Building a New Hutch

Hi Everyone

My bunny came to me as a rescue and since she came she has been living indoors with free run of the house.

She came with a hutch but it is not tall enough for her as she can stand on her hind legs whilst inside. I would like her to be outside during some of the summer (but still coming inside on cold nights and very warm days). I am afraid I cannot afford to buy a brand new larger hutch therefore I was thinking of modifying the one I have to make it taller and a bit more spacious.

I live in Surrey, UK and would like some tips of where to go to get materials for this project – Id also like some ideas of what I can do to improve the hutch. At the moment I have got as far as planning to take the roof off and increasing the height with some wooden planks cut to size to fit on top of the existing hutch, once done I would replace the roof with hinges.

Has anyone got any ideas or past experiences they could share?

Thanks very much.

Chloe x

Have you thought of having her as a house bun and then giving her access to outside supervised on dry days? I know some members here do that as then they are indoors away from predators at night.

If you do go with outside then you might find a shed cheaper. You could put the existing hutch inside as a bolt hole.

Could you spend £100?

The 6ft version of this is £100
http://www.happyhutch.co.uk/details.php?product=22

They also do hutch and run combinations


Otherwise I have no idea how to modify sorry :lol:

Building one is easy enough, modifying to make it taller I'd say will be a lot harder to do, possibly weaker and not evenly insulated. I'd get some 10mm ply wood boaring and some inch sq wooden batteres and make it yourself It'll look much more appealing as well as stronger. don't forget you need to paint it to protect it and keep the heat in and water/cold out. I buy a big tub of pet safe wood stain paint from Tesco Lovely dark oak. there are many plans on Google to build them. Importantly, do some hunting for cheap lumber shops. Theres one in Milton Keynes (New Bradwell) called Sid Telfers which is amazing! They cut all wood to size for free, give amazing advice and are over 50% cheaper then B&Q and similar. Do your homework on it and it;ll pay off. Expect to spend £50 to £80 for materials. I spent approx £80 to build our large run and it looks fab! It's amazing what you can do with the correct advice and cheap suppliers

Wow prices are quite good on the happy hutch website! Certainly the cheapest Ive seen for a brand new hutch, thanks for that.

And yes if I dont end up buying a new one maybe it would be better to build from stratch? I do like the shed idea as that would give her the most space however buying a new shed is going to be the same if not more than buying a new hutch? Perhaps I will look for some timber specialists in the area as suggested and find out material costs.. I remember helping to build a hutch for my Rabbit called Magic who I had a good 10 years ago now and although it didnt take long and didnt cost much - it didnt really last very long and we ended up buying a brand new one anyway!

She is quite happy inside so maybe I will just keep her in and put her out in the run on sunny days for now until I make any decisions!!! Thanks for the advice everyone xx

in order to modify it you would have to be careful about strength integrity mayb completly dismantle the old hutch then use that wood along with some new to re build it? x

o-Chloe-o said:

Wow prices are quite good on the happy hutch website! Certainly the cheapest Ive seen for a brand new hutch, thanks for that.

And yes if I dont end up buying a new one maybe it would be better to build from stratch? I do like the shed idea as that would give her the most space however buying a new shed is going to be the same if not more than buying a new hutch? Perhaps I will look for some timber specialists in the area as suggested and find out material costs.. I remember helping to build a hutch for my Rabbit called Magic who I had a good 10 years ago now and although it didnt take long and didnt cost much - it didnt really last very long and we ended up buying a brand new one anyway!

She is quite happy inside so maybe I will just keep her in and put her out in the run on sunny days for now until I make any decisions!!! Thanks for the advice everyone xx

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You might be able to get one second hand on freecycle maybe? Or a playhouse.