DIY Rabbit Nest Box Tutorial

I'm pretty sure building a nest box can be done numerous ways, but this is how I chose to do it. I thought maybe it would help someone out there, so I am going to share my how-to with you. 

Our black mini-rex doe, Raven is due on the 24th of  December and since these are our first babies, I didn't have a nest box for her. I looked for one at Tractor Supply and a few local pet shops. I couldn't find one under $20. 

Next, I tried Google. I found tons of plans for making them out of wood, but I don't have any plywood on hand nor the tools to cut it with, so a making a wood nest box just wouldn't work for us. There was a video showing how to make one out of a Rubbermaid tub, but I didn't think that would be a good idea, because your rabbit eating plastic isn't a good thing. Finally, I saw a video on YouTube that showed a glimpse of a wire nesting box lined with cardboard. I thought, "I can do that." So I did.

First, I gathered up my supplies. 

J-clip pliers, j-clips, wire cutters, and wire.

My biggest tip for you is to use heavy duty tools and really stiff wire.

Since I didn't have a pic of the actual j-clips in the photo above, they on the left in the photo below in the plastic container. Don't buy those j-clip pliers in the package on the right. They are very cheap made and will bend on you in the first 2 minutes. Do like I said and get a really heavy duty pair like the ones in the photo above. They are made out of steel or something. There is no bending those suckers. 

Once I got my supplies together, I started cutting wire.  As you can see from the pictures, I used bits and pieces of several kinds of wire. I didn't run out and buy a new roll. I just used some I already had here on hand. I used 1/2 in x 1/2 in squares for my sides, back, and bottom. I used 1/2 in x 1 inch for the front, and 1 in x 1 in for the top. Like I said, I was just using scraps I had on hand. If I were going to buy wire though, I'd do it all in 1/2 in x 1/2 in. 

Here are the sizes of all the parts for your nest box.

Bottom: 9 in x 18 in

Sides: 9 in x 18 in 

Back: 9 in x 9 in

Top: 9 in x 9 in

Front: 4 in x 9 in

I clipped all the pieces together and went a little overboard with the clipping actually. But, I wanted it to be sturdy.

My back piece I didn't have the exact size I needed so I had to use a little extra to make it work. If you go by the dimensions above, you won't have clips in the middle of your back like this.

When I had it all put together, I took a heavy duty file and smoothed down any rough points. I didn't want Momma or babies getting scratched.

For the cardboard liner, I just took a big thick cardboard box and cut it out with a box cutter. (It is best to use cardboard that doesn't have ink on it. I'll have replace some of mine.)

Here are the sizes:

Bottom: 8.75 in x 17.75 in

Sides: 8.75 in x 17.75 in 

Back: 8.75 in x 8.75 in

Top: 8.75 in x 8.75 in

Front: 3.75 in x 8.75 in

When all the pieces were cut out, I put sides, back, and front pieces in. I put the bottom piece in last to hold everything in there real snug. 

And there you have it. It was easy, and didn't cost me a penny because I had everything on hand.

Now I just need to get my cage moved into the back room, fill this baby with hay, bring Raven in from the hutch, and wait. Wish us luck! 

If you decided to make one for yourself, let me know if you have any questions! 

I'm sharing this post at Repurposed Ideas Weekly.

DIY Rabbit Hutch for 4-H Show Rabbits

Before agreeing to get the boys our new Mini-Rex, Raven, Michael and I thought long and hard about the housing situation. Keeping two rabbits in the house works most of the time, but three... that may be taking it too far. At least for us.  Jabba had recently went through a huge molt and Bai's entire bedroom became covered in fur. As a result, we had to move the cages outside on our porch. This worried us a lot. Rabbits need to stay cool and late in the afternoon the sun shines brightly on our porch. I had resorted to hanging a dark sheet up on the posts to block the sun and create shade for them. We were also running  fans 24/7. There had to be another way. This was too much headache with just two rabbits. No way could we keep this up and add another rabbit (and future babies) into the mix as well.

The idea of buying a hutch for Jabba and Jango had crossed our minds several times before. We thought they deserved fresh air and a little more room than what they had in their indoor cages. However, when we saw the prices on those things, we knew that was not something that would work with our budget. The only way we'd be able to have a hutch for our rabbits would be to build one ourselves. 

We sat down and made a list of things we wanted and needed in a hutch.  The list of wants far out weighted the list of needs. Some of the needs were: safety from predators, safety from each other, protection from the elements. One want that we actually considered a need was a wire bottom. Our boys show the Mini-Rex's at 4-H rabbit shows as well as at ARBA shows and the State Fair. So cleanliness is a must. You don't want them to sit in their waste and get stains on their coats and feet as the judges will deduct points for that. We knew from past experience that Jabba will lay in his litter box and a solid floor just wouldn't work.

Since we already had cages that we purchased at tractor supply a while back, and the one I made for Raven from a dog crate, we considered building something similar to a giant shelf to put the cages on instead of building a full hutch. But ultimately, we decided to just go full force if we were going to do it at all. As we will still have our current cages when we need them for babies.

Michael and I are not carpenters. We are complete amateurs.  We didn't have any tools that we would need to build something of this caliber. Well, with the exception of a drill, screwdriver, and hammer. Thank God, for dear ol' Dad. He loaned us everything we would need. 

The wood we used to build the hutch didn't cost us a penny. Being the hoarder I am, I had loaded up a pile from the dumpster a while back. I knew I would end up using it to build something out of, eventually. It was very nice wood that had once been the bookshelves in a library and was already cut at 36 inches in length though they were different widths.

Michael and I worked on the hutch every afternoon for about a week. There was a lot of trial and error. It was an educational experience to say the least. 

I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of the basic frame. We used 2x2s and 2x4s to build it. The dimensions for the entire frame was 6 feet wide, 3 feet deep, and 2 feet high. The dimensions for each individual section is 2 feet wide, 3 feet deep, and 2 feet high.

In this photo, you are looking through the bottom of the hutch. We had already put the siding and ceiling on and were laying the boards out on the back. We used the recycled library shelves for this part. They were 36 inches long but various widths. We just had to lay them out and see which way they fit best. It was a miracle we didn't have to do any cutting on the widths. It all worked out just right. 

At this point we had the supports in the bottom for the wire and dividers in to make 3 individual sections.

Here we had just finished building the doors. We used some boards we had laying around for these. They are about 2.5 in x 0.5 in. Ignore the buckets in the picture. We had citronella bamboo torches stuck down in the dirt in them. The bugs were eating us alive.

We then wired the bottom. I purchased a very heavy gauge wire at our local Farmers Supply. It was 2 ft wide x 5 ft long and cost $3.89 a roll. It only took 3 rolls for the entire hutch.

Here we had put wire on the doors, added the hinges, and the belt line roof.  We paid about $2 a pack for the hinges at Walmart and we already had the strips of old belt line.

We used logs from our property for the legs. My Dad cut them to length and wedged the tops with his chain saw so the hutch could sit down on them and be attached as well.

Here you see Raven relaxing in the corner of her section. It is pretty big back in there. They can hop around, stand up, etc.

Although it is far from perfect and not one thing on it is square (even though we used a square), we are proud of it. 

I went out on a limb and decided to make a video about the hutch and our rabbits. Let me know what you think, but be kind. This is my very first vlog. 

And last but certainly not least... we FINALLY got a chance to put the metal over top of the belt line. It was old metal my brother saved when he put a new roof on his house.

We are getting closer to done everyday.

So, what do you think? 

I'm sharing this post at Farm Photo Friday, Farmgirl Friday, The Morristribe, Homestead Revival and Repurposed Ideas.

Meet Raven

This is Raven. She is a 4-month-old mini-rex and she is our new baby. 

She isn't "show quality" because her ears are just a little too long, but that is OK. We'll love her just the same. 

Isn't she adorable?

How To Build a Rabbit Cage from a Dog Crate

My boys decided they wanted another rabbit. I'm OK with that, but I am not OK with shelling out $50.00 for another cage from Tractor Supply. They are flimsy and we had to redesign them to open from the top anyway. The itty-bitty side door just doesn't work for us.  If you look closely at the picture below you can see where we made hinge doors on top. 

To re-purpose your dog crate into a rabbit cage, you will first need to get your supplies. 

A good steel pair of J-Clip Pliers and wire cutters. {Don't buy the cheap aluminum ones or they will break in the first two minutes.}

J-clips and/or zip ties.

Heavy-duty wire. Once again, don't waste your time on the cheap stuff. I'd advise getting the 1 in x 0.5 in wire. Otherwise, your rabbits foot could get stuck.

First, I took a ruler and measured the length and width of the cage. Then, I cut the wire to fit. This was a bit confusing because the wire fit perfectly on the sides of the cage and could be easily J-clipped. Yet, it was either too short or too long on the front and back. I decided to cut it short as it is only a fraction too small on either side and there is no danger to the bunny. As a result, my J-clips weren't long enough to connect the wire bottom to the front and back of the cage, so I zip-tied them. It worked great. 

After I had the wire in, I realized that if I had zip-tied the wire in all the way around I would have been able to move the cage floor up to the next horizontal bar and allow a larger space between the tray and the cage floor. The bar I used  to secure the floor to is the single horizontal bar closest to the bottom of the cage and J-clips will wrap around the wire and the single bar. The horizontal bar above the one I used is a double row of bars and you can't J-clip around that with my small clips. That wouldn't be an issue with zip-ties as you can adjust them to any size you need. Next time, I think I'll just go with the zip-ties and leave a bigger gap at the bottom. 

 Either way, it works. My tray still easily slides out and the rabbit is a good distance away from any waste that may land in the bottom. Though our rabbits are litter box trained, they still have an accident sometimes. How high you raise the floor is just a matter of preference. Do which ever you wish.

I hope this is helpful to some of you out there. Let me know if you have any questions!

Shared at The Morristribe, Farm Girl Blog Hop, Fox Hollow Cottage,and Homestead Revival.

Blue Ribbons at the State Fair!

Our boys entered their Broken Senior Buck Mini-Rex rabbits in the State Fair this year. We weren't expecting ribbons, the experience alone was enough. 

Michael, the boys, and I before the rabbit show. Ignore Bailey's eyes. He is a silly one. 

 Dalton worked hard to groom Jango. 

 as did Bailey with Jabba. Now all we had to do was wait for our turn to show. 

Bailey and Jabba walked away with a Blue Ribbon and 3rd Runner-Up to Best In Class. 

Dalton isn't quite old enough to show a rabbit in the State Fair, so a friend showed Jango for him.  He was exhausted and didn't even know he got a ribbon until later that afternoon. I had to take his photo with the ribbon laying on his back. He and Jango got a Blue Ribbon as well as 1st Runner-Up to Best In Class.  

Needless to say, we are thrilled! Way to go boys! 

Jango got 3rd place!

I don't know why I hadn't posted this already; but back in mid-July, my youngest son, Dalton, entered his Mini-Rex, Jango, in a 4-H rabbit show and walked away with 3rd place. Had they broken the categories down like they normally do, he would have received 2nd place. They judged solids and broken in the same category, which I hadn't seen before. They did separate Bucks (Male) and Does (Female) as well as Juniors (less than 6 months old) and Seniors (older than 6 months old).  2nd place went to a solid and 1st to another broken. The judges remarks were that Jango was narrow in the shoulder and a little rough in coat. Good ears, head, and shape. He had been brushed, but evidently not enough.

Here we have Bailey holding Jango while Dalton combed him. 

 Jango just chillin' out on the grooming table. 

 My little man and I. 

 Dalton with Jango and his 3rd place ribbon. He also received a check for $3.00. 

 Jango showing off his ribbon. 

Jabba was going through a horrible molt and Bailey couldn't show him. But he helped a friend show one of their many rabbits and they let him keep the blue ribbon it received.

 This is what Jabba normally looks like. 

How To Build a Transport Cage for Show Rabbits

When our boys decided they wanted to show rabbits with our local 4-H Livestock program, I knew we needed a carrier to take them back and forth in, but I had no clue where I was going to get one in a matter of days. All I knew was that I had to have one that would hold 2 rabbits,  could be put in the back of the car, and that I could find quick.

So Michael, the boys, and I head to a local Farmers Supply store and Tractor Supply in search of a travel cage. No such luck. We would have to make one ourselves. We went to Lowes and Tractor Supply to purchase the things we thought we would need.

Wire (Approx $13) at Lowes
J-Clips (Approx $5) at Tractor Supply
J-Clip Pliers (Approx $10) at Tractor Supply

Our original tools.

Here we were the night before the coop and rabbit show trying to figure out how on earth to go about building a cage. A few things we figured out real quickly...

•  Do NOT buy the J-Clip pliers from Tractor Supply that are pictured above. They are pure junk and will break in no more than two minutes. Ours will be taken back ASAP. (Borrow a steel pair from your Dad).
•  The actual J-Clips from there are pretty flimsy too.. but will work. (Next time buy the good ones at the local farm store). 
•  Cutting wire with the tool in the middle (I forgot the name) is a lot harder than you'd think. (Borrow an actual steel pair of wire cutters from your Dad while you are at it). 
•  The rabbit wire at Lowes is a waste too. You don't want the flimsy stuff. (Pay the extra $$$ for the good stuff).
•  Your wire needs to be smaller than 1x1 inch squares. 1 x 0.5 in is good. (Otherwise your rabbit's foot could fit through the hole). 

Now... gather your REAL supplies.

The real tools.

You will want to have a general idea about what size cage you would like to have. When we made ours we had no idea what size we should make it. So we just went with whatever was easiest. It ended up being 24 inches long, 12 inches wide, 14 inches high, and will hold two rabbits.

If you want to make yours the same size as mine you will need

(2) pieces cut at 24 w x 14 h for front and back.  
(2) pieces cut at 12 w x 14 h  for ends.
(2) pieces cut at 24 w x 12 h for bottom and lid.
(1) piece cut at 12 w x12 h for divider.
 
Lay your wire out flat, measure it the exact size you want your panel to be (measure 2 or 3x) and cut with the wire cutters as close to the wire as possible. The area that has been cut can be very sharp. So be careful.  We had the bright idea to bend ours in places instead of cutting it. Do not do that. It just makes a huge mess and ends up being a lot harder than just cutting out the pieces and clipping them back together.  Trust me!

Here you can see how the clamps that hold the sides together look up close. Our wires didn't match up perfect as you can tell. But it is still functional. At this point we hadn't figured out that you needed to clip the wires really close to the vertical line. We just folded the piece that was sticking out, back onto itself. This isn't a good idea. Just clip as close as you possibly can and then take a file and smooth down the edges. With actual wire cutters you should be able to get very very close.

Once you have all your pieces cut out it is time to assemble. When we made ours we forgot we needed a raised floor or the rabbits will have to sit in their waste. It looked like this. Obviously this would not work. We had to come up with a solution. We'd either have to take it all apart and raise the floor up a couple inches or add a platform at the bottom.

We forgot to raise the bottom.

We added a platform and I'm not sure that was the best way to go since now we have 2 layers of wire on the bottom. Even though they sit pretty flat against each other I worry that the rabbits would somehow get their foot caught between the two. If we had took it apart and raised the floor there wouldn't have been as much room for them inside. So we will end up making another in the next few days from scratch and will make it taller so we can have a raised floor with the dimensions I gave to you. I'll update with pics when I get it done.

Added a platform bottom.

They didn't have any issues with the floor, but I worry.

Here I edited the photo to kinda show you how your raised floor cage will look when finished.

OK.. back on track.. It is time to assemble. Get your front piece and back piece. Stand the front up as it will be when it is the side of the cage. Clip the floor of the cage to the front piece 2 inches from the bottom. This will allow your rabbits to be up on a platform when the cage is done. Now, clip the floor to the back in the same way. It should look like a very short and long H. I may not stand on it's own, but that is OK.

Now add your divider piece into the middle of the sides. This is what will keep your rabbits from fighting with each other if they are the same sex or from mating if they are opposites. Be sure to connect it to the floor as well.

Next up, you will now take your side pieces and clip them to the ends of your H. Make sure to connect it to the floor 2 inches up like you did with the front and back. You will then have a platform with 4 sides to make it sturdy as well as a divided box that will hold your rabbits. Now it is the home stretch.

Take your lid piece and connect it to the back side. It will work like a hinge and will allow you to take your rabbits out from the top. This makes things a lot easier. It should look something like this... but will probably look better as you will have the proper supplies and won't need to make all the mistakes I did.

A pic of the inside with the lid up.

 Here is what the lid will look like closed.

So how will you latch it so those sneaky bunnies can't escape? While we were at the rabbit show, I saw tons and tons of cages. More than 1000, Id say. Nearly all had the same type of latch. A small s-hook holding a spring to the cage with a large s-hook to close. They had the large s-hooks and springs for sale there. I think we paid around a dollar for all 4 pieces. Michael made the small s-hook for the bottom out of a very stiff clothes hanger. Those flimsy ones won't work.

Here it is latched. We positioned it so that it is very taught when closed.

 Then it can just hang when open.

Now all you need is a couple ID tags. You can see what I am talking about in this photo. The clasps you can buy at Walmart. We picked up the actual tags when at the show, but I am sure you could find them online. It asks for Name, Tattoo, Sex, Date of Birth, Sire, and Dam. We added our name, address and telephone number to the back as well. 

There you go! Now you have yourself a fairly cheap, yet sturdy, show appropriate, travel cage for your rabbits. The only thing I don't have pictures of is the handles.. because mine doesn't have handles yet. We will make them from clothes hangers as well.

This is a photo Jabba and Jango our Mini-Rex's in a commerically made travel cage that the extension office loaned us for the day of the show. As you can see the rabbits have aspen chips under them to absorb the urine, but they are on the elevated platform above the waste. Do not use pine or cedar in a rabbits cage.  They also have cups that attach to the sides of the cages with food and water. We purchased these for $0.75 each at the show. Your rabbits need to be able to eat if you are going to be gone all day.

 This is a side view of another commercially made cage. These are my 2nd cousin's Netherland Dwarfs in the cage. As you can see this cage has a bottom made of metal. You fill the bottom with aspen chips and the cage just sits down on top of them inside the metal box. The box has a hole on the sides and is connected to the wire cage with large s-hooks.

Our cage does not have a metal pan as of yet. We are still looking for a pan that will fit. If all else fails we will sit the cage inside of a Rubbermaid tub that is about 4 inches deep. As long as it catches the urine. It doesn't matter what you use.  A good idea would be to find a tub or pan you would like to use and then build your cage with dimensions that will fit inside rather than doing it our way and trying to find the pan afterwards.

So there you go. Now, you know how to and not how to make a transport cage for your show rabbits! If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Best of luck!!

Edited to add: We finally found something to put under the cage. A shoe mat. We purchased it at Walmart for around $5.00.

We have used this very same cage {mistakes and all} at several 4-H and ARBA rabbit shows. It works perfect. 

I hope your rabbits enjoy their cages. I know Jabba and Jango do.

I shared this post at the Barn Hop and Farm Photo Friday.