Concounselor
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I am building my own cages 24x30 and I'm going to need drain pans to put under them. Anyone have recommendations? Looking for lowest cost.
Need pans
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I use mortar troughs under my hutches, cheap and sturdy.
Concounselor
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Great idea...I'll check on those
Are these for outdoor? if so, there are far better ways that will keep urine and feces further away from a rabbit’s vulnerable nasal passages.
Concounselor
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Yes they will be outside.
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What are your suggestions? We have a similar size hutch that we built and need something to keep urine and feces from falling from the top hutch onto the bunnies in the lower hutch
In the first 3 photos you can see corrugated plastic sheeting set on an incline to drain away the liquids and solids as they drop. It works better in theory and it may work better in practice if the incline were steeper. Due the height space, ours were not placed steep enough in my opinion. In the last 3 photos are my wire mesh additions. The framed wire mesh panels are sitting atop the corrugated plastic, keeping solids out of the valleys of the plastic where the liquids must be able to drain forward into the gutter collection system as unimpeded as possible. The most important thing to keep odors in check is to be sure the solids are not sitting and soaking in urine (hence why single level pans under cages are not a good idea). The intermingling of the solids with the liquids provides pristine opportunities for bacteria to begin growing and it’s this activity that creates ammonia. Strive to set up a way to keep solids and liquids separate and that system should include the liquids draining away as freely as possible. The last photo is a wide shot of my system before we added the mesh panels. As you can see in that photo, the solids are not completely rolling away as I had hoped. In the first photo above, you can see the wooden tool I have fashioned just to clean away the solids. The addition of the wire mesh panels has greatly reduced odors and my workload as I can now clean under each cage more quickly.
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Concounselor
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Thank you for the help. This was my plan for the majority of my rabbits. But I was just doing it for convenience of cleaning rather than for the benefit of the rabbits. I did not realize that the feces and urine could create such a problem. Yeah I will definitely be utilizing this plan for all of my rabbits now. Thanks again!
You're welcome. It's all for and about the rabbits. Mine are for food upon our table, so they healthier the rabbits, the better quality and more food they will provide.
Outdoors, well ventilated (free airflow from 3 sides), the urine isn't a problem. Well, at least if you emty the trays weekly, or every other week, in winter I just empty them monthly. There is about 20cm air gap between the hutch floors and the troughs. There is more smell from soiled hay that sometimes gathers in the corners of the hutches than from the troughs.
Indoors is a different matter.
Indoors is a different matter.
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Yes, I use single trays outdoors as well. Some are emptied twice a week and some once just depending on the amount produced. There is a light smell but fresh air flowing. Works for us. I didn't go for a separating kind of thing because I feed a lot of hay and forage and so I end up with what I call "bunny hay." It goes to the chicken pen or compost pile or directly to garden depending. I like to put it in the chicken pen first because the hens homogenize it quite well for me.
I have some corrugated plastic I got from a sign store that were scraps. It's like cardboard but plastic. And now our rabbits know the best real estate person in the world. I feel that the urine soaking into the hay that falls through the wire is a good thing for composting. The nitrogen rich urine combined with a woody fibrous. The poo is mostly hay. I can also put a bucket under a hole in the drop pan that collects urine if I wanted straight urine.
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I can't "like" this enough! It is one of the reasons I feel so good about getting rabbits from you. May is quickly approaching!
I just weighed your boy yesterday and went through a health and standards check on him. He’s growing up nicely. Also, the litter with the does are 3 weeks yesterday. Out of the 8, it looks like I’ve got 4 does, 4 bucks, and they are all well with comparatively good weights at 3 weeks. I’m looking forward to May, as well.
