Just a little history,
- when I first started raising rabbits I did not have access to "suitable"wire mesh cage flooring , [and was told "son, chicken wire will cripple a rabbit"].
But i did have access to old barn lumber and straw , The floor was made from one inch lumber pushed tight together, and coated with tar.- the floor sloped toward the back and there was a one inch gap between the floor and the back cage wall, the urine just ran out the back and dropped on the ground. [designed after the pictures I saw in the book "Raising poultry and rabbits on scraps"] - I was a good carpenter for a child.. but,- my doors were constantly failing, and sagging [i used old inner tubes for hinges].I nailed tin cans over the holes the rabbits were chewing, - I used a few inches of straw in the hutches, and no nest boxes-the does just made a nest in a back corner.... I cleaned the cages out "about" once a week when there was a litter of rabbits in them, other than that I was pretty lax about cleaning, and only cleaned them out when they began to get soggy, or stinky.
I fed grass, garden weeds, excess produce, vegetable trimmings, spent garden plants,cornstalks,J artichoke tops , root crops, kitchen scraps, and some hay in winter . -they had salt lick spools on a nail in the wall... I used tuna cans for water dishes .
I kept a family with 9 children in meat -[i also raised chickens] as a child that was my job, as i was the oldest ....
In the conditions i just described ,those checkered giant meat mut rabbits, produced just fine and consistently raised large litters [some as large as 15] - all summer, and all winter....
I think the old style cage was actually better for rabbits in the winter ,as it provided much more protection from cold and wind.
Point is-- rabbits are more hardy than a lot of people think they are... and there are a lot of ways to raise rabbits successfully ...
- when I first started raising rabbits I did not have access to "suitable"wire mesh cage flooring , [and was told "son, chicken wire will cripple a rabbit"].
But i did have access to old barn lumber and straw , The floor was made from one inch lumber pushed tight together, and coated with tar.- the floor sloped toward the back and there was a one inch gap between the floor and the back cage wall, the urine just ran out the back and dropped on the ground. [designed after the pictures I saw in the book "Raising poultry and rabbits on scraps"] - I was a good carpenter for a child.. but,- my doors were constantly failing, and sagging [i used old inner tubes for hinges].I nailed tin cans over the holes the rabbits were chewing, - I used a few inches of straw in the hutches, and no nest boxes-the does just made a nest in a back corner.... I cleaned the cages out "about" once a week when there was a litter of rabbits in them, other than that I was pretty lax about cleaning, and only cleaned them out when they began to get soggy, or stinky.
I fed grass, garden weeds, excess produce, vegetable trimmings, spent garden plants,cornstalks,J artichoke tops , root crops, kitchen scraps, and some hay in winter . -they had salt lick spools on a nail in the wall... I used tuna cans for water dishes .
I kept a family with 9 children in meat -[i also raised chickens] as a child that was my job, as i was the oldest ....
In the conditions i just described ,those checkered giant meat mut rabbits, produced just fine and consistently raised large litters [some as large as 15] - all summer, and all winter....
I think the old style cage was actually better for rabbits in the winter ,as it provided much more protection from cold and wind.
Point is-- rabbits are more hardy than a lot of people think they are... and there are a lot of ways to raise rabbits successfully ...