Cage Cleaning

 I have found that cage cleaning is not my favorite thing to do with the buns but it needs to be done to keep them healthy and happy.  Here are a few things I do that help make this chore easier.

Our rabbits are litter box trained.  May not seem like a big thing but the hutches are in the house during summer and having them box trained helps contain their mess overall.  I use stainless steel boxes with a wire platform to keep the buns up out of the poop.  They are actually cat boxes but the rabbits don't know that.  

Training them wasn't hard but may not be for you if your rabbits live outside all year round.  I have their food crocks in their litter box so they have to hop inside to eat.  Since rabbits tend to poop while they eat this makes sense.  I also have their hay feeders hanging over the litter box to force them to hop in to munch.  I do have one buck who will poop in his box but not pee so I use puppy pads in the trays so it catches the urine.

White vinegar is my favorite for cleaning around the animals.  It will remove the urine build up in the litter boxes (cat and bunny) without scrubbing!  I cover the bottom of the box and let it sit and when I rinse it out the build up is gone or will flake off easily.  

I also use vinegar in a spray bottle to clean the trays and the walls of the hutches.  I spray scrub with a soft brush and spray again.  If there is urine it will bubble up a bit and I will work harder to clean that spot.  

Clean cages means happy bunnies!

Keep your feet dry. Wear your rain boots.

Bunny cuteness overload!

 Sometimes I flip through photos of our past litters of bunnies and get the warm fuzzies from the cuteness.  So I thought I'd share Miss Katie's litter that we dubbed the "wiggle wiggle boing" bunnies.

So named because they would bounce and wiggle in the nest.  Miss Katie Kat is the solid gray cutie in the front of the bunny puddle.  She was the only non broken in the bunch.  

Cute!  But oh how they grow!

This is actually 2 litters playing together.  Miss Katie is at the top of the photo.  This was their first taste of greens and it was a yummy bunch of cilantro from the local farm stand.

The cuteness is too much!  These bunnies were sired by Blu Boy.  The dams are Honey and Bonnie.  Next breeding will be the three does with Sterling.

Sterling in all his fluffy glory!

More bunny fluffy-butt cuteness!  (I love taking photos of them when they are small)

SQUEEEEEEEE! The cute is over the top!

Toys and enrichment

 I know what buns like...

I know what buns want!

Sorry.  I am a huge Waitresses fan.

Anyway, toys are a great way to give your buns enrichment but they can be expensive.  With five buns in the rabbitry at the moment the expense of toys is not crazy but it can add up fast with kits and adding new rabbits to our line.  

I don't want to spend a ton to enrich my animals but I do care for them and want to make their lives worthwhile.  I have found that the urge to buy the cute toys is there even if you are making your own.  Mostly I try to limit the spending to toys and enrichment I can not make or acquire myself.  These include:

Apple branches or any branch/wood that is rabbit safe.  It should be cleaned and dried to prevent bugs and 'cooties' from coming home with you.  While I live near a few very large apple and fruit orchards they have yet to sell or allow for the harvesting of wood for pet treats/toys.  I get my apple, pear and blueberry sticks from Farmer Dave Pet Supply on Etsy or their website.  I am a repeat customer and love how fast they ship and the quality of the sticks.

Pinecones that have been cleaned and dried.  My buns LOVE pinecones.  I do not have any evergreens near me to safely gather pinecones since we live in the high desert foothills.  I could drive up the hill towards the lake and pick them up at one of the campgrounds.  Seeing that would be on the side of the road I'd rather not deal with road salt and motor oil on my rabbit treats.  I have bought my pinecones from Petsmart in the past as well from My Familys Nutz on Etsy. (See a theme here...)

I don't buy all the treats and chews for my buns.  I make a few.  I save compostable toilet paper tubes and when I have enough I stuff them with hay or dried herbs folding the ends to make an enclosed container.  They chew on the cardboard to get to the herbs and make a huge mess in the process but I love seeing them enjoy themselves.

I do make hay braids once in a while out of oat hay or alfalfa.  Since I don't buy those hays in large 3 string bales I can cherry pick pieces to braid or twist into toys.  Sometimes I weave them to make wreaths.  The shapes are more for me than the rabbits.  😁

My little mini buck, Rusty, use to LOVE playing in boxes.  He thought they were better than fresh strawberries!  I would give them to him on their side so he could hop in and he always stood it back up to sit in it.  Ripping them apart was one of his all time favorite late night activities.

Rusty was my snuggle bunny and Netflix partner.  He loved sitting on the couch with me late at night watching movies or streaming shows.  He didn't get along with our cat so he had to got in his hutch at night for his own safety.  Minis are fun but when you have predators in the house the temptation to give in to their prey drive is high.  I will say he was the first buck I got litter box trained.

In short toys for your buns can be as colorful or as basic as you want as long as they are made of rabbit safe materials.  

Keep your feet dry.  Wear your rain boots!

The buns!

 Our rabbitry is not a large one.  We started with four rabbits- two does and 2 bucks.  We kept a doe from the last litter so we now have 3 does and 2 bucks.  But I never took the time to introduce them here!

This is our Honey Bun.  She is a 3/4 Rex 1/4 New Zealand harlequin coated rabbit.  She is the oldest (only by months) and largest rabbit in the rabbitry.  She is a total sweetie and loves attention.  She snuggles with the kids all the time.  Her size makes her a good house bunny with our cats and dogs.  She is big enough that they leave her alone.  She does stay in her hutch at night and when we have to leave to prevent mingling with the bucks.  But then they all spend their time separate from the bucks to prevent unwanted litters.

This chocolate Easter bunny is Miss Bonnie.  She is a pure Rex with a chocolate otter coat.  She is a tad smaller than Honey but still a good size.  No minis here!  Bonnie is also friendly and loving.  She was our first doe and is a head butter.  She will head butt your hand if you are not petting her the way she wants or as fast as she wants.  Demanding little lady!

The gray beauty in the foreground is Miss Katie Kat.  Sweet loving and quite the cutie!  7/8 Rex 1/8 New Zealand mix.  Gorgeous lilac/gray otter type coat that is shorter than a standard New Zealand but not the plush velvet of the Rex.

This handsome boy is Blu Boy.  He is Katie's sire and has a oh so soft broken blue Rex coat!  He is a total lover boy and has his preference of does- Honey!  He likes to visit her when he is roaming out of his hutch and she just hides in her nesting box when he is running around.  No, Blu!  No unplanned kits.

This is Sterling.  He reminds me of a color point cat.  His Rex coat is more than lilac than tan like the photo shows.  Sweet boy who loves toys and cuddles.  He is our unproven buck but he will get his chance soon!

In case anyone is wondering the steel pans in the hutches are litter boxes.  Our rabbits are 90% litter box trained making hutch and house cleaning that much easier.  I use a pellet type litter under the mesh platform.  The mesh is only to keep the buns out of their own waste and getting urine burns on their feet.  It helps keep their velveteen coats clean and unstained.  More on that later.

For now, keep your feet dry.  Wear your rain boots!

What I feed...

 Rabbits are exclusive herbivores with the inability to digest meat but they still require protein in their diet.  Hay and fodder can give a rabbit what they need.  But what is fodder?

Fodder is grass or grain seeds grown or sprouted in water as animal feed.  Wheat, barley, oats and even flax can be grown for fodder.  Ever grown wheatgrass for your green smoothies?  That is a form of fodder.  

I grow a small amount of fodder for our rabbitry.  I have not replaced traditional pellet feed with fodder but have supplemented it with the fresh greens.  Currently I am growing wheat fodder but normally I grow barley grass.  Barley fodder has a protein content of approximately 16%.  Not bad!

Our fodder growing setup is not a huge wall system like most large scale ranchers will have in a barn.  It sits on a table near my kitchen.  It uses the flood and drain method.  You water the top bins and the water drains out the holes in the bottom to rain on the lower bins.  There is a large bin on the bottom without holes to catch the water.

This is just enough fodder for our buns at the current time.  I have larger bins for a bigger system that will feed new litters once they are weaned or weaning.  I have given litters fodder in the past but they don't get very much since our current setup turns 1/4 pound of seed into 1-1 1/2 pounds of fodder.  The larger setup should turn one pound of seed into 4+ pounds of fodder.

Our rabbits are given unlimited fresh timothy hay every day.  I will say that not all rabbits like hay as some of ours will eat a small amount of hay while others will empty their hay hangers several times a day.  I have offered orchard grass hay and there are some rabbits that will eat it but not the timothy hay.  They all have their preferred tastes but they all seem to enjoy the fodder.  

They do get dry pellets daily.  I opt for a non-GMO organic hay based pellet that is free of corn and soy.  There are a lot of good pellets on the market but it all comes down to what you have available to you.  I have to either order it online or drive to the feed & tack a few towns over for it when they have it in stock.  I do time those trips so I can get a bale of hay and fodder seed at the same time. 

The goal for our rabbitry is to be off pellets except when the does are pregnant/nursing and kits are weaning.  The way to get there is increase fresh greens and hay.  I want our buns to eat a diet as close to a natural one as possible.  I will post more as I build the new fodder system complete with automatic drip system for watering.

Keep your feet dry, wear your rain boots!