka continuous hinges down the edges of things like degu cages so the wood is mostly impervious to chewing. That way I can build practically any shape or size I want out of solid wood with the only remaining downside of the wood being weight. Far more work and limitations to rely on cutting metal for every part of a cage.
 
what about predators reaching thru the floor <br /><br /> -- Wed Nov 28, 2018 7:06 pm -- <br /><br /> what does this [ bunny bucks mean ? ]
 
bubba man":c2k7210h said:
what does this [ bunny bucks mean ? ]
Bunny bucks are used to "purchase"/download the rabbit-related files we have in the "Downloads" tab under the main page title. See the buttons under the "Rabbits for profit... Rabbits for fun.. Rabbits for just about everyone..." slogan? Click the "Downloads" button and you'll see what I mean. You earn bunny bucks by making posts or responding to others. It's not a big deal, but the articles can be fun to read through!
:)

bubba man":c2k7210h said:
what about predators reaching thru the floor

Regarding predators... with proper cage floor material, while it is possible that a rat or something small might be able to reach through, for the most part it's pretty safe. Lots of folks use thick wire mesh (1/2 inch by 1 inch, 12-14 gauge) for their cage floors and the rabbits do very well on them. The conduit floors Michael shared are also really cool, and look simple to clean.

The only thing I wouldn't recommend for flooring options are things like hardware cloth, which is much too fine (and can cut into the rabbits' feet) and is generally too small to efficiently pass poops through, anyway.

:good-luck:
 
no matter what kind of "open flooring" you use- 1/2 x 1" wire - or conduit... the bottom of the cage needs to be high enough off the ground that a coon cannot reach it. I also like to provide a raised platform made of wood, for the rabbits to jump up on to sit or sleep, this also gives them a way to get away from a predator trying to get to them through the floor. Big dogs, can also tear through a wire floor- they can't get through the conduit [at least -not yet] "Predator proofing" /exclusion, - is a big part of raising any livestock... I prefer to have a predator tight building... but- that has not always been possible.. so, I build very strong ,high cages.
 
If you have them running in and out of a cage area I would think you'd have to protect the whole area anyway. Even if moving them by hand from a pen to a nighttime cage it makes sense to put that cage in a building or something. I never left small animals out of a building at night if I wanted them all to live. I've had coons dismantle quail and pull them through small hardware cloth to eat. I also had a feral cat manage to injure and kill small animals through 1" square openings of a 3'x4' pen that was in a building. I left the door open during the day and it started wandering through everything. I try to enclose everything caged in double wire if it can't be shut up at night. Either another barrier of fence around the whole set of cages and pens or simply putting a layer of hardware cloth a few inches out from the first across at least the floor if there is no solid pan under it. It stops the smaller things at least. Not much stops dogs, coyotes, or the fishercat we ended up with that caused us to give up poultry for rabbits in the first place.
 
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