Does anyone house indoors?

[Tegan]

So my husband...bless his heart....now want's to keep the rabbits INSIDE. He's super worried about smell though. After going over with him our outdoor housing options (and talking him into cages from a colony!) and what we'd need to do to button up for weather, he'd really just rather keep them inside and not deal with it. We have a large unfinished basement, part of which I use for my business, and part of which is dedicated play space for our daughter (painting, playdoh...you know...messy stuff!). We'd have more then enough room to fit the rabbits in, no worries! We really only want to do 2 does and a buck, they will be for personal use only (food for us and our dog) so I don't really see needing more then that. So we're thinking 5 cages...MAYBE 6...all 30"x36". I figure if we clean everyone once a day it shouldn't be an issue. Does anyone house a setup like this indoors? Any issues? Smell? Any tips would be great...I'd love to have the rabbits by next spring, but I need to do all my homework and prep by then.


Tegan

 

[akane]

There is always some smell when you have animals. Every animal gives off it's own scent and if you are scooping daily you'll want a sealing container like a diaper trash can or rubbermaid container to dump it in to. In a trash bag it will still leak the urine smell out. However with 4 36x30", one 48x30", and a netherland in a dog crate with a litter box plus 2 dogs there is very little smell in my house. The regular trash and dishes in the sink smell worse than cages cleaned less than once a week. I clean a cage every other day because I visit the stable with the rest of the rabbits every other day and haul the dirty bedding in a rubbermaid container to dump there instead of putting out another garbage bag. It comes out to 10-12 days between cage cleanings with solid bottom cages and unless a water bottle leaks or something you don't notice a cage smelling.

 

[Tegan]

Sweet thanks! We have a large dog, and two turtles right now. The turtles end up stinking the most on fresh fish day. (They get about 6-10 goldfish...kill them all...then let them sit 24 hours before eating! STINK!!! Thankfully this is only once every other month or so!) I've had a rabbit in the past, and I don't really remember him smelling at all. Cleaned his 2 boxes about 1x per week and the rest of his area every other week or so (he had a LARGE 10X15 foot space to himself...spoiled bunny!) Now I just need to decide if I want trays or solid bottoms...hmmmmmm.....

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

I keep all mine in my basement. The neighborhood I live in isn't great, outdoor caging too risky. Vicious dogs, destructive young children, really obnoxious vandals...yeah I don't plan to keep rabbits outside.

There IS some smell, I find that some apple cider vinegar (the real deal, not just apple-scented, always read the labels!) helps cut the smell. I add a spoonful or two to every gallon of water, REALLY cuts down the pee smells from my bucks.

Speaking as of, bucks spray. Urine guards are a must unless you have the luxury of a well-placed drain and can hose the place down once in a while.

My biggest issue is humidity. My basement is HUUU-MID. My roommate unplugs the dehumidifier because it does raise our electricity bills somewhat (but then leaves her laptop on and plugged on ALL DAY EVERY DAY, yes this is my confused face!) which makes it very musty within hours. Fans to move the air and a dehumidifier will help a LOT. :mrgreen:

I do love having my buns inside though...no need to worry about the weather too hot (we don't have AC but the basement stays VERY cool all summer) and no worries about outdoor pests harassing or even killing my stock...plus on nasty yucky rainy days, I throw on some slippers and don't need to get soaking wet in the rain to feed/water everyone. Heck, this morning I didn't even bother with pants...sandals and some boxers, and no horrified neighbor complaints. No fears about frozen water bottles or anything in winter, it is DANG cold down there but always above freezing, too.

Give it a try, see how it goes, you may enjoy having your rabbits close at hand!

BTW, totally get trays. Or what I plan to do...I'm gonna hang my cages (I'm starting to build all new ones, to upgrade my cages and make better use of space) and have a slanted piece of roofing or something underneath, so it'll all roll/slide down into a big plastic container or a small outdoors garbage bin, which I can then use for the garden.

 

[akane]

If you do trays they will have to be cleaned daily because there won't be enough bedding to soak up the urine and dry it out leading to smell. With solid bottom it's more work to clean but the deeper bedding means more urine absorbed and a drier cage for longer.

Make your buck cages with solid sides. You can use plywood or just get a roll of cheap vinyl and tie it to the sides with wire or plastic zip ties making sure the rabbits can't grab an edge to chew. Urine guards are next to useless. Even my netherlands can shoot over them and hit a wall 4' away. Someone was talking about even their does peeing over the urine guards.

 

[Tegan]

Would it be silly to just build wood hutches for everyone? Then I can build the doe's hutches HUGE and not have to worry about moving babies out until they are ready for freezer camp...or is this a bad idea? (IE young bucks breeding back to mom...but pretty sure they have to be 6 months for that and I plan to cull at 10-12 weeks.) Sooooo much to think about....

Kyle, That's what I planned on doing outdoors....wonder if that wouldn't be a bad idea indoors as well. Wondering though about pee smell with everything going into a bucket....

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

....apple cider vinegar.

And frequent changes to the bucket.

 

[Secuono]

Ugh rabbit urine smell....I don't house anything inside unless its a baby and can't make too much of a mess. Even baby birds wreck havoc.

 

[skysthelimit]

When I had just pets, I used to keep three does in the basement. I had trays. I don't remember the smell being that bad, my mom is super sensitive, so if it was, the rabbits would have been gone. It was so easy to clean. Now bucks are a different story...

 

[Miss M]

Interesting... I would have expected the urine smell to be pretty significant!

 

[michaelhodgejr]

I keep my rabbits in an enclosed balcony. They don't really seem to smell too bad, but I do put a couple of tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar in their water. I actually think my cats smell worse then the rabbits do.

 

[Kyle@theWintertime]

Bucks do reek. I recently went from one buck to three, and lo, there's a slight increase in odor. :shock: Does on the other hand...not so much stinky.

 

[Tegan]

The pet rabbit I had in the past was a buck...so maybe I was just lucky that he wasn't super stinky, but I did use vanilla in his water, so maybe that really helped! I have a feeling we'll just have to see how it goes, and if it gets too bad we'll move them outside. Pricing cages now...super fun. I'd build my own but the cost of cages is proving to be about the same amount as just the materials for what I can get locally.

 

[tnelsonfla]

I keep my Havana's indoors. I enclosed out garage and have it air conditioned. It keeps it about 78 during day and 73 at night. We do keep a fan on at all times. You can check out my videos and see if my set up would work for you. I do live in Florida which is one of the reasons we chose to house indoors and the color of the bunnies seem to be greatly effected by the sun and humidity when kept outdoors. In this area of Florida we run about 75-90% humidity year around but the house stays between 35-40%. I clean the trays out daily and line with newspaper and have a 10 gallon metal trash can I empty twice a week on trash days and the smell is next to nothing in the rabbitry. The garage is attached to the house and we are able to keep the door open almost all the time and no smell wanders into the house.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/EOR3cwcj7KQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtu.be/yjX3iCRMMrs[/youtube]

if links don't work you can go to YouTube and look up Rabbitry, new rack for Havana's & Havana Rabbitry.

 

[Tegan]

Yeah I cant decide if I want trays or a slant board and gutter system. Either way I'll be cleaning at least once a day....so I'm not sure it really matters.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

I keep my rabbits in an enclosed balcony. They don't really seem to smell too bad, but I do put a couple of tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar in their water. I actually think my cats smell worse then the rabbits do.

You got that right. Male cats are the worse. That is one reason i dont have any. Give me a stinky buck any day over a male cat.

As goes for the basement idea. It will be ok if you dont have a furnace in your house that blows hot air upstairs. You have to use some kind of material to absorb the urine. I do know there is some does that can smell almost as bad as some bucks. YOu will no matter what you do smell something in your house. It can be the smell of shaving to smell of hay to rabbits. Rabbits do have glands. They do miss the trays or splash on your walls ect. There is pro and cons on every set up . It is what you are willing to put up with . Being in a garage next to a house is a good idea . In the basement it might be cooler but i be more concerned on air quaility. Rabbits need fresh air at all times.