may have to give up rabbits.

First it's getting hard to handle 50 pound bags of feed. Second, I'm forgetting once a while to feed all the rabbits because my cages are in several different spots. Third, I'm forgetting to close the cage doors more often. Good thing is it's the top cage doors that I leave open and the rabbits tend not to jump out.

too bad about that,
I find myself cutting back more and more also...
I guess, ... it is inevitable

High protein feed comes in 40# bags....

Maybe scaling back would be a good thing? I've found that 18-22 rabbits are a lot easier to take care of than 24-36 rabbits.

I've also consolidated the hutches into one area and have piped in water. The females all live in big groups except when they're nesting, so that saves on opening hutch doors, too. It would be nice to figure out a self shutting and self locking hutch door, though.

hotzcatz":21kuz56d said:

High protein feed comes in 40# bags....

Maybe scaling back would be a good thing? I've found that 18-22 rabbits are a lot easier to take care of than 24-36 rabbits.

I've also consolidated the hutches into one area and have piped in water. The females all live in big groups except when they're nesting, so that saves on opening hutch doors, too. It would be nice to figure out a self shutting and self locking hutch door, though.

Click to expand...

I have put a gate latch and a spring,[or spring hinges] on the doors of outdoor wooden hutches, the spring closes the door, and it locks in place...
https://www.zoro.com/zoro-select-self-l ... 0wQAvD_BwE

That's a brilliant method, Michaels4gardens, I'll set that up for the next hutch. Right now there's two doors that swing together for each bunny space and that type of closure wouldn't work with two doors coming together. At the moment, they're held in place with a big nail.



You can see the nail in the one side of the frame in the back, but all the frames ended up getting the nails to hold them shut. I just drilled a hole through the bottom of the individual door frame into the face frame and dropped a nail in the hole. It works well, but sometimes the nail doesn't completely drop. I could drill the hole a bit bigger or use a skinnier nail, I suppose.

Your method seems like it would be easier to use.

hotzcatz":1ypnkis6 said:

That's a brilliant method, Michaels4gardens, I'll set that up for the next hutch. Right now there's two doors that swing together for each bunny space and that type of closure wouldn't work with two doors coming together. At the moment, they're held in place with a big nail.

You can see the nail in the one side of the frame in the back, but all the frames ended up getting the nails to hold them shut. I just drilled a hole through the bottom of the individual door frame into the face frame and dropped a nail in the hole. It works well, but sometimes the nail doesn't completely drop. I could drill the hole a bit bigger or use a skinnier nail, I suppose.

Your method seems like it would be easier to use.

Click to expand...

I like the "gate latch"/ "spring" - as it is "dummy proof" , and the doors shut by themselves, after I get out of the way. When my hands are full of rabbits, closing and then latching a door, is a pain. and-- I don't get busy, or distracted, and forget to latch a door closed. Loose rabbits, can be such a pain.. I have had some that were never caught and repenned..