*Update 4/27*PICS Our working doe cages w/Sani-Nests

I mentioned in my breeding post that we made some modifications to our does cages, but I thought I would post the pics of our setup. It seems like there are very few pictures of Sani-Nest setups online to look at, so hopefully this will be helpful to someone down the road.

We had wanted to at least try extra large cages for them, and started with 48" wide x 30" deep, but my arm span is only 24"! If the girls didn't like to huddle in the back corner that would have been fine, but since they do... We decided to cut 4" off the back - so really they still have a good sized cage, but they've lost a little real estate, but we've also got a wider aisle now, yay! Since the door is pretty big - I think 16" wide and 14" high - I can now reach the back of the now 26" deep cages.

We also did the deep cleaning in preparation for litters (I hope!), and installed the Sani-Nests, and the buckets from the tutorial on this forum. I actually took the pictures before DH put the bucket in, but I wanted to get shots while there was only one cage up so I could capture better detail.

There was some debate about where to put the nest box, because I always see pictures of them in the front, but since the bottom of our cages are about 46" off the ground, we decided to put the nest boxes toward the back of the cage - I think from the front of the cage to the front of the nest, it's 6", which is a pretty easy reach. It's located about 5" from the side of the cage, which is hopefully enough to avoid rabbits in the adjacent cage from peeing into it. It seemed to me like they might feel like they have more privacy if the nests were toward the back. The pictures here are of the cage that's on the right hand side, the cage to the left has its nest box located 5" in from the righthand edge, so the nest boxes are about 11" apart. This should actually make it so rabbits in both cages will use other areas for the bathroom!

Another thing we really debated was how big a hole to cut in the floor of the cage. The Sani-Nest is 18" deep by 10" wide, and 8" high. The instructions said to cut a hole 18"x10" and install the box flush, but we wanted to duplicate how most of you do your nests, with part of it covered on top for mom to perch on. We ended up cutting a hole that's 10"x10", so 8"x10" of the nest has cage floor above it. We haven't decided if we should just let the girls have access to the nest box all the time, or cover the opening with the resting mat. Velma tosses her herb dish into it when she's done with them, which is pretty funny, though a shame because it's a really pretty hand made dish! No appreciation for the finer things. :lol:









This is what Velma always looks like when we are in the bunny barn:

She has a really nice dewlap! Like the sani nests but not sure if I would be using them. I made my own and just have them inside the cage. To many stray cats where I am at.

That looks really nice! If I didn't have to remove the nest boxes every night due to rats I would be all over that type of set up!

And Velma is adorable.

Both of those sound like NOT a good situation! We have stray cats in the neighborhood, as well as one recently spotted raccoon. There aren't a bunch of raccoons on the island, but there are a few, and I know they can be a hazard, I have a client who recently lost all but two of her chickens to a raccoon, but she admitted they were in an older coop that might have made access easier. We actually have quite a problem with feral cats here, which does keep the field mouse problem down! There are also quite a few wild rabbits, so really there are lot easier pickings than our rabbits. We also have a lot of bald eagles, who keep a sharp lookout for small cats, rabbits and field mice. We don't seem to have a rat problem on the island, though the mice are huge!

Hopefully we won't have a problem with any of the above, because we have a pretty snug little rabbit barn that was built with all of these critters in mind, though in hindsight we could have buried 1/2" hardware cloth around the perimeter and brought it up 6" above ground and stapled it to the barn walls.

Hi.

I also question the wild critters.
We recently had a mink attack. Got 2 adult does and 1 baby rabbit.
Came from under the cages and started pulling down through the wire.
Could not get into the 1 by 2 inch sides. The 2 does bled to death.

I have bought new wire and will be building as many 1 by 1 inch wire
units as possible. My cages have a second floor 4 inches under the
1 by 1/2 inch floor. The second floor out of 1 by 2 inch wire,
supports the drop pan.
Each cage is a separate unit and they are stackable as is. They will
need something as uprights to hold them more secure for stacking.
So 3 sides , under the cages are protected.
I will be working on some sort of wire panel to protect the front of the
cage where the pan slides in so no critters can come from underneath again.

As I mentioned previously, these cages are in a tightly enclosed building, a mink wouldn't get in here - though I don't believe we even have those in our area anyway. The Sani-Nest is made from 1/2"x1" wire, so I think it would be fairly tough to get into. Escpecially since the nest will be lined with a single piece of cardboard (folded and cut at the corners) that will cover the bottom and all four sides when there is a littler in the cage.

If we had our cages in unsecured hutches (as our original plan!!) or in an older building with a lot of ports of entry for wild critters, I would be more concerned about all of that.

Predators usually need something to stand on to get at rabbits through 1/2x1 bottom cage wire,[except monkeys] and a 1"x12" bord as a shelf or just laid in the bottom of the cage will give the rabbit a place to stand durring an attack. If you have any trouble with sani-nest attacks, you can make a drawer from 1/4" plywood with 1x1 wood strips to hold the seams and corners, [or a sheetmetal drawer, works a lot better, to fit the cardbord into] that will slide into the sani-nest ,then put the cardbord and bedding in that..
... very nice set-up...

michaels4gardens":3oewyc3i said:

Predators usually need something to stand on to get at rabbits through 1/2x1 bottom cage wire,[except monkeys] and a 1"x12" bord as a shelf or just laid in the bottom of the cage will give the rabbit a place to stand durring an attack. If you have any trouble with sani-nest attacks, you can make a drawer from 1/4" plywood with 1x1 wood strips to hold the seams and corners, [or a sheetmetal drawer, works a lot better, to fit the cardbord into] that will slide into the sani-nest ,then put the cardbord and bedding in that..
... very nice set-up...

Click to expand...

Thanks, great ideas! You actually reminded me - I am planning to have a separate box that slides into the Sani-Nest as one whole piece, because we want to be able to slide the nest out to clean it and check on the kits. The bottom of our cages are about 45" from the ground, so the sani-nest bottoms are about 37" - more than three feet right now. When the worm beds are full, that will drop to about 29" off the ground. For the adult rabbit in their cages - they all have buckets now, so they can hop into those as well.

I have some freestanding metal shelves (they are actually intended for kitchen cupboards, so you can stack plates under and on top to utilize more cupboard space), that have solid tops. Well, there's a little cutout design, but nothing that would cause a problem. I might put one or two in the cage with grow outs when they get old enough to climb on things. One way to expand floor space when there's a full house, and they could be moved around as we like and are easily sanitized since they are powder coated metal. Thanks for sparking some more ideas!

Eventually, we will be lowering these cages down about 6" so that we can put some small cages above the does to house and rabbits that we hold back for breeding stock - at that time the babies will be much lower, but will still be well protected, I think!

I have the same nests, but I use them in the cages themselves. I have two tiers of cages in my bunnybarn, and there is not enough clearance to put them under the cages.

Honestly, I don't see how having the nests under the cages is any more dangerous than having it inside. :? It is made entirely of floor wire, after all. The only animal I would be worried about would be a coon since they could figure out how to unfasten the spring closure.

Comet007":3n1rq25p said:

There was some debate about where to put the nest box, because I always see pictures of them in the front, we decided to put the nest boxes toward the back of the cage - I think from the front of the cage to the front of the nest, it's 6", which is a pretty easy reach. It's located about 5" from the side of the cage, which is hopefully enough to avoid rabbits in the adjacent cage from peeing into it. It seemed to me like they might feel like they have more privacy if the nests were toward the back.

Click to expand...

I think the front placement is just for ease of access for the breeder. I agree that they would probably feel more secure with the nests at the back.

Boy- you sure put a lot of thought into where to locate them! For some reason, I never even thought of other rabbits peeing into them. Duh!

Comet007":3n1rq25p said:

Another thing we really debated was how big a hole to cut in the floor of the cage. The Sani-Nest is 18" deep by 10" wide, and 8" high. The instructions said to cut a hole 18"x10" and install the box flush, but we wanted to duplicate how most of you do your nests, with part of it covered on top for mom to perch on.

Click to expand...

I like that better than their suggestion... but ultimately, I guess it is up to the does!

Comet007":3n1rq25p said:

We haven't decided if we should just let the girls have access to the nest box all the time, or cover the opening with the resting mat.

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If they start using it as a place to lounge around in, I would cover it. You don't want them to get into that habit because when they have kits they will smother them.

Comet007":3n1rq25p said:

Velma tosses her herb dish into it when she's done with them, which is pretty funny, though a shame because it's a really pretty hand made dish! No appreciation for the finer things. :lol:

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:lol: Naughty bunny! I have noticed that rabbits delight in putting things into other things, much like toddlers. My rabbits constantly put their toys into their water bowls, and does with nests often put a toy in the "nursery".

Comet007":3n1rq25p said:

You actually reminded me - I am planning to have a separate box that slides into the Sani-Nest as one whole piece

Click to expand...

That's a good idea! I don't know if this would be structurally sound enough, but I line my nests with the plastic wallboard commonly used in commercial bathrooms. My panels are zip-tied to the box itself, but I wonder if you could secure them to each other instead?

I like it because it is easy to clean between uses. Another option might be wood coated with polyurethane to waterproof it. Wood itself is antibacterial, so you could also use raw wood. Eventually the bottom will get really smelly from urine soaking into the wood though.

Comet007":3n1rq25p said:

For the adult rabbit in their cages - they all have buckets now, so they can hop into those as well.

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Yay for bunnybuckets! :bouncy:

Thanks for the ideas on the "interior" nest box. We had better figure that part out pretty soon, since we've already bred the girls, and hopefully will be needing them in just a few weeks! We're so steeped in getting the garden in, we have to bounce back to working on the rabbitry here and there. I'm actually surprised that we are sticking to our original breeding plan, since we are putting in a pretty serious garden with raised beds with cold frames on them, a high tunnel and potato towers. Planning my first garden, including succession plantings and attempting year round gardening is more complex than I thought it would be. Plus we both still have to WORK! Life will slow down eventually... I tell myself that every season of every year lol.

I like the under-the-cage design, it eliminates the problem of babies getting out of the nest too soon,and finding them dead in the morning, the kits are old enough to survive before they can get out of those, and often they just fall back into the nest after they crawl around for a while.
The draw-back is that some of the does poop in the nest a lot from above, [so the nest should be cleaned each week], -- but-- they don't pee in there, so it is usually not too big of a problem.
If you have a shelf in the cage-- it gives the doe a place to get away from the kits.. and is a big advantage.. I like my shelves at least a foot off the bottom.

Our cages are 48" across and 26" deep - in that case, would you put the shelf from front to back so that it is 26"? 48" seems like it would be more complicated structurally, but we have the hay rack on one end of the cage, and the nest is on the other, so I'm not sure how that would work! Also, we do have a bucket for each cage - would that serve the same purpose? Even though our cages are rather large, a shelf seems like a great way to expand the floor space.

I think what makes it hard is that they have a wall to the back, a neighbor to one end, their hay rack at the other end, and two feeders and two half gallon water bottles on the front. Actually, on of the does feeders is on the end of the cage also. Then we have the doors - it seems like all the wall space is taken up - though I am intrigued by having a shelf be above where the nests are. How wide do you make them - I'm assuming you use floor wire? We don't have any cage wire since we bought our cages, but I imagine we could find some at the farmy store.

Thanks for the idea, you've got my wheels turning.

My nest boxes are inside my cage and I built shelves that where 1ft wide and are half way up the side. Mine go from front to back of the cage and they are in each of the does cages as well as the bucks cages. All of the adult cages are 2' wide by 3' long. All my feeders are crocks (though working to change those out ASAP) and all my water bottles attach to the front of my cages. Nests are on the opposite side of the cage from the shelves so the girls have a respite from the little bunnies when they want.

I put my shelves along the back, [I do have a little trouble from time to time reaching a doe in a top corner] my doe cages are 36"x24" , buck and replacement cages are 30"x 24", -I run 2 shelves, one at 1 foot and one at 2 feet. It gives them exersize, and they prefer to lay on the top shelf.

Just an update - I started to worry about the does getting into the habit of throwing their herb dishes, as well as chewed up apple branches!! into the Sani-Nest, so we went ahead and covered the opening with their resting pad. I was concerned that they might throw the dish down there once there are kits in it!

Well, yesterday we discovered that Velma then decided to drop bunny berries through the resting pad, and they landed right into the nest box and stayed there! Very odd, since none of the buns had previously poo'd on their resting mat! So we went ahead and uncovered hers, so I guess we will see what she does when she eventually has a litter!

Neither Daphne nor Velma seem to care about their buckets - Daphne just goes under hers to signal she wants to stop playing "keys" with me. She also chews on it - which we don't really want her eating plastic! I think in the next couple weeks we will pick up some cage flooring wire and put a shelf from front to back, about 10" up from the floor on the side of the cage where the nest box is. That gives her 8" to the ceiling from the shelf - does that seem like enough? The nest boxes are 5" in from the sides, so if we make the shelf 7" wide it should leave plenty of room for the does to get in and out of the nest.

Do rabbits generally go to the bathroom on their shelves if they are wire?

Comet007, How about an update on the Sani-Nest would love to hear how it worked out for you. I did a search on here for Sani-Nest and nothing came up but the post for use inside the cage like any other nest box, Not sure why it didn't bring this one up. Any way looking forward to how they turned out for you since this is a early 2014 post. Thanks Oh and if you want to be able to remove the cardboard like a box for checking just cut your own (zip tie corners, hot glue, or ? to secure them) make the sides the right height and the ends shorter to just go under the top holder so it can slide out. I gave this some thought also.

a few of mine use the shelf as a potty stop, but most do not