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Upgrading as recomendations change??

weeble

Moderator
When I first got my current set ups 4 and 5 years ago they were considered fairly palatial at the time. I have 4 in a 6x4 shed with 6x6 run attached and 2 in a 7x5 kennel with a few hours free range time a day. I know however that there are people on here and rescues that wouldnt consider this big enough these days.

I dont have the space or money to change things and my buns seem happy so I'm not concerned but I'm just wonndering if it's something others think about?
 
When I first got my current set ups 4 and 5 years ago they were considered fairly palatial at the time. I have 4 in a 6x4 shed with 6x6 run attached and 2 in a 7x5 kennel with a few hours free range time a day. I know however that there are people on here and rescues that wouldnt consider this big enough these days.

I dont have the space or money to change things and my buns seem happy so I'm not concerned but I'm just wonndering if it's something others think about?

That seems like a plenty of space to me, but then I guess I don't know very much about it!! I'd give my two more space than they currently have if I could but currently I don't have space. I'm hoping to get a bigger run and attach it to my current one with runaround when I move though, I just can't buy it yet because I need to measure the garden! :)

At the risk of being controversial I do feel that sometimes rescues ask too much, given the number of rabbits in rescues I think they risk putting some people off with their requirements. In my opinion it is far better to be a bit more flexible on space if it is felt that otherwise the person enquiring would be suitable. I do feel that more rabbits would find homes if this is the case. I know that most rescues would not rehome to me with the setup I currently have, and yet I feel that my rabbits are very well looked after, and most I know who have seen where they live think that they live in a palace. :)
 
Yes, I think about it but more for my piggies than the buns, who have acres of space. There will always be improvements that can be made to anyone's set-up, however palatial it appears to be. However, as long as you're happy that they have sufficient space, I wouldn't let it keep you awake at night :D.

I'd love to be able to give the piggies a bigger space but they already have a two tier 5 grid by 2 grid C&C cage, which is fairly large. If I made it any bigger, it would take over the conservatory and I have a husband to consider ;). If I got rid of the husband, however....................;):lol:.
 
I am always thinking of ways to improve my set ups. I am lucky to have a long garden and plenty of space so my main limitation is money. I do wish that I could give all mine free range time but our garden is not at all secure and we have two dogs ...

I dont think that the amount of space that rabbits require is what puts people off rescue rabbits, its often distance, wanting babies or not knowing about rescues having rabbits.
 
I always think my buns don't have enough space, especially Marble, even though they have free range of a specific room each :lol: can't wait to bond them so they can have the whole flat :thumb:

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I have only come to fully appreciate what a difference it makes for Rabbits to live in as large accommodation as possible since my Rabbit numbers have reduced from over 30 to 13. I have witnessed a vast improvement in the overall health and welfare of my Rabbits now that they have a lot more space. They exercise much more, they have all attained a healthier body weight, their personalities have really come out and they do seem to be much much happier.

I was deceiving myself when I believed that space was not the be all and end all. I now realise that it is as important as providing food and water.
 
I think that rescues should set high standards for their rabbits. After all, the rabbits have been let down by humans once already. The rescues are quite right to ensure they will get a good life. Someone somewhere has to try and improve rabbit welfare. Let's face it, the petshops aren't going to :(

I recently adopted two buns from the RSPCA and was only too happy to comply with their standards for housing. I know that my buns have the space they need (although I am already thinking of adding more room :))
 
I feel that I can never provide my buns with enough space. I've just added an aviary onto their kennel and they only have daytime access at the moment and they go binkying about like mad every morning when I let them out. We have a large garden and it would be amazing seeing them zoom about in it, but there are urban foxes and we live in forces accomodation so we can't make the fencing properly secure.

Hopefully we will be able to buy a house in the next few years and I will have the bunnies in mind with the garden.

I think there's a limit on how small the accommodation should be though, no matter how good the care.
 
I'd never heard the word palatial before!:shock:

I pretty much agree with everyone that it's best to provide as much as you can afford/have space for. I'm always wanting to house my pets in the biggest I can. But as long as it's not below minimum standards it's ok I think.

I'm not sure how I feel about the minimum standards with rabbits cuz I'm still used to the old standards of a 6x2 hutch with a 6x4 run..I remember when they changed it was all the sudden and I never really paid attention to what the new standards were since my buns are house buns.
 
I think we all want to give our rabbits as much space as we can and I think the original posters set up is fine.

I know one rescue that insists on an attached 6x10 run. When I was looking to adopt I could only find one company that would make me a hutch with attached run that size and it had a really long wait one and was around £500.
Obviously I wasn't aware of the different options which would give me that area as I coming back into rabbit ownership after 20 years so I got rabbits from another rescue as it seemed unattainable at the time so I would assume a lot of others are put off by the same.

I think space is absolutely vital.
The girls are small rabbits in a 6x2 hutch with a 8x6 attached run which was the biggest I could buy. They are going to have a multilevel 6x6 shed with a similar size run, plus an 8x4 bunny box and runaround.
Like tulsi I have a large garden that would cost thousands to bunny proof. We're working on an area I can fence with temporary fencing for free rang time though.
 
I think we all want to give our rabbits as much space as we can and I think the original posters set up is fine.

I know one rescue that insists on an attached 6x10 run. When I was looking to adopt I could only find one company that would make me a hutch with attached run that size and it had a really long wait one and was around £500.
Obviously I wasn't aware of the different options which would give me that area as I coming back into rabbit ownership after 20 years so I got rabbits from another rescue as it seemed unattainable at the time so I would assume a lot of others are put off by the same.

I think space is absolutely vital.
The girls are small rabbits in a 6x2 hutch with a 8x6 attached run which was the biggest I could buy. They are going to have a multilevel 6x6 shed with a similar size run, plus an 8x4 bunny box and runaround.
Like tulsi I have a large garden that would cost thousands to bunny proof. We're working on an area I can fence with temporary fencing for free rang time though.

That sounds good. Not sure how confident I would be about catching them to put them back again!!!
 
When I first got my current set ups 4 and 5 years ago they were considered fairly palatial at the time. I have 4 in a 6x4 shed with 6x6 run attached and 2 in a 7x5 kennel with a few hours free range time a day. I know however that there are people on here and rescues that wouldnt consider this big enough these days.

I dont have the space or money to change things and my buns seem happy so I'm not concerned but I'm just wonndering if it's something others think about?

You have 24sqft in shed and 36sqft in run = 60sqft. Under rwaf guidelines it's 12 sqft for hutch plus 32sqft for a run =44sq ft minimum, so yours is still over that :thumb: you could have more space in the shed if you have levels too. So whilst I agree the more space the better I think yours is fine :thumb:
 
what i find interesting is there is no indication of where their guidelines come from. whilst i absolutely in no way contest the fact that rabbits need a lot of space (my own two have 96 square feet and of course i'd love for it to be bigger still!) i think that they should really back up their recommendation with some kind of logic or science if they want people to take it seriously. from what i can gather the hutch size is based on 3 hops which makes sense, but where have they got the information for minimum run size? the fact that they suddenly changed their mind confuses me, as what did they base that extra 2 feet on? :?
 
You have 24sqft in shed and 36sqft in run = 60sqft. Under rwaf guidelines it's 12 sqft for hutch plus 32sqft for a run =44sq ft minimum, so yours is still over that :thumb: you could have more space in the shed if you have levels too. So whilst I agree the more space the better I think yours is fine :thumb:

Yes got a 4 x 2 shelf too how many is that guideline for though? Two?
 
Yes got a 4 x 2 shelf too how many is that guideline for though? Two?

I assume it's for 2, yes, if you add on your 4x2 shelf =8sqft you've got 68 sqft. And they've got plenty of long areas for their hopping too. I don't know if there's any official guidelines for a quad, mine have a 6x4 shed with a shelf in too, although my run is 10ftx17ft. I've got an old 4ftx2ftx2ft hutch in their run, and all 4 like to sit in that together :lol:
 
i think that they should really back up their recommendation with some kind of logic or science if they want people to take it seriously. from what i can gather the hutch size is based on 3 hops which makes sense, but where have they got the information for minimum run size? the fact that they suddenly changed their mind confuses me, as what did they base that extra 2 feet on? :?

It has been based on studies...and the reason it changes is as studies develop over time :D You can read about some of the latest research in this RSPCA document (page 2): http://www.rspca.org.uk/ImageLocator/LocateAsset?asset=document&assetId=1232725725160&mode=prd

I'm glad that rescues etc. are moving with the latest recommendations and I'm glad that, in general, we mostly seek to make our enclosures as large and as stimulating as possible. If we didn't, we'd all still be keeping rabbits in 3ft hutches and rescues would still be accepting that as suitable, and we all know it isn't. So of course they have to keep up to date with latest welfare research when determining whether a home is suitable.

I've used the analogy before - if I really, really wanted a horse, could afford a horse, knew what to feed a horse, had a great horse vet, and would absolutely love it to bits, but I didn't have the recommended amount of space and could only keep it in my dining room...should I get a horse? No, I shouldn't. ALL the welfare requirements are necessary in order to meet the animal's needs...it's no good you having food but no water, or a clean house but no food, for instance. It's ALL relevant and it's ALL necessary.

I do agree it's really tricky when guidelines change, as there will inevitably be a transition period when we review our accommodation to see if it still meets needs (also bearing in mind individual circumstances such as the age/disability of any bunnies), but overall if new research and evidence suggests we've been doing things wrong, then I do think we should make efforts to adapt for the good of our bunnies. Just because bunnies seem happy how they are now, doesn't mean that they might not be happier with changes. It's always going to be a pragmatic decision though isn't it - if there is absolutely no more space at all for instance, and nowhere else to adapt things to, then assuming the space is still relatively large (i.e. met the previous guidelines), it's probably better to keep things as they are than to throw hands up in the air and rehome the bunnies, for instance.

I think products like runaround have really helped in recent years, as they provide greater flexibility for people in providing accommodation in ways and places where things might not have fitted previously. It makes upgrade-itis a little easier :lol:
 
It has been based on studies...and the reason it changes is as studies develop over time :D You can read about some of the latest research in this RSPCA document (page 2): http://www.rspca.org.uk/ImageLocator/LocateAsset?asset=document&assetId=1232725725160&mode=prd

I'm glad that rescues etc. are moving with the latest recommendations and I'm glad that, in general, we mostly seek to make our enclosures as large and as stimulating as possible. If we didn't, we'd all still be keeping rabbits in 3ft hutches and rescues would still be accepting that as suitable, and we all know it isn't. So of course they have to keep up to date with latest welfare research when determining whether a home is suitable.

I've used the analogy before - if I really, really wanted a horse, could afford a horse, knew what to feed a horse, had a great horse vet, and would absolutely love it to bits, but I didn't have the recommended amount of space and could only keep it in my dining room...should I get a horse? No, I shouldn't. ALL the welfare requirements are necessary in order to meet the animal's needs...it's no good you having food but no water, or a clean house but no food, for instance. It's ALL relevant and it's ALL necessary.

I do agree it's really tricky when guidelines change, as there will inevitably be a transition period when we review our accommodation to see if it still meets needs (also bearing in mind individual circumstances such as the age/disability of any bunnies), but overall if new research and evidence suggests we've been doing things wrong, then I do think we should make efforts to adapt for the good of our bunnies. Just because bunnies seem happy how they are now, doesn't mean that they might not be happier with changes. It's always going to be a pragmatic decision though isn't it - if there is absolutely no more space at all for instance, and nowhere else to adapt things to, then assuming the space is still relatively large (i.e. met the previous guidelines), it's probably better to keep things as they are than to throw hands up in the air and rehome the bunnies, for instance.

I think products like runaround have really helped in recent years, as they provide greater flexibility for people in providing accommodation in ways and places where things might not have fitted previously. It makes upgrade-itis a little easier :lol:

that's great thank you! it's good to know that they have based it on something, but that article doesn't actually state the study or the details of it :( (or recommend a specific size) i'm currently studying at bristol uni and we are not allowed to quote the rwaf guidelines in welfare essays because it is not backed up by science. i personally think they should say 'the rwaf recommend 6x2x2 hutch with 8x4 run based on x study which showed that x'

i dont mean to be coming across as argumentative at all, as i completely agree that our knowledge changes and recommendations change without it. i also agree that owners should accommodate such changes as best they can because the guidelines are absolute bare minimums. i just find it frustrating because convincing owners, pet shops etc would be so much easier if the arguments were really scientifically based. but from the link you posted it does seem like there is ongoing research
 
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