Market Research - your helped needed

Hello All,

My partener is starting up his own business making rabbit & guinea pig housing amongst other things and I would really love to hear all your thoughts on what would make the perfect rabbit housing for both rabbits and owners.

Here are a few ideas I have come up with so far. Firstly could you let me know what you think about them and if you would find them helpful and secondly if you hate them or can think of anything we have missed.

The minimum hutch size will be 5ftx2ft and we will have hutches with attachable runs. Seperate hutches and runs and hutch and run combi's.

We were thinking about having optional extras such as clear plastic covers for wet weather and fly screans for summer.

We were discussing lining all the bases with lino so easy cleaning and all hutches were going to be flat packed for easy carrage etc.

Once we have got the designs drawn up properly I will post them for you all to see.

Thanks for your help in advance

Sounds good. For the runs, a shaded area built in is helpful (ie with wooden panels). Also, I think when people build hutches/run combos, sometimes they don't think about how a human is going to get in to catch the bunnies! :lol:

For guinea pigs, most hutch/run combos aren't any use, because the ramp is too steep and has no safety ridge to stop them from falling off. Might be worth thinking about?

There is a huge need for rabbit runs that are tall enough - 3ft is what they need so they can get airbourne when they binky. Hutches must be at least 2ft tall for rabbits too.

And piggie hutches that are big enough with nice wide shallow ramps into them from attached runs. They don't need runs(or hutches) to be so tall, which is good as they can't cope with getting up too much height. And falling is a risk.

Rabbits don't need ramps at all. A shelf to hop onto half way up would be better. It would take less living area out of the hutch too.

My brother in law just made me some brilliant hutches with hatches to open to let them come and go when they live in an enclosure instead of having the whole door open straining the hinges when the wind blows.

Bolts as standard is necessary for fox proofing as well as well anchored weld mesh all round runs to keep them secure.

thanks for that, runs will have a covered area as standard and guniea pig combis will not have ramps they will have a enclosure (need to see a picture rather than trying to explain. The same for the rabbits. I have thought about doors and easy cleaning to as I know what you all mean by it being a pain in the ass.

As time goes on we may well be looking for some people to test run the hutches (hutches @ cost).

Thanks again for your tips I will talk to him about height

ETA: the ruff sizes off the top of my head where min 5ftx2ftx2ft for rabbit hutch 4ftx2ftx2ft for pigs and runs 4ftx4ftx2ft pigs and 5ftx3ftx2ft for rabbits (attachable run that is) but we will look into making that 3ft.

Two things - you don't need the guinea hutches to be 2ft tall and a 3ft run for a rabbit is not big enough. You should go for 5ft by 5ft by 3ft at least, with larger sizes available. Alot of people have to resort to aviary panels because no one sells runs that are big enough. There is a market for the bigger sizes out there. And 6ft hutches would be even better

I'd agree getting big runs are a problem. Think most people have to build them there self.

hutches will be up to 7ft but 5ft will be the smallest one we will do. The size of the run will also depend on what sort as the ones attaching to hutches will be a different to the seperate ones. We will also be doing custom made sizes so for any one who wants a different size to the quoted sizes can get that to.

The idea which will be pushed for a pair of rabbits would be a 6ftx2ftx3ft hutch with a 6ftx5ftx3ft run which will attach to the front of the hutch.

The best thing we will be doing (I think) is the enclsoure which will have a wendy house type hutch inside a 'pen'.

It is all very hard to explain without the pics but we hope to get the designs drawn up this week and then I will post them all up for you to see with all the sizes etc.

We are currently arguing about hinges :? so I had better get back to the debate. If you have any thoughts on hinges let me know. I should aslo say that we are NOT going to have support struts inside for bunnies to chew all that will be outside and the corners flush.

He is talking about the may be making a few to order and sell at trade to see what people think of them. So if you fancy a new hutch let me know

I will be looking for a large wendy house/run type construction soon! :wink:
I second the need for highr roofs on runs. I would think doors that can be padlocked or other very secure fastening would be good too.

after a long debate last night all runs will be 3ft high, even attachable ones as we will be putting the hutches on 1ft high legs. The ramps up will have sides to stop rabbits and pigs falling down

ETA: Which do you guys prefer a hutch on top if the run or a hutch as the same level. I can't decied. Hutchs will have opening roofs if that affects your choice

I think hutches on top are easier to clean.

You'll get more response on this subject matter if you moved this thread to General chat.