Hay nets for rabbits

I feel silly for even asking this.. But if I bought a hay net for the colony, would they just chew holes through it? What if I made a hay net out of some kind of wire? What kind of wire would I use? What guage? Has anyone trooped this before? I'd like something I can also make a downsized version of to put in cages as well. TIA

I made "hay feeders" from the 1" x 2" heavy cage wire, - worked well...

What if you just put the bale in there? Just take off the twine and place it where ever you like.

michaels4gardens":ofdaq2nt said:

I made "hay feeders" from the 1" x 2" heavy cage wire, - worked well...

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This is a great idea, I'll keep that in mind when I build new cages! Seems like I saw a video of someone doing it but I couldn't find it or remember the dimentions.

Augustus&Beatrice":ofdaq2nt said:

What if you just put the bale in there? Just take off the twine and place it where ever you like.

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I've tried this before and it resulted in a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of wasted hay from them climbing on it and peeing and pooping all over it and then it molding. The area I have them in is an old horse barn that was just one large stall, like a mud room attached to the basement with no entrance from the basement. My rabbits are in the larger back half separate from the goats. Which means I could do the 1" x 2" wore idea and make it big enough to hold an entire square of hay and have it hanging on the wall, would be super easy to install if I use washers and bolts to hold it up..

When i made mine, [on the outside of the cages from metal ].. i made it big enough a flake of hay would slide in about 3/4 of the way. as they ate [pulled it through the cage wire] the flake would slide down further.

Oh ok. I'm not that familiar with types of wire but just make sure it's wide enough between each bar to get the front of their face in. Not like the hay racks you buy in the small pets section with really small separations.

I scrounge the dump for those little wire trays used in mini fridges. Fold them in half, put something on the ends so the rabbits cannot climb in and viola, hay rack

Cool, I like that Idea. But if it were me I would soak in bleach for an hour or so. But I'm kinda a germaphobe when it comes to other people's trash, not mine, but others. I know where my stuff has been and in what, I don't know where others have been. But I'm all for dumpster diving, It's a good way to not waste. I wish it wasn't illegal in some places.

Ha! A use for old mini-fridge racks! I've been tossing them into a pile, wish I could send them to the bunny folks here instead.

We bought a property last July which has the carcasses of at least thirty mini-fridges scattered around on it. The little racks seem to survive pretty well, I keep getting them tangled up in the string trimmer while trying to get to the bottom of these piles of weed and vine covered I'm-not-sure-what.

I saw one set of hutch plans that had large hole wire kinda arched between the tops of the individual spaces in a big hutch. There was a long door that opened up above the bunny spaces which allowed access to the top of the arched areas of wire. Hay was pushed into there and the bunnies could reach up and pull down hay.

Hmm, wouldn't have to be fancy arches, just a flat slanted roof that had a dropped down hinged door across the top of the bunny spaces would work. Oooh! And, if they're double layer hutches, the hay rack could be at the front and take up the extra room left by the slanted floor between the upper and lower hutch areas. Maybe next time we build a big hutch, that can be added in.

Maybe we need a 'dream hutch' site somewhere? Maybe I'll put it on the bunny's website over at Hillside Farm. I just gave someone a set of plans to build a big roofed bunny space which is a set of big hutches facing each other with a roofed area in the middle. If they build it, I can take pictures to post.

go to your local restore/used building materials store, get the wire racks commercial stores use as shelving and bolt, twist, or baling/fence wire them into a v. Block off the ends with a piece of wood or something. They work great as hay racks for a larger area.