input please on this type floor? wood slats?

[alforddm]

I thought some of you might find this interesting. It's about using bamboo hutches in Nigeria. I found this while doing searches for what I would do if I couldn't get wire for hutches. The bamboo hutches had slightly better growth and lower mortality.

http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd20/11/owen20177.htm

I wish it had info about how to actually construct the hutches. We have giant cane here which I'm sure could serve a similar purpose.

 

[Preitler]

Just to illustrate what I have in mind - this is my test-floor, the boards are about 1 1/2" (40mm) wide, spaced 10-11mm (uh, something short of 1/2"). It stays fairly clean and dry, despite the use of the right corner as toilet (you can see the marks on the wall below :? ). Directly under that corner is their toilet tray.
Tha actual floor will have 1" boards, same gaps.

I hope I'll find time and energy to finish the new hutches soon, growouts will have to be separated in 2 weeks...

 

[Therese]

Here we don˙t use wire cages, everything is wood and in the most part we have deep bedding, not "fall-through" system. The main reason for wooden hutches is price and availability of the wood - we made this thing on pictures for about 50 dollars.

I have different system (For me this is IDEAL ) like one on yours pictures

Top row is solid

While the bottom has a little gap for urine

At the moment I only have one nibbler and through the years I found our that they don`t really chew on floor or walls, but they like "i dont know the proper term ". They were nibbling on all-wooden hayrack, I now know that they will nibble on that bar in the middle of one hutch (seen on picture two. we misscalculatedwith the door so there was too big of a gap and we put a bar between).
Bottoms will worn out in about 10-15 years and we will just replace them, while the frame is "timeless"

Hello! I would love to see the pictures of your wooden hutches. My email is: [email protected] Thank you!

 

[KelleyBee]

I have looked at that study. The rabbits in wire cages are stacked 4 cages high. The bamboo “cage” is single level. Based upon information I’ve read, rabbitries with even 2 levels of stacked cages run a higher risk of illness over one level rabbitries. So right off the bat, this study is tilted toward more favorable outcomes for bamboo. Looking at the photos they included, those rabbits in the bamboo can’t even be seen, so it makes me feel for the rabbits themselves who obviously can’t see much on the outside, either. Are you asking about using bamboo only as a floor?

 

[Therese]

Thanks! I am looking to see the pictures. Thank you!