Working out a hutch setup

My husband and I are thinking about getting rabbits at some point and are tossing around some ideas. Being that it is highly likely that the breed will be a giant type we thought of a wendy house like this one:-

http://www.taylorsgardenbuildings.co.uk/store/customer/product.php?productid=18832

Would the size be okay?

Also, we plan to have a fence around to provide access to a grass area during the day. In addition, would part of the outdoor enclosure need to be covered? We have a lot of cats living next door but not much in the way of foxes as our garden is not easily accessible. We were thinking perhaps their access be restricted to times they can be surpervised...would they have enough space inside the Wendy House or would they still require the extra space of a run? Does this hold true if we opt for a bigger sized wendy house?

The other thing I wonder is whether the floor would get soaked with wee and if there is a product or tip you guys use to water proof it or make it easier to clean?

Any insight or advice would be really appreciated as we are still fumbling through a ton of information and trying to make sense of it all.

You have to be careful with Wendy houses as they can get a bit hot, why not have a look at a dog run/shed sort of set up??At least then they can have access to inside and out without you needing to worry about preditors but you'd have to put some wire on the floor to prevent them digging out!!

Something like this:

http://www.duchyfarmkennels.co.uk/product_desc.php?id=948

Not that one specifically, thats just to show you the type of thing I mean, that one is rather expencive, look at the top pic on the home page, it looks lovely.

Anyways, thats what I think and would get for my buns if I had a garden and the money, then you can open the door to let them wonder around the garden etc, plus you can put shelves in the shed and keep all your needed bunny things in their too, cool eh?

Good luck and let us know what you get

Oh and the floor thing... you could use sawdust or newspaper or towels until the bun is litter trained?? That'll prevent stain to the floor which would be smelly and if they were totally litter trained, would reduce amount of cleaning needed by you.

Wendy houses are great with attached runs so that the bunnies can have 24 hour access.

We use lino on our wendy house floors...easy to clean and protects the wooden floor from rabbit wee!

my enclosure cost around £400 to build but took around 2 months. click the link at the bottom of the post.

I bought some cheap floor tiles from the tile clearance place and tiled the floors of my shed and playhouse, easy to keep clean, and cool in summer

(did get weird looks when I said what it was for tho!!)

Mine are outside all day, we don't have a cover over the top, but they have plenty of places to run and hide if they need to.

I'm hoping to get a similar wendy house although my buns aren't giants.

What you could do if you have the space is surround the wendy house with an aviary, that way it helps secure them a bit more and they can have access to more space.

I was going to lino/laminate the floor but I like tupperwarequeen's idea of tiling as they will definately keep much cooler.

Your buns should be fairly easy to litter train if neutered though so hopefully you wont be needing to clean up wee all the time What you could do if you opt for lino/tiles is put down some carpet tiles/cat scratching posts so they have something warm to sit on, but be careful they dont like chewing fabric :roll:

I still have a hutch inside the shed, they like to hide in it, sit on top etc etc, it gives an added dimension rather than just 4 square walls. In the play house its just a 3ft hutch, but as its not for them to be shut in,its ok, however when I bought it and said it was for 2 rabbits, no one at the petshop told me it was too small...so I did some education on them :lol::lol::lol::lol:

Wow, lots of quick replies. I love the tile idea, with warm/comfy areas to sit on. I see a bit of conflicting advice re wendy houses getting hot? We don't have the space for a large shed and enclosed area like the dog kennels but can easily incorporate a smaller run within a fenced area for days when they cannot be supervised. As I am a stay at home mum those days will be very few.

Thank you so much for your ideas and input.

tupperwarequeen said:

I still have a hutch inside the shed, they like to hide in it, sit on top etc etc, it gives an added dimension rather than just 4 square walls. In the play house its just a 3ft hutch, but as its not for them to be shut in,its ok, however when I bought it and said it was for 2 rabbits, no one at the petshop told me it was too small...so I did some education on them :lol::lol::lol::lol:

Click to expand...

What a good idea, but if we do get giants I assume the hutch will have to be taller than average?

Been reading some of the other threads and it seems that as long as a large area is provided during the day a run may not be needed for a giant especially if the night housing is large?

Ceretrea said:

What a good idea, but if we do get giants I assume the hutch will have to be taller than average?

Click to expand...

Get a dog kennel then lol

edit:- scrap that thought..its not going to work

We have a 8 x 4 wendy house with an attached run for our giants and to help keep it cool i built an additional door covered with mesh on the inside of the door frame. then i prop the main door open and it doesn't get too hot. but then again in bolton it never gets hot!!:lol:

Do you have any pics of it please?