cage partially or completely made of wood slats/twigs?

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JoannaCW

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I've been raising goats and chickens for a while and would like to start with rabbits. I'm trying to figure out cage design.

I've seen pictures on UN FAO sites of rabbit cages made entirely of thin wooden slats or full-round pieces of saplings with the bark still on, with the twigs/slats on the floor spaced widely enough for droppings to fall through. I'm interested in trying these because we have tons of wood and would have to buy wire, because I gather that the wire can cause sore feet/hocks, and because my mother really dislikes the look of rabbits in wire cages and seems more open to having them in wood... I realize there could be a concern with a wood floor (especially) being chewed through or rotting out and could even picture wood slats over wire, or a wire with a solid wood covering in one part of the cage to rest the feet of a sore-hocked rabbit. I realize this would have to be replace and/or cleaned periodically to reduce the risk of coccidiosis. I'd plan on keeping the rabbits supplied with tender twigs that weren't part of their cage to chew on...

Have any of you tried cages like this?

Any advice greatly appreciated.
 
Maybe someone with more knowledge than me on that website will have more information for you shortly - I just got my first three rabbits on Saturday, and I can tell you that our new buck can strip every branch and tiniest bit of bark off an 18" branch in about 15 minutes flat. He leaves nothing but a skinny little core, and in a cage like you describe, he would eat the floor he stands on! That's if he didn't start with eating the walls and hop right away to greener pastures. :)

If you get the proper sized wire floor and use a good heavy gauge wire, it really isn't bad for their hocks. We are also furnishing a resting pad in each cage (2 in cages with our breeding doe's), and will be giving them hanging buckets that they can climb into. There are a variety of options that you can provide in a wire cage to keep the buns comfortable. Although there are plenty of breeder's on this forum who have successfully been raising rabbits for many years, and they don't provide anything at all, and if that caused any problems with their rabbits, I'm sure they would have started because the rabbit's health is paramount to a breeder. <br /><br /> -- Tue Mar 04, 2014 6:57 am -- <br /><br /> I meant to say, too, I can't imagine how you could keep a 100% wood cage sanitary. I've recently seen someone who kept their rabbits in easy to clean wire cages, and because it's been a cold winter the cages haven't been cleaned as they should have been. They were filthy! To my mind, you could 100% clean out a wood cage every day and you will still encounter problems.
 
Thanks!
Can you say more about the hanging buckets they can climb into? I haven't heard about that before.
 
My first thought was the same on a floor of branches (or any kind of wood): "They'll eat it".

Those hanging buckets are so cool. Many people give them a piece of ceramic, wood, or plastic to rest on, with or without drainage holes. Some rabbits tend to make a big mess of them. When it's really cold, sometimes I give mine cardboard. That way, if (when) they make a mess, I can just throw it in the compost. They do tend to eat the cardboard, too.

Good wire floors do not cause sore hocks. Sore hocks are caused by either 1) crappy floors, or 2) poor breeding. They can even occur on a solid floor. Rabbits without sufficient padding and fur on their feet should be eaten rather than coddled.

SB
 
I would also be worried about sanitation in an all wood cage, as well as the problem of the rabbits eating it. I have seen those photos of the cages on the FAO site. They do look very charming, but a cage is a cage, after all. ;)

Also keep in mind that those recommendations are for third world countries where extreme poverty is prevalent and wire cages are not an option. The standards of hygiene and habitation for humans, let alone animals, are far below what we would consider adequate.

A wire cage doesn't have to be boring. As Comet so kindly pointed out, you can furnish the cage with my BunnyBuckets as well as resting mats. One of our members Caroline buys plastic lattice and cuts that to use as resting mats. It is more durable than the commercially available ones, but the rabbits will still chew it.

I also like to give all of my rabbits toys. The Dollar and 99cent stores are my go-to places for toys.

I buy whiffle balls and shower curtain rings there, and attach two balls with a ring. They love to fling them around, whereas a single ball is mostly ignored. The shower curtain rings can also be used to hang scrap pieces of lumber for the rabbits to chew.

They also sometimes have large and small balls with bells, which the rabbits enjoy because despite being quiet animals, they seem to delight in making noise! :p

I also give them tuna cans or vegetable cans (I cut both ends off so they can be stuffed with hay) and they like rolling them around or banging them against the wire.

SBSF":ozg3f7se said:
Good wire floors do not cause sore hocks. Sore hocks are caused by either 1) crappy floors, or 2) poor breeding. They can even occur on a solid floor. Rabbits without sufficient padding and fur on their feet should be eaten rather than coddled.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat: Poor sanitation where the rabbits are standing on their urine or feces is another cause.
 
Thank you, everyone! I'm convinced--we're going with wire floors, 14gauge 1x1/2", with hop-in buckets. One further question:
If the floor is wire, and we have 4" of flashing around the bottoms of the walls as a urine guard/kit retainer, could we do wooden sides and tops without high risk of coccidiosis? (I know we'd still have to watch and see if they were chewing out through the sides...)
 
There are people on here who have wood as part of their rabbit hutches. Hopefully some of them will respond on here. It might actually help if you post on here exactly what kind of wood you are talking about using. For some reason I have the impression that you are thinking of using just branches and such, not milled wood - but it occurs to me that you might be talking about something else entirely!

Personally, I do think that if you have actual round branches as the sides and tops, the rabbits will still eat them. Some will do it faster than others, but I think my new buck could have the entire inside of the branches on all four sides and the ceiling in a day. Two tops. I've watched him chew the branches, and he's quite vigorous about it!

Sanitation is a whole other issue. The probably won't be peeing higher than the 4", but I know that some people on this forum have written about some rabbits that spray and can do so fairly high up. On top of that you have rabbits rubbing their faces on the cages, which could possibly contaminate the wood. Being so porous, I think that it would still be quite a challenge to really disinfect wood, and at the same time getting the cleaning solutions rinsed off 100% so that you're not leaving poisonous substances on wood that the rabbits may chew on!

If it were me (and we just finished building an outfitting our rabbitry last Saturday), I would go with the wire cages and then use your wood for constructing the shelters from the wood that you have available. This is just my take on it, and I know that there are many different ways of doing things. If they're going to be outdoors, you obviously need to be able to protect them from getting wet from rain/snow, and also from getting too hot.
 
I would think the rabbits would chew through a wooden cage rather quickly. I made some food bins out of 1'"x2" wood. One doe eat through an entire 1x2 piece. I'm definitely a big fan of the wire floors. I don't buy into the wire floor = sore hocks theory. I've never had an incident in 4 years (19 adult rabbits now). Of course my largest rabbit on a wire floor is 5.5lbs and maybe it is more problematic with heavier rabbits. I thought I read it has a lot to do with the padding on the feet.

I would love to see a cage made out of twigs and such, while probably not practical it should would look awesome.
 
Thanks again! I wasn't clear about type of wood because I wasn't sure what was best--we have a large and well stocked woodlot, a lot of round branch material and also a sawmill so we could go either way. I had thought that bark might offer an easier to clean surface than milled wood but that milled wood might be slower to chew through...but the last two posts make me think that maybe bark-on wood will be quickly debarked and milled wood will also be quickly eaten and we'd best stick with wire all the way around.
 
It sounds like you're on the right path now. :) We gave our buck a piece of 2x4 and he was happily chewing on it before we took it away to give him apple branches. Our cages are hung from the ceiling, but also mounted at the back to a 2x4. I noticed last night that Shaggy has "tasted" the 2x4 just a bit, though the girls seem content with their hay and apple sticks so far!

I think that with all your wood, you could make a really great log barn for your rabbits, though!
 

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