bunny bungalow

Based on the design of my good friend Anglika's bunny cages I finished my second bunny bungalow. I hoped to move the mommy bunny with her six kids last week but we're back in another bout of winter so it's still too cold... Good thing bunnies like to snuggle because they're rapidly outgrowing the indoor hutch!

 This is the first one I made, with a frame of hemlock and siding of old oak floor boards. For the run I recycled wire panels of my old ferret apartment, made by stacking three bunny cages on top of each other, connected by wire stairs. These were large, good quality cages which I have not been able to find locally.

I found the hard way that making a bunny bungalow out of one piece made for a heavy and difficult to maneuver piece of woodwork, so I did some thinking and split the unit up in three pieces; two hutches and one run. The hutches are made with hemlock framing and painted pine tongue and groove boards, the run is made with scrapwood pine lumber which can be easily replaced as needed. I bought the largest rabbit cage at Tractor Supply to use as paneling for the run, but am not pleased with the measurements and quality of the metal wire. Next time I will buy rolls of wire and make one from scratch to my own dimensions (a 1x2 cm roll for the bottom and a 1x2 inch roll for the sides and top).

Inside of the bungalow living area. The floor is wire with holes small enough to accommodate bunny feet but large enough for the pellets to fall through. I will add a sliding door on the outside of the hutch door to partition off for ease of catching; similar to my first hutch, which proved very useful. I prefer the two hutch design as I found the bunnies tend to use one hutch as living quarters and one as a bathroom, which really cuts down on cleaning! A few times a year I give everything a good scrape, and remove the poop heap below for composting into our gardens. Bunny poop is neutral and can be used immediately, without lengthy composting.

The finished project. The lids are roofed with left over sheet metal (used to protect ordered sheet metal in shipment, from our carport project) and hinged upwards for easy access to the living quarters. This run has a door at the front, the first one a door at the top - either works. I will put another piece of sheet metal on top of the run to protect from snow and rain (the bunnies seem to be out more with roof on run).

One more hutch to go, and we'll have a bunny villa park :)