Our new cage system! Finally complete!

As of 20Dec21 our new cage system is installed! It took a week of work, blood, sweat and tears but it’s finally done! I created the cage design and Kali built it with some of my assistance.

The new system holds 6 within the confines of this room but will hold 9 once we get the out climate controlled shipping container setup.

All of the waste drops down on the plastic slide below carrying all the droppings into a 3” PVC pipe which drops down into a 5 gallon bucket below.

This cuts cleaning time down from 15-30 to 5 and allows us to move the composting away from the house reducing our fly and gnat intake. The old system involved trays and cleaning the trays each time and the system before that took an hour and involved hand cleaning a solid floor.

Even with all these improvements we are hoping to make some changes when we move the rabbits outside full time. We want to make the system easier to install and use I-beams and bolting or welding the system to the container making it like a rabbit house. Additionally we were considering suspending the cages using cables. Always room for improvement but we are satisfied with the results.

This is probably my 6th iteration of a rabbit hutch. I just want the rabbits to be happy and healthy and to use the space efficiently so I can expand my operations in 2022 to include several new species and multiple family lines for my NZ Reds. Hopefully this inspires you to try new ideas or to overcome the trials of designing and building custom cages for your rabbits.