New shed - with pictures and questions!

Our bunnies are about to experience their first shed but it's not quite ready. No prizes for guessing where it come from! I have some questions please:

• If I leave it like this they are going to chew through all the exposed edges. I'd like to protect the wood or maybe sand the edges to stop chewing. Any ideas?
  
• Litter: Since we moved house 6 weeks ago they've only had a small pen so I added the extension of a Runaround top box (but on the ground and turfed) and they are using it as an outdoor toilet. I understand outside loos are favoured in the wild so wondering if I should try having an outside litter tray. Has that ever worked or would they need one in the shed as well? Planning to start trying with a corner one though am a bit concerned about pee ending up on the walls.
  
• Something has been taking chickens from next door's garden, one at a time. I've lent my wildlife camera and am hoping to find out later today what it is but I'm concerned that a small predator may be able to get through the 3 x 1" mesh of the pen (can they?) in which case I'd like to shut them in the shed at night. It's 7 x 5' - is that too small to do that?

Many thanks and thank you to everyone who has shared pictures of sheds on there, I've been browsing though and finding it all very interesting and helpful.

It looks great you can protect corners with timber corner protectors that you can replace or plasterboard corner edging. 3x1 mesh is quite large and predators could paw at them through it day or night, you could attach smaller squared weldmesh to it to make it safer :thumb:

Wow! Awesome shed... lucky bunnies!

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Amazing shed.

In regards to the mesh, a ferret/stoat could fit through those bars.
Personally, instead of shutting them in overnight I'd just mesh over the other side of the timber with a smaller g mesh as Zoobec has suggested.

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Moonstone said:

Our bunnies are about to experience their first shed but it's not quite ready. No prizes for guessing where it come from! I have some questions please:

• If I leave it like this they are going to chew through all the exposed edges. I'd like to protect the wood or maybe sand the edges to stop chewing. Any ideas?
  
• Litter: Since we moved house 6 weeks ago they've only had a small pen so I added the extension of a Runaround top box (but on the ground and turfed) and they are using it as an outdoor toilet. I understand outside loos are favoured in the wild so wondering if I should try having an outside litter tray. Has that ever worked or would they need one in the shed as well? Planning to start trying with a corner one though am a bit concerned about pee ending up on the walls.
  
• Something has been taking chickens from next door's garden, one at a time. I've lent my wildlife camera and am hoping to find out later today what it is but I'm concerned that a small predator may be able to get through the 3 x 1" mesh of the pen (can they?) in which case I'd like to shut them in the shed at night. It's 7 x 5' - is that too small to do that?

Many thanks and thank you to everyone who has shared pictures of sheds on there, I've been browsing though and finding it all very interesting and helpful.

Click to expand...

It looks fantastic

I can almost hear those bunnies whispering about it!

Is that a naughty box on the ground floor? :lol:

Thank you, Zoobec, Spinecho and daphnephoebe.

I will look into the corner protectors and edging, it sounds better than trying to sand it all down.

The camera last night showed just a rat around next door's chicken coop (though the chickens were safe having been taken elsewhere for the night). I'm guessing a rat could get through 3 x 1" wire too? The pen is from Rabbit Runaround and I assumed it would be safe. Apparently every now and then there are rats at the bottom of the gardens here, and though they are very long gardens I'm sure it's better to be safe than sorry.

Any thoughts on having a litter tray outside of the shed? Would you need one inside as well?

Rats can get through a seemingly impossibly small gap. They got into my goat shed through a hole where there was a knot in the wood that fell out!

Depends on the rabbits as to how many litter trays you need, I usually put them wherever they go most. I had 4 for my bridge bunny Boots,and I think I had 4 when I had a quad of outdoor bunnies, but Frosty only needs 1. They will probably have a territorial poo party when they first go in the shed :lol: if you have a litter tray outside in the run it needs to be a covered one unless the run has a roof or you can cut an access hole in the side of a tall lidded storage box.

Sorry, MightyMax, missed your post there, thank you. So hoping they won't need a naughty box!

Zoobec, thanks. The shed has two Runaround doors so I think I'll have two pens and shut one up at night and have the other with weldmesh attached, there is room I just need to save up for a bit. A territorial poo party? Is that what they are called?! We moved here about a month ago and I'm not sure they've finished the last one. Can't wait to see them running around the shed but need to weather proof it, add storage etc. Hoping it will be ready by the end of next weekend.