Rabbit tractor progress

[alice]

We have been trying to use rabbit tractors instead of elevated cages.  

We have two 58" square pens that house the buck and the doe and kids separately.  It worked great at first.  Then two bunnies were killed by a rattlesnake.

We did some modifications, and the remaining doe kindled with five lovely kits.  Two went to new homes, and the rest were delicious.

Now, we are back to one doe who dug out (or her kids dug out, not sure which) and is living at large in the fenced yard.  She is VERY happy, except that we blocked her accuse to the crawl space under the house.  She spends quite a bit of time in my greenhouse.

The current buck has aspirations to be a miner.  He digs elaborate tunnels, not necessarily designed for escape.  There isn't an inch of his pen that he hasn't dug up.

The pens are moved on occasion to provide new territory.

We are having a grand time!!

[oma2three]

I am sorry ,but your post made me laugh.That's animals for to keep you entertained . We had rabbits at one time, but got so attached and the grands named them all . So not one got eaten by us but son cooked them and told the kids it's chicken .They were small then.

[alice]

I have butchered my own in the past, but now I have a friend who will do it on halves. It's all good. I don't have to be a pioneer all the time.

[mogal]

Alice, what kind of wire do you have on the bottoms of your rabbit tractors?

[alice]

We added a perimeter of hardware cloth that is flat on the ground about four inches inside and four inches outside. A strip under the edge of the pen, if you can visualize that.

So, the center is open to the ground. We rake rabbit poo from their potty corner, and we move the cage on occasion when it gets icky.

The buck now has several tunnels, one of which goes up outside the pen into a repurposed small hen house.

The doe appears to be regretting her decision of abandoning the pen. She is outside it each morning, pestering the buck.

[mogal]

Okay, got it. The ones I've seen have wire mesh totally covering the bottom, not just the perimeter.

[alice]

We wanted ours in a more natural environment. The buck especially seems to appreciate it.