Hi i am new here....and need some help on my dissertation regarding cage sizes

Hi my names rachel and i am writting a degree dissertation regarding the care and welfare of rabbits

over the years we have owned 6 rabbits....and are currently rabbit less after they caught rabbit clymidia
I am however starting to foster for the rspca.....just waiting on the next rabbit to be brought in from an rspca inspector.

i do however need some help on my disertation

i have stated the minimum rspca hutch size requirements but my question is how did they work this out? is their a paper that has been written or does anyone know where i can find a reference?

any help greatly recived

thanks rachel

Hi Rachel:wave: Welcome to the forum. Have you tried googling for the info?

Have you tried asking the RSPCA? They'd be the best source of info on how their requirements were decided.

There are papers on housing lab/commercial rabbits but I haven't seen anything with specifics regarding pets. There are probably studies linking cage size to behaviour but again they don't tend to have specific sizes.

Tamsin

Hi Rachel
Here are 4 RSPCA sites about hutch sizes- I daresay you can find more with search engines. It does seem that the advice varies slightly from branch to branch.
I can't find the rspca information now but I'm sure I read that the rabbit has to be able to take 3 hops(to stretch its legs), be able to stand upright (to wash its ears etc), and be able to lie down with front and back paws stretched out(to relax comfortably).

http://www.rspcarabbits.co.uk/page56.html

http://www.rspca-westhatch.co.uk/Rabbits.htm

http://www.rspca-wsm.co.uk/RSPCA Rabbits.htm

http://www.rspcarabbits.co.uk/page41.html


also may be useful about rabbit housing but does not give sizes;

http://www.readingrabbits.org.uk/page.php?4
hope this helps - Sue:wave:

I shall never forget Sally Machell's favourite saying:

'if you wouldn't keep a cat in it, then why try keeping a rabbit in it?'

Anyone know where Sally is now by the way?

She was living in Spain last time I heard! My first rescue buns came from her

Hi, there might be some EU directives on cage sizes for rabbits

I know nothing about the science side of things

However, there are some minimum accommodation size indications that you can draw simply from common sense and observation of the rabbit themselves. Perhaps something like this would work well in a dissertation, along with quotes from scientific papers?

It's clear to anyone that Rabbits are very active animals, you only need to look at their anatomy, particularly their hind legs to see this. For this reason one concludes that a rabbit needs to move about for some period of time at some point in the day to partake in simple natural behaviors.
So, on to size. You would assume that taking only one step in any direct was not enough to gain any excersize at all (for any animal), two would also be inadequate, three however would give some form of partial excersize (this is all given that the rabbit has access to a larger area for sometime during the day, preferably a couple of hours minimum). So if one rabbit "hop" is approximately the equivalent of the length of it's body stretched out, the accommodation length needs to be at a minimum the length of it's body stretched out, head to feet, three times.

With regards the width I believe the rabbit needs to be able to at least lay out fully once and the height needs to be adequate enough for it to periscope (stand on its hinds legs) without stooping, which rabbits do naturally, both domesticated and wild.

This is my idea of the minimum accommodation size, but even after all of this rabbits differ greatly in size depending on their breed, therefore a home that is adequate for a netherland dwarf may be severely inadequate for a Flemish giant! It is all relative, and then of course when you bring a second rabbit into the equation - personally I multiply the space of the original rabbit by 1.5 to make up for the second one.

I hope that was not complete jibberish :lol: and even if not concluded from actual scientific evidence, it uses common sense to gain insight into adequate accommodation.

Of course ideally all rabbits should have as much space as possible, it is the most wonderful thing to see a rabbit sprint across the room and binky from pure happiness! (maybe you could add that in too!)