Outdoor cages and predators

[LookAliveSunshine]

Yesterday when I was leaving to run errands I seen/heard a stray cat. It got to me to thinking more about other predators. So far I've just seen the cats, one opossum while driving down the road close to home, and months back there were 2-3 wondering dogs.

I don't have electricity so electric fence won't work. Was thinking maybe solar powered lanterns? but worried about keeping the rabbits awake or even spotlighting them to neighbors. Maybe a battery operated radio? I read that keeping the cages 2-3' off the ground helps, but I don't have anything to hang the cages from. So I was going to build a stand, but worried about predators crawling on the legs (snakes, ants?). Should I put a box/hiding spot in the cage so the rabbit feels more protected? I'm also worried about the rabbits dying of shock. Also, since it's an all wire cage I don't know how to put locks on it. Any tips/suggestions? Thank you.

 

[AmysMacdog]

How about a solar powered electric fence? We looked into it before here in Georgia, its do-able a little at a time. The most expensive parts were the solar panel and charger.

 

[LookAliveSunshine]

Oh, hahha I didn't even know those existed. May I ask how much the pricing was about? I don't know the first thing about electric fences, so I have no idea what I would even need.

 

[Secuono]

http://www.premier1supplies.com/

 

[AmysMacdog]

I know, it is confusing. Our feed store is fully equipped including a very helpful guy to answer questions. We also checked out Tractor supply. We figured for our goats it would be 300.00 to do the area we had. It shouldn't cost that much for what you want to do.

 

[Marinea]

For the locks, maybe clips like on dog leashes? I can't think of the name of them at the moment.

And Amy's right, Tractor Supply will help you on the solar fence- we're getting one also- to keep our escape artist dog from doing her Houdini.

I don't think it would hinder a cat, but it might hinder others- a motion sensitive light.

Just a few ideas. Good luck.

 

[SuburbanHomesteader]

We are "blessed" with feral cats, opossums, and raccoons. I keep a couple of live traps set nearly year-round. Our pens are fairly-well enclosed so as to keep those predators out. Before we did that, had a raccoon severly injure a rabbit through 1" x 1" wire! No experience with electric fence.

 

[WildWolf]

We have tons of cats, raccoons, opossums, escaped dogs and even a fox. The fox actually went into our rabbit run-which is just made of wire-(I accidentally left the door open), but she couldn't get into the hutches. My hutches are suspended between two trees with wire... nothing special. They're too far off the ground for the cats and dogs to care about them, and so far the fox and raccoons have been unable to get into the hutches. Some animal, probably a raccoon, ripped open the chicken wire part of my rabbit run- DON'T use chicken wire- but couldn't find a way to get to the rabbit hutches.

 

[MaggieJ]

When our rabbits were in cages, we kept them in a shed in winter and in a chain-link structure in summer. Basically a frame with chain-link courses "sewn" together with 20 gauge wire. The chain link covers the top as well. This kept out everything except rats. Weasels could also have got in but they are always too busy cleaning out the rats and mice to bother the rabbits... and they would have been hard put to get into the cages. We tarped the top of the structure for protection from rain. It is situated under a huge old weeping willow which kept it lovely and cool, but we did once have an incident where a limb came down in a storm. No rabbits were hurt, fortunately.

 

[jessie15273]

If you want actuall locks on the cages, luggage locks work great!

 

[JessiL]

We are experimenting with rabbits in movable rabbit tractors. Unlike their buddies in the fully enclosed barn, they are potentially threatened by passing raccoons, coyotes, skunks, dogs, etc. So far (two months) they have been fine with their sturdy 1/2 hardware cloth, plywood, and metal roofing shelters. The floors are metal rods with roughly 2x8" spacing, so would not keep anything with small nasty paws from reaching them if the tractor were somehow tipped. We hope it is incredibly unlikely that anything strong enough to tip the tractor would then be followed by something small enough to use those holes. We do also have part of the tractors fully enclosed with only a small "bolt hole" gap for the rabbits, and they instinctively head in there whenever startled.

In summary, don't have anything larger than 1/2" spacing if you want to prevent raccoon or kitty access. I don't know if that would be adequate against weasels.

-Jessi

 

[LookAliveSunshine]

For cage wiring should it be 1/2 x 1/2 or 1/2 x 1? and should I be using 14 gauge or 16 gauge? Thanks.

 

[JessiL]

I have seen advice that 1/2" is the maximum dimension you can use and still expect to block most raccoons. So we've been using 1/2" by 1/2" hardware cloth rather than the 1/2" by 1" welded wire mesh that is typical for indoor rabbit cage bottoms. I have no idea if raccoons or anything have been testing the outdoor cages; all I can say is that the rabbits are unmolested so far. Hardware cloth is lighter in gauge than welded wire. We have been ordering ours from Amazon as we have Amazon Prime, and with that free shipping the price is much lower than what you can get at your local big box store. So far we've ordered "Mat Midwest 308246B 24-Inch-by-100-Foot 1/2-Inch Mesh 19-Gauge Galvanized Hardware Cloth" and been happy with it.

As I said, we designed to prevent access by animals raccoon-sized and larger. I have no idea if weasels and rats would be stopped by 1/2x1/2 wire; we don't have many of either of those predators around and hopefully never will have a problem with them. In contrast, we see coyotes during broad daylight every few weeks, and has a raccoon try to steal a broiler out of our cattle panel chicken tractor a few years ago when we hadn't wrapped the entire thing in chicken wire. In Texas, you might also have to worry about snakes, I would think. Maybe you could try baffles around the cage legs for those?

Without any actual proof, I think it's key to have the solid-sided shelter for the rabbits to feel secure. Ours still have wire mesh bottoms on that section.

-Jessi

 

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