indoor outdoor colony?

[cottontail]

My colony has 2 does and 1 buck so far. I have a new momma new zealand in a cage above the colony. I also have 2 5 week old bunies in the house waiting to introduce them to the herd, there seems to be a lot of space for 3 rabbits, it is 15 x 8 and has lots of hiding plaes. I want to expand the colony to go outside the shed in a 16 x 16 space. I know that they dig and I have a source where I can buy wire panel shelving that is 8 feet by 4 feet. if I dig down 1 foot place the panels in there cover it up with the dirt will that give them enough room to kindle underground? should they even kindle there or should I build them tunnels? If I make cat doors to go inside/outsde the shed would they use them? this is my idea but not as elaborate: http://www.therabbithouse.com/gallery_i ... ?Entry=138

I am thinking of having 2 colonys once the kits are 3 weeks old I want to bring the momma, kits and the 2 from the house and introduce them all at once. the two will be 7 weeks old by then. Is that a good plan?

 

[JueLee]

No. One foot deep would not be deep enough to kindle. They need about 1 foot of vertical space in the nest, so in most cases, the roof would just cave in for being too thin. But they will love digging in the dirt anyway.

Once they get the hang of the cat doors, I'm sure they will use them -- and chew them to pieces. You might want to just have open doorways for them.

If you got any of these animals from different sources, make sure you keep them quarantined for at least a month. That means you might want to wait at least 2-3 weeks longer than you're planning to before introducing any of them to each other.

Other than that, introducing rabbits is always an unknown. All you can do it try it, and be prepared to separate them again, if necessary. Give them plenty of room and plenty of hiding spaces, and keep a close eye on them for the first few days.