Rabbits in colonies seem to prefer underground housing!

[FajerFarm]

Hey ya'll!

We've had our colony for about 6 monhts now, and we just found our first litter this morning, in fact!

I'm posting because I've noticed my rabbits taking a particular liking to underground housing.

We have four "housing" complexes for them. Two are above ground, and made of tarps, wood pallettes, and hay, and the other two are below ground, and they're just dirt holes that we dug in the ground, and covered up with plywood.

Interestingly, the rabbits seem to overwhelmingly prefer the underground dens.

Also of interest, the only liters (that we've seen so far) have been in the above ground houses, and not in the dens.

Naturally, this all makes sense because rabbits live in underground burrows (for the most part) out in the wild, but I thought that it was interesting considering the above-ground palette pyramids are stuffed with hay and very warm.

Has anyone else had this same experience?

 

[Miss M]

Sounds like you have a neat setup!

I remember seeing a publication that had man-made rabbit warrens made of tunnels connecting clay pots. The lids were above ground. Looked really neat.

 

[MaggieJ]

It might have been this article. The title page is garbled but the actual document is fine.

http://om.ciheam.org/om/pdf/c08/95605275.pdf

 

[paradox]

I liked the clay pot idea in that article you mentioned but modified it to fit some things we wanted. We have standard wire cages up off the ground. Out of the back of each cage comes a piece of 6"pvc pipe that goes into what looks a lot like a raised flower bed made out of landscape timbers. The pipes lead into old ice chests or plastic tubs that are burried except for their lids and each rabbit has their own underground retreat and cage. The lids to the tubs are exposed so that we can keep them clean and check on babies as needed. Then we made a roof over that part that tilts up for access, but when it is closed it helps hold the tub lids closed to keep rabbits from opening it themselves or predators from getting in. Also serves to reflect sunlight and keep the rain from making a muddy mess around the tubs. Works great so far! Bunnies can scamper into hiding should a dog get too nosey and we don't worry about trying to cover them for bad weather.