Questions! Using a brick shed?

Hello! I haven't introduced myself so I probably should..... ...... but basically I'm currently researching rabbits and rabbit housing etc. We already have a few other animals including chinchillas, hamsters, degus etc. but the idea of rabbits appeals to me more and more. Especially as I keep seeing how many need homes - most of our animals are rescues from one place or another and I'd love to give a pair of rabbits another chance.

It will probably be some time before I can have rabbits and I may not get any in the end (oh boy do I sound confused!) but as I'm posting this I would say it's fairly likely that I will get some eventually!

But it could be a year or so away yet - plenty of time to research etc and save up too.

Anyway - I'm just looking into possibilities housing-wise at the moment as a preliminary to anything else really. We have a reasonably sized garden so there would be room for something nice for them. I would want a shed of some sort rather than a hutch and have been happily looking at lots of pics of brilliant set-ups on here.

My first thought was a wooden shed at the bottom of the garden. But it gets the sun down there and so gets quite warm in the summer. Plus the run space would be more limited down there due to the garden layout. However at the top of the garden next to the house we have a large brick built shed. There's a large shed and a small one (which used to be a coalhouse) next to it. I wondered if the large shed could be made into a bunny home? It doesn't get as hot as the bottom of the garden and we would line it / insulate it etc.

I don't know the exact size - I'd have to check - but it's bigger than 6x4ft. The shed door opens out on to a large-ish raised paved area that seems to be perfect for rabbits. The large shed backs on to a shaded area of garden that is currently our only bit of 'uncultivated' garden, lol, it's still all weedy. But I'd even wondered about attaching a run somehow to this bit of garden and turf it so that they'd have a grassy run and a large paved area.

The other plus is that the back door of the house opens on to the paved area and directly into our kitchen. So I thought there would also be the possibility of giving them access to our kitchen too......

But I've not seen any pics of brick-built sheds so just wondered what people thought about it?

Here's a couple of (not very good!) pics of the paved area that the shed door opens on to:





Any thoughts welcome! As said, I'm still very much in the research-stage so nothing's set in stone. I'm just thinking of possibilities. Thanks!

I think the shed would be perfect. It sounds plenty big enough adn you could make extra levels in there too. You could attach an aviary type run to the outside, maybe with some kind of catflap - I'm not sure how you would do it but it must be possible. :lol: It's definitely a good idea to give it lots of thought beforehand though; I'm now upgrading accomodation after less than a year.

We've got a similar pair of brick sheds right outside our back door and I'd contemplated using the big one for the bunnies because it would mean I wouldn't even need to get wet (there's a roof going across from the sheds to the back of the house). The only trouble is we need the shed for the storage space so I've opted for an aviary with shed instead.

Thank you.

Oh I've spent a *lot* of money in the past on cages etc that I've then upgraded not long afterward costing me lots of money I didn't need to spend!

C'est la vie!

I guess if I couldn't attach a run I could have a folding run on the lawn and have the paved area for running about etc. But if I could have a run that would be my preference - it would save me having to think of some way of planting it out anyway! :lol:

ETA: I think we'd manage storage-wise with the smaller shed. If not we could always do things the other way round and buy a shed for the bottom of the garden for storage I suppose!

Hmmm. Well. I've been looking at this idea more in-depth and whilst I think the shed itself would be fine it would be very difficult to attach any sort of enclosed run to the brick shed. Next-door-but-one has multiple cats so even if I was in the house I wouldn't be comfortable with letting them out somewhere without a secure roof on unless they were supervised. So I think I'd be better off having a wooden shed at the bottom of the garden after alll!

Do people think a narrow-ish avairy-style run would be big enough if attached to a shed?

I was looking at the bottom of our garden today and we have paving slabs at the bottom of the garden which are exactly the right size for a 7 x 5ft shed with an attached 9ft wide, 3ft depth (front-to-back), 6ft high aviary-style run. It's the 3ft depth I was wondering about.... whether it would be enough.

I would have a fold-up run too probably for the grass or possibly free-range them or at least make sure they could still access the paved area and probably come in the kitchen too.

I know this is long-term planning but I'm a bit obsessive about these things so knowing this would be ok would be helpful! All I need to do then is save up money and convince my beloved it's a good idea.....

I think that aviary size would be fine - it's nice and long. Good luck.

Cornishlass said:

I think that aviary size would be fine - it's nice and long. Good luck.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much.

That's reassuring to know anyway.

I've already dropped a fair few hints to my beloved so he knows what I have in mind! He started talking about the cost of it so I reminded him that as I've managed to save up for our wardrobes I'm sure I can manage this!

Watch this space I guess!

The biggest problem is that I keep looking at how many rabbits need homes right now (I suppose I shouldn't really look but I can't help myself!) and it's hard to think long-term. But I know it's for best, so I will try to be patient. I do have lots of other animals to keep me busy in the meantime....

Hi

That idea sounds really good. I was contemplating using our brick sheds too but we have decided to expand our tiny kitchen into them instead when we have the cash. They have been used a bit for an extra living area when we bonded a third bunny to our two as my original female was very territorial, don't know why I thought February was a good time for bonding . It worked brilliantly as an extra place of shelter.

About the cats; we had loads of cats when we first moved in but when we got our buns they just stayed away, the was 1 who was a little more persistent but a squirt with the hose was all it took to get rid of him completely.