Rabbits need a lot more outdoor space to live a more natural life, they will need space to dig because rabbits are naturally diggers and space to run around. But the most important thing is to keep your bunnies safety and comfort. Here are the basics for a comfortable and safe outdoor rabbit space:
The hutch
A rabbit hutch is vital to enclose your rabbits especially if you are rearing angora rabbits. It provides a secure place where they can sleep and a place to keep them while away for a while. It is also a place to keep their hay and water. The hutch is their home base.
An ideal rabbit hutch should be a minimum length of 6 feet and a width of 2 feet. Rabbits should have enough space to take a few hops across the length of the cage. Rabbits should also stand on their hind feet without hitting their heads. So, the ideal height should be two feet high or more.
Rabbits require a solid wall space where they can hide to feel safe. Like the wild rabbits live in burrows and holes to feel safe and sleep well, your rabbits will feel safe with solid wall space.
If there is frequent snow in your area, you should raise your hutch to keep your rabbits far from frost. They are affected by cold and more so, raised hutch keeps off predators.
Another measure to take on your rabbit hutch is to keep all access doors under lock and key to keep away intruders and predators like raccoons who can manage to break simple locks. In the evening every day, lock them inside the hutch and open them out in the morning.
Keep the hutch away from direct sunlight. It is much easier for rabbits to handle cold temperatures than high temperatures. In extremely hot temperatures, rabbits may die of heatstroke.
Inside the hutch supply hay manger and litter box next to each other so that they can feed while doing their business. It will make cleaning much easier for you. Also, the water bin and feed bin are recommended.
Exercise yard
Hutches are fundamental for keeping bunnies safe but exercise yard is the place they will spend most of their day playing around. The minimum area required for one rabbit is 32 square feet.
But a much bigger area is good enough as long as the area provided does not compromise their safety.
Most of the time, rabbits spend their time digging because they are diggers in nature. They are fond of digging all manner of holes and barrows, so fencing around with a safety mesh does not deter them from sneaking out.
You need to burry about two feet of hardware cloth all around the perimeter to contain them in and other predators like raccoons.
Inside exercise yard put play objects for rabbits to jump over here and there, it improves their experience and makes them happy.
The bottom line is to keep your bunnies as safe as possible from predators, a perimeter wall around 4 feet tall will do, but taller than that is also good.
Look at the following gallery for your inspiration when you decide to build your outdoor rabbit space.
Check my post on pastured rabbit meat.
