Winter bedding for colonies....What to use? updates....

[tm_bunnyloft]

It is starting to get bellow freezing at night here now and only 50 degrees during the day time. So I figure it is time to do something more with my colonies.

At this point i have been leaving the cement floors bare and sweeping them every day and sprinkling with DE where there are wet spots. Works great but I am a bit concerned with this for the winter months. It gets darn cold and windy here to be on cement.

So I am concidering covering the cement floors with pine shavings (not sawdust). It will give the bunz something to burrow in for warm, winter nesting, and keep them up off a damp cold, frozen floor. I will put straw in the nest boxes but that is to hard to maintain on the cement floors. Shavings can be shoveled up in the potty spots easily enough.

Is there a problem with using pine shavings? What would the risk be? Is there a better yet efficient bedding that I could use?

__________ Wed Oct 03, 2012 12:04 pm __________

I have 33 rabbits now and 26 of them are in 5 colonies.

 

[Tegan]

One of the nicer colony set ups I've seen (I dont have a colony, so this is just what I've seen online) Had plastic dog kennels in half, turned upside down into tunnels. Packed straw around that, then hay or something inside....then he put bales around them, and a sheet of ply on top with more bales on top of that. Basically it was nests inside of a straw house...hard to explain, I'll have to look for pictures. Combine this with a DEEP bedding in the rest of the run. and I think your buns could withstand just about any weather. You'll need to do a massive clean out in the spring, but it should keep you over the winter months.

When I had my solitary bun in a LARGE outdoor run I had half of the run roofed, and then an enclosed nest box (2X2X2) on the back of that STUFFED with hay. The roofed part of the run stayed mostly snow free, the nest box seemed to be pretty warm for him. In the spring I moved the run over a few feet and unstuffed and restuffed the nest box.

 

[MaggieJ]

Pine shavings are fine. You might want to open the bags for a few days before laying them down in order to release some of the aroma. Aspen shavings are fine too. Cedar, on the other hand, is considered a health risk for rabbits.

 

[Tegan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9JkCSAN ... ature=plcp This is the link to the set up.

 

[tm_bunnyloft]

Tegan ~ I think its a good idea for an outdoor colony for sure. One thing I would do different is to use straw instead of hay. I would not want to risk my rabbits eating anything moldy. And that hay will mold if left out in the weather.

But I have indoor colonies and it wont work for me. Maybe next year if I do outdoor colony pens.

I am going to use pine shavings that I use for my horses and give it a shot. Then I need to get my buckets and fill them with straw for nest boxes. They should be nice and toasty then. I suppose I will have to replace the water bowls with water bottles now too.

 

[Tegan]

Yeah sorry, I meant straw every time I said hay. I still fall into that old habit.

 

[tm_bunnyloft]

The video says hay as well. So we can pass it off as all them. <br /><br />__________ Thu Oct 04, 2012 8:49 pm __________<br /><br />I added the pine shavings and made some old cages into hay feeders. I hope they work.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I would put a board on top of the new "hay feeders" so the buns don't potty in it.

The pen looks awesome- don't you just love how nice it looks with fresh new bedding?

 

[akane]

We do pine pellets, pine shavings, and top it with straw. Scoop the hay area weekly to avoid moldy hay and strip it all twice a year.

 

[Truckinguy]

Hmmm, this might change things a little. I was going to get bales of hay, can you buy bales of straw?

 

[MamaSheepdog]

can you buy bales of straw?

Yes. Straw makes great bedding because it is hollow and retains warmth from the animal's body heat in the air pocket within it.