• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Shed vs large 'hutch'?

Ben's mum

Warren Veteran
When Ben and Rose are bonded, I want to give them a larger pen to share. I can achieve this by either upgrading to a larger shed (they're currently in a 6' x 8' shed but share with the ratties, and one rat cage is quite large and takes up a fair chunk of the shed (can't put it anywhere else due to the awkward shape - it's as deep as it is wide and taller than me!) or moving the buns out. There's a space right opposite the shed which I'm debating turning into a giant hutch of sorts but not sure how well it would work.
It would have the benefit that I could plant it up with grass to give them a nice run area as well as having an enclosed section, they'd get more daylight and fresh air (don't like to leave the shed open when I'm not around incase of ratty escapees) and it would be a nicer large enclosure (about 8' x 3' I think it worked out - and could do it with two levels as there's plenty of height to play around with.
The only downside would be that because of where I live, we get wild rats and foxes. The foxes have never ventured all that near the garden to be honest - it's a bit of a rural area so they're not bold like foxes in the city, if they're the other side of the field even just a tap on the window will scare them off, but the rats certainly aren't shy! I've sat and watched them and been able to take photos of them without them running off - when I had the animals in my room there was one determined rat and I woke up one morning with him on the other side of my bed :shock:
I was thinking about building it around two dog crates joined together to make it fox-proof just incase, it would be nice and solid as they're strong crates and they'd be totally enclosed. I could leave the base off one of them to allow the grass to grow through but it would stop the buns digging out too.
However, how easy is it to rat-proof a bunny enclosure? I've had problems with the shed but I think that's as the rat feed is stored in there too, plus the smell of females in heat probably attracts the male rats. Bunnies don't have food lying around all day so I'd imagine that would help but I'm worried they'd be attracted to a nice warm pile of hay.
If it's do-able, what's the best material to build the 'hutch' part out of? It wouldn't need to be majorly structuraly strong as it'd rest on/against the crates but would need to be fairly weatherproof.
 
Back
Top