(I now have Kits & Questions!) My Colony Set-Up

[Savy]

Hi Everyone,
I'm still fairly new to RabbitTalk & raising rabbits so bare with me. I Just wanted to share my colony set-up with everyone and get some opinions and thoughts about it. I currently have 3 Rabbits. (just raising meat mutts for ourselves)

- Heidi (A Californian Doe)
- Spencer (A Californian Buck)
- Emma (A New Zealand Black Doe. She has some Champagne D'Argent in her too)

I got them all together at the same time (mid June) from the same person. None are related. Heidi was 12 weeks, Spencer was 14 weeks & Emma was just 7 weeks when they we're all introduce to each other in a colony cage.

Here are some specs on my colony cage:

I don't really have the space in my barn to do a ground colony like everyone else seems to do so I got creative and made a split level colony cage. Its 8ft long, 6ft high and sticks off the wall about 4ft. Each level in the cage is about 2ft tall & the whole cage is elevated off the ground 2ft so I can store my metal cages underneath. Also 3 inches underneath the cage is a "poo catcher" as I call it. Its plastic siding attached at an angle so that it catches all the bunny waste and runs it into a gutter then into a waste bin. Makes cleanup super easy and keeps all the rabbit urine & poop off my barn floor! Very handy. The bottom level of the cage has wire mesh flooring on each side, & in the middle the floor is wood to hold the food & water dishes and so the buns can rest there feets. The upper level is made of peg board so if anybody pottys up there it will fall to the lower level and out of the cage. There are 2 "nest tunnels" on the upper level each with a section that hinges open for cleaning & peaking. There is a ramp to the second level (nobody ever uses it to go up) and a plank connecting the two levels as-well. Also on the left hand side of the lower level the side wall hinges out with a hay feeder. I can easily fill up my hay feeder while the buns very impatiently wait for there hay. lol Everybody seems super content and happy in the cage so far. My does are not breeding yet but as of now no fights and no dominance issues. Everybody gets along just fine! I'm very happy with them!

I have attached some pictures! Please let me know what you guys think of it! & I hope it may help give others some ideas!

Thanks!

 

[MaggieJ]

Very creative use of space and materials! I like it. :goodjob:

 

[Oxankle]

Savvy: The hay feeder is a good feature. What are you feeding in it? What kind of hay?
Ox

 

[Savy]

Thanks MaggieJ I'm glad you like it!

Ox,
In the picture the "hay" that is in the feeder is just some yard we bush-hoged from the vacant house down the road. We bush-hogged it to use as bedding for our other animals & I just tried some of it with the buns to see how they liked it. But we usually feed a good grass hay to the buns, along with our goats & horses.

 

[Stormy]

Savy, I think you did a great job. I like the poo catcher and the split-level approach. I'm doing semi-colony style, but outside on the ground with a 10' movable pen. The conversations in here somewhere... building the pen right now but will post pictures when its done I too am contemplating "building up" and giving them a couple levels to play with. It could get messy but it sure gives them more space. You're not concerned about your does breeding too often, or too young, with the buck in there? I think he'll breed them right after they give birth, or close to, I believe I read in here somewhere. I am building a separate pen for my buck. I am considering getting him a second buck as a pal, I have conversed with one person who housed two together successfully. Also you may wish your does to gain their max size before they start putting out litters - just a thought. Someone with more experience is welcome to correct me

 

[anthonyt21]

i like the idea i might steal it

 

[ottersatin]

Savy,
I think your idea IS very creative,
but as was mentioned you might want
to configure a way to separate the Buck
from the Does for a time if necessary.
Stormy, I wouldn't get a Buddy/Pal for your Buck
unless they were both neutered. Even then they
could get into a confrontation where one or
both could end up dead or brutally mutilated.
What one does with or for their rabbits is
their choice, I just make suggestions.
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

 

[Stormy]

Hi Ottersatin,
As I mentioned, I talked to a breeder with a colony set up who did house two bucks together. They were young - like a year, I believe. But I will start a new thread and see if anyone else has had experience doing this. I imagine, like anything in this world, it depends on the personality of the bucks! My buck is a very social creature, although socialized mainly with cats and humans I'd never want to put him in danger. And I know he'd be really upset if we moved him outside into his own cage where he was alone. Thanks for your concern.

 

[MaggieJ]

Stormy, although some people have had success keeping two bucks together, I really do think it is asking for problems. It may work okay when no does are in sight, but when a buck comes back from a breeding session, I'll bet there are problems. In my opinion it is far better to partition a section of the colony for the buck. Have a bunny door that can be hooked open when you want him in the colony. Close it to seclude him when the does are kindling or needing a break. This helps to keep him from getting lonely and will also allow him to remain a member of the community. If the bars of his area are about 2 inches apart, he will get frequent visits from the young kits. They love snuggling with Daddy.

 

[DumansArk]

I LOVE this colony pen idea, Savy!!!

The waste catching system is ingenious - wish I'd seen that before we did our hutches with the ol' pan style ;D

 

[akaj9]

I love the set up...but I'm having a hard time understanding the peg board...does the poo fall through? and doesn't it get destroyed with the urine? It is so very creative...we are planning ours now, would love to steal some aspects...also how do you access the tunnels? more pics...maybe?

 

[Bramble Hedge]

Fantastic set up Savy, I have to agrre with otherr members on the seperation of the buck, buck fights are horrendous, and intact bucks will get territorial over intact does, even if it just the scent from one on your bucks.

 

[waymire]

Just to chime in on the bucks. I think it really depends on the bucks in question. When we were using hutches we had four breeding bucks (too many, I know), and when we decided to try a colony we culled one (he was not performing well), put the best one in the colony, and saved the other two just in case the colony did not work out. These were all mature bucks with breeding experience. In the process of moving everyone around they wound up together in a fryer hutch (6' long x36" deep) "temporarily", but they never had a single problem with one another... we wound up leaving them there for over a month and they lived happily together, groomed each other, ate together. We have since added two young bucks to the colony at different times, and again, not a single problem. The senior buck does "rule the roost" and will chase them away from a doe if he feels they shouldn't be breeding her, but never with any aggression. In fact the only "fights" we have seen, and they were nothing more than stomping, growling, and an occasional display of jumping in the air, were between does. I can see if there were not enough does to go around... or they were crammed in too small a space... or you were putting a strange buck into a standard sized hutch with an existing one who had established it as his territory, but it has not been our experience that they are all territorial monsters who castrate any and all competition. There are always exceptions of course.

Those "exceptional" animals don't last long at my house, anybody who can't get along winds up moving on... we cull any rabbit that shows consistent behavior issues: that is aggressive to me, refuses to accept orphans, eats/abandons her kits, bucks that are violent, etc. We recently had to pen our rabbits up to remodel the floor in their colony and I had a big white buck beating the hell out of every doe in the pen while trying to breed them, biting hard enough to draw blood. We don't put up with that nonsense. Thought that was odd because I was not supposed to have any white bucks (but everyone makes mistakes, I swear sometimes they change sex just to mess with me lol) but I yanked him out of the cage fully intending to send my son in the house for the gun, flipped him over and checked... and it was a doe. Very obviously in heat. I tossed her in the other cage where I knew there was a buck, he bred her within seconds, and she chilled right out.

I would suggest if you were going to pull the buck and only allow him to breed on a schedule, that you either keep him alone, and bring the does to him, or keep two bucks together and put both in to breed at the same time. That way they have company, and you don't have one buck coming back covered in doe "perfume". I would also try to split off a portion of the actual colony, maybe a large hutch near the ground for the buck/s so they can all see/smell each other and avoid introducing a "strange" buck into the does existing colony every couple of months.<br /><br />__________ Mon Dec 12, 2011 2:27 pm __________<br /><br />Another idea is if you are willing to breed your does on alternating schedules, let them live with him for a couple of weeks, then switch out the doe before she is due. Then everyone has company, you control your breeding, and you only have one buck to deal with.

 

[Savy]

HI again!

I've been gone from RabbitTalk for quite sometime now but I thought I'd pop back up to give an update!

My first kits in my colony have arrived!!! (Feb, 10 2012) These are actually my first kits ever!! I now have 3 does and the buck has been moved to a separate housing once kits we're born! (He can still see his girls and interact threw his pen.) It seems as though all my does are sharing a nest! There is hair from each doe in the nest and its quite huge!! Two of my does have milk and there are no kits anywhere else in the colony so I'm assuming they're sharing! (The new girl wasn't bred) I've been watching the nest but I'm so afraid to touch it in fear of my girls abandoning it after that! They're first time mommies as-well!

My questions are would I be okay to touch the nest at all. I really want to do a kit count and see what they look like but I don't want to ruin it all! lol
Also when would it be good to re-breed my does and when is the best time for weaning the kits.

Thanks to all those who have liked my colony set-up!! So far its working great! The only changes I have made was moving my hay rack to the center of the pen and putting the nest tunnels on each side on the hay feeder on the bottom level. (Seemed more logical then the top as Rabbits a burrowers! )

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Congratulations on the kits! I wouldn't worry about the does abandoning them- none of my rabbits mind me checking at all. You can also wait until you feed the rabbits so they are distracted. It is important to check the nest at least once daily for the first few days to a week so you can remove any dead kits. I check twice daily in the warm months.

 

[Savy]

Okay I got brave thanks to MamaSheepdog & did a kit count and snapped a few pics. There were no cold, stillborn, eaten or any bad kits in the nest. My two original does (Heidi & Emma) each gave me 5 healthy happy kits. 5 Pinks ones and 5 Black ones. (Emma is a New Zealand Black & Heidi is a Californian & so is Spencer {my buck}) All the kits we're nice and toasty in the nest which my does are sharing. All had nice big bellies and we're pretty squirmy wormy little cuties. The pink kits are a day behind the black ones. The black kits we're born on the 10th and the pink on the 11th.

My next questions:
-When is it okay to return Spencer back into the Colony?
-When should I re-breed Heidi & Emma?
-When should I breed Ellie (My newbie)?

Thanks in advance! <br /><br />__________ Mon Feb 13, 2012 3:07 pm __________<br /><br />

 

[Bramble Hedge]

Oh my they are so cute

 

[Savy]

Thanks Bramble...

Okay so here is my new updated! I'd really appreciate some opinions & help from you guys!!

"The Newbie" to the colony (Ellie) attacked MY Does nest a 3 days ago! (I no-longer consider Ellie my bunny! :angry: ) She scattered the babies all over the nest tunnel and drug a few to the doorway. Almost all of my babies had some sort of a cut on them from her digging through the nest. I lost one of my pink babies! He was cold and his belly was purple and he was stretched out. (I think she stomped on him! )There were two kits in the doorway cuddling to keep warm and another kit drug out on the wire with his hind feet through the holes. He was stif-ish and cold. I remembered reading on here to first try to warm the kits before dismissing it as a loss. So thanks to you guys I did just that and he got to squirmin' around just like normal! I was soo happy! But immediately when I realized this happened and who my culprit was I jerked Ellie outta the colony pen and put her in the closet cage which was Spencer's. Of course Spencer was super excited and got to his man business so now Ellis is bred. Should I give her another chance in the colony or should she go to "Freezer Camp"! If freezer camp is the decision I should make I will of course wait for her to kindle in her own cage by herself and let her raise the kits alone.

Oh just to give a happy ending to the "attacked nest story" I still have 5 Pink & 5 Black kits alive and doing well. (Come to find out I miscounted the other day & I had 11 babies to start with.)

I still need help & opinios on two of my last questions as-well:
-When is it okay to return Spencer back into the Colony?
-When should I re-breed Heidi & Emma?

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks Guys!

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I don't colony raise, so I'll leave it to others to answer your question on reintroduction, but I wanted to say how sorry I am to hear that happened to your kits. I didn't know a doe would be aggressive toward kits like that.

There is another thread addressing the question of when to breed back right now by lildove "How long to rebreed the doe back to the buck,,," that might help you.

 

[MaggieJ]

Most bucks can be returned to the colony once the kits are stabilized and feeding well. It is only during and immediately after kindling that some bucks seem to get so carried away with breeding the irresistible new momma that he may accidentally scatter the kits. As to when the does can be rebred... If you put Spencer back in there it will happen immediately. As long as the does' condition is good, that should not be a problem. If you want more time between litters, keep him out a little longer.

I would not ever put a doe like Ellie back in the colony. You can keep her caged or just send her to freezer camp, but she exhibited some very disturbing behaviour. I think you would be further ahead culling her and keeping a nice young doe from these litters to replace her. You don't need to worry about inbreeding with rabbits so no problem with Spencer breeding her when she matures, and because she will be raised in the colony, there should be little or no conflict among the does. Make sure there are plenty of nest sites for them though... Not all does like to share.