., fenced area located in the open air. It can be made of plastic or metal mesh and several sheets of slate. Rabbit enclosures with a fenced walking area
In order to build a rabbit cage with your own hands, it is necessary to fence the enclosure area with a grid. Slate dropping around the perimeter of the cage along the net, so that the rabbits did not dig out the passages outside. Use sheets with a height of 40-50 cm, as animals do not dig burrows of greater depth.
Inside the enclosure you need to put the feeders with grain and hay, as well as nipple drinkers. Sparrows or other birds may fly to feed, increasing the risk of infection of animals with viral diseases. To avoid this, close the top of the enclosure with a net. It will also protect rabbits from dogs and cats.
This simple design is suitable for summer rabbits. In the aviary you can plant females. Males are placed in a separate area to control the breeding of rabbits.
Among the males in the first days of living together there will be fights. When the territory is divided and a hierarchy is established, conflicts will cease.
Fights can resume in the mating season, if you put the female in the aviary to the males. Therefore, for mating using a separate area of an open-air cage or a homemade rabbit cage.
Too much light falls on the rabbit enclosures covered with a chained net, which makes the animals feel uncomfortable. Therefore, in the aviary, you must install wooden booths with dirt floors or awnings that will provide shade inside the open space. It is in shaded places that rabbits will dig holes.
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Advantages and disadvantages of a fenced walking area
The fenced walking area for rabbits has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include the following features:
- for animals in such an aviary is easy to care for and monitor their health;
- fenced enclosure is well suited for mating animals;
- in an open walking area is easy to clean, as the floor remains earthen;
- in an open-air cage, the conditions of keeping rabbits are close to natural, the animals form a strong immunity, so they suffer less.
The disadvantages of the walking area include:
- lack of queen cell;
- increased consumption of animal feed for animals;
- slow weight gain rabbits.
In contrast to the cellular content, in the fenced area of the range it is difficult to equip the mother liquor for rabbits. Without a separate queen cell, adult individuals can nibble offspring, making it difficult to breed rabbits in an aviary.
Using only hay and grain to feed rabbits, you cannot get a good weight gain. Giant rabbits, such as the Gray Giant breed, need to be fed to meat for at least 6 months, using expensive feed. Otherwise, the rabbits will not gain weight.
Fenced walking area is only suitable for summer maintenance. Such an open-air cage should be combined with a cellular content, or choose early-ripening meat breeds, for example, “Californian”.
Therefore, keeping rabbits in an open-air cage with a fenced walking area is unprofitable. Such an open-air cage is more suitable for keeping down rabbit breeds.
Read also: Technology for keeping and breeding rabbits
Wooden enclosure for rabbits
Combining cell content and content in an aviary can provide greater weight gain for rabbits than content in a fenced outdoor aviary. To build a wooden enclosure you need to make several booths of chipboard.
During construction, you will also need several galvanized sheets for the manufacture of upper duct floors. Aviary will be multi-tiered. Rabbits can gnaw through the wooden ceiling of the tier, and the metal roof of the cage will not allow animals to spoil the structure.
Every wooden box outside is faced with metal mesh. In the side wall of the box cut holes-holes for rabbits. The tiers of the open-air cage are interconnected with boards on which transverse planks are nailed so that the animals can move freely along the tiers.
The floor in the open-air cage is made of planks, which are installed on bars with a height of 5 cm to ensure air circulation. The distance from the wall to the system of wooden houses should also be 5 cm.
The enclosure is enclosed with a wooden side, the height of which is 20-25 cm. Thus, a small free-standing area is set up for animals.
For normal vital activity of rabbits a large amount of air should get into the aviary. Therefore, in the room where the tier is installed, there must be good ventilation.
Indoors they install a powerful fan, which is connected to the air circulation system. If you plan to keep rabbits in an open-air cage not only in the warm season, it is necessary to provide heating of the air.
Feeders set in a common walking zone. Using bunker feeders will save your time considerably. Also in the aviary set sennik and castor, so that animals receive the necessary trace elements.
Nipple drinkers are installed in each box. Separate drinker make in the mother liquor.
The advantages and disadvantages of the
design. It is more difficult to make a rabbit cage with your own hands than to equip a fenced walking area. Wood construction also has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of the aviary for rabbits include:
- the possibility of its installation on a small area;
- large capacity;
- reduced risk of coccidiosis;
- the possibility of year-round maintenance of rabbits in the aviary.
Read also: Profitable or not breeding rabbits as a home business
Since rabbits are contained in a tier system connected by wooden passages and manholes, the probability of infection of animals with coccidi is minimal. When installing the feeders in the walking area, bowel movements also remain outside the boxes. Cleaning is carried out every two days. In each box, the enclosure makes a separate door for easy cleaning.
The disadvantages of a wooden rabbit enclosure include:
- expensive arrangement of the enclosure;
- the complexity of its assembly;
- content in the aviary of one family of rabbits.
The wooden enclosure is suitable only for keeping relative rabbits, who are used to each other since birth. If you run into an open-air cage of an adult rabbit from another family, then fights for territory will begin. Since the area of the enclosure is small, these conflicts will lead to death.
Lighting the wooden enclosure
The advantage of the enclosure is that it is not necessary to embed the lighting into the wooden cage system. The main energy consumption falls on space heating.
Rabbits enough light that enters the room through the windows. The aviary can be installed in the garage or shed. Muffled daylight is most suitable for keeping and breeding rabbits.
Rabbits in the aviary video pros and cons
