Digging pile in colony?

[eco2pia]

So I don't have a colony, but another member's question about heat in a rabbit colony got me to thinking... If you built a colony with a wire floor that would prevent dig outs (if such a thing is truly possible) and then made a heap of packed earth in the middle that they could dig in, would they? Would they go UP to dig down? What if it were on cement indoors (to prevent the rain from turning it to muck on the cement)? Has it ever been tried?

 

[MaggieJ]

I don't know how well a packed mound would work.

I posted this link on that other thread, but just in case you didn't see it, there are some interesting ideas for helping rabbits to beat the heat with underground housing.

http://ressources.ciheam.org/om/pdf/c08/95605275.pdf

 

[Anntann]

They'll probably use the pile both for "king of the mountain" and for digging, although I'd think that the pile would be liable to collapse unless you ram the earth somehow when you pile it up.

I'm trying to set up a colony against a hill. I figure they can burrow into the hill all they want. Thinking about just making premade burrows for them, tho. Using the clay pot idea, with a clay flue as an entrance tunnel. the caveat for underground nests is make sure your area won't flood the tunnels when it rains.

 

[mommaebear]

We are building an awsome new huge pen! and right in the middle is a 6' high hill, made of askew stacked logs, tons of large rocks and boulders, dirt, and layers of native sod piled on top. I can't wait to move them in, I'll let you know how it goes since we are skipping the wire run underground and have only a 2x6 along the ground and 4' of wire mesh above.

 

[akane]

They'll scatter it everywhere if you use just dirt. You will soon not have a pile but however many inches across the whole floor with divots in it randomly.