In search of the perefct rabbit hutch

[misdee]

Poor old Flopsy has had to downside her hutch and run as it took up too much room in our garden when we moved (was a big run with large hutch on top)

I saw a large double stacked hutch a while ago, and really liked the size of it, but cant recall where from.

have found one on feebay, but no idea if any good here

just want flops to have more room when not in the prtable run.

my rabbit has a bog standard cage but the run is attached. just put it down on some flagstones. she is always outside

Search for Happy Hutches on ebay. They do very good quality ones.

sorry mis-read your post! pets at home have some huge lovely hutches.

Unfortunately most of the hutches available in pet shops are much too small. This one is a good size if she has a separate run for exercise - 6 feet long, 2 feet wide and over 3 feet high, so there's plenty of height for her to stand up in it and stretch (which a lot of the double-deckers don't have) and has the added benefit of being completely undercover, so she still has room to move when it's too wet to put her in the run. The problem with a lot of these hutch and run combos is that often the 'dry' area is quite small - so if it's wet outside, she'll only have her bed area to retreat to. If you're looking at double-decker hutches, consider the amount of 'quality space' it contains. They can be quite deceiving as they seem big at first glance, but when you actually work out the useable floor space, they're not. A lot of space is unusable because of the ramp (on the top level there'll be a large hole to get down it, and on the bottom level there'll be a large area taken up by the ramp itself). So the 6ft one-level hutch from PAH will give more useable space than a 4ft double decker, even though you'd think it would be bigger.

We have the double-decker version of the PAH for our two rabbits, which has now been discontinued unfortunately, but it's the only one we could find with decent height on both levels and a good amount of useable floor space. We also put a cat flap in the side which gives them access to a very large metal run whenever they want it - I think in total they have about 60 square feet of living space (compared to the 6 square feet of space a lot of pet shop hutches offer!)

I've got that one misdee, and it's got lots of room, but it's not perfect. I think I'd prefer a bit of netting in the door for the rabbit to see out when he's inside IYSWIM.
I used a bit of plyboard to divide the sleeping area too, but have also put a cardboard box in for extra warmth so I suppose you could just do that.
The one I bought had a free raincover too which has been great in the awful weather we had this winter.

This one is similar to what we have (except ours is a foot longer and the bottom is all wire mesh). It has wipe clean plastic floors too, so it'd be easy to keep clean. If you're feeling flush, they do a triple decker which would give loads of space with a small footprint

Another option is to convert a small shed for her, but not sure if you'd have room for this? Ours used to have a 10x8ft shed with a run attached which was great, but the dogs chewed it from the outside and they chewed it from the inside, so we had to replace it! Obviously you wouldn't have room for something that size, but even a 6ft x 4ft one would provide better floor space than a hutch, would give her plenty of head height and has the added bonus of being easy to clean out. For ours, we made an inner door on hinges with wire mesh, so we could open the wooden door and give them fresh air during the day, but shut it at night and in bad weather (the bottom part of the door was a fixed panel to stop them escaping when the door was open). The shed also had windows so she was never in the dark, and we put vinyl on the floor so it was easy to clean out. They had sleeping box in the corner but they spent most of their time sitting by the door tbh. And if you're feeling really DIY crazed you can put up shelves and ramps for her to climb on.

this is the one I bought.

you lot may appreciate this site

We got a forsham one - it's very solid and proper pressure treated wood, 6ft long, high enough for dutch rabbits anyway.

a bit ££ though..

and if you are going to spend over £100, definitely don't buy a pets at home one - read the reviews, terrible. Ours was about £180, and should last at least 5 times as long as that orchard manor one...no offence! I nearly got one before I saw the reviews.

MrsL - so sorry, didn't realise you actually had one, I glanced through and thought you had linked it as an example.

it looks a lovely hutch but do you find the quality is Ok? I saw reviews that said they weren't built too well etc? Sorry your shed sounds fantastic though!

...looks like they have removed the bad reviews I read a few months ago...

Lol no offence taken flightattendant - I wouldn't have bought one from PAH either if there hadn't been a big hole in their shed

We did a lot of alterations to it - we lined all the floors and walls with perspex to make it easy to clean out, made the ramp a bit safer with some non-slip rubber (it was quite steep due to the high ceilings), put a few extra screws in and added extra locks on the doors - we also have a rain cover for it so it's never open to the elements (the sides and back are a nylon material and the front is thick plastic, which gets rolled up unless it's raining). Fingers crossed, it's lasting well!

Oh thanks MrsL was a bit embarrassed there!

It sounds like you have the situation under control...do they try and eat the rubber? I might try it if not!! I had to adjust my forsham hutch as well. I covered the floor with acoustic vinyl (well it was a cheap offcut!) and also got forsham to make us two smaller wire doors as the big one was stupidly long to open and they would jump out when you were cleaning one end.

I am thinking about a shed now.... actually they need a proper run first, they haven't been out for ages tis so so wet.

We glued the rubber in place all over (spray adhesive) and then screwed some thin strips of wood over the top every 4 inches or so, to give them extra grip. Touch wood (!) they haven't chewed any of the hutch yet, and the dogs have left it alone too (they're a bit scared of the big rabbit though, think that has something to do with it!). The rain cover has come in really handy lately, as it allowed me to pack some insulation on the tops and sides of the hutch (just some leftover foam carpet underlay) and holds it in place nicely. It's also made it very comfy apparently - every time I look at the hutch, the cat is lying on it!

The run we bought is great because it's galvanized steel and completely unchewable (and very sturdy once I added about 100 cable ties - DH can sit on it, and he's quite fat heavy!). We put a base of concrete slabs down inside it, which makes it really easy to clean out and keeps their nails down a bit - the big boy rabbit spends loads of time out there, usually throwing his toys about

Sounds brilliant! I've got a half finished run out there but it is so heavy...need to rethink really. Steel sounds good.

I'm also trying to rabbit proof the end section of the garden for the warmer weather but it is hard digging wire into the ground, and ours are all female so no choice...they will burrow!

thanks for all the inout. have found one i like on ebay, here which is 6 ft long, so longer than most. looks a good side for flops, who isnt a small bunny.

That one looks really good misdee - I'd take the partition out on the bottom level to give her more room to hop, but other than that it looks perfect. Very jealous of the ready-fitted plastic floors and the hinged roof! And it already has two locks on each door, so you won't need to add more.

The cover looks good too, loads better than mine. Mine doesn't have enough air holes in it, and it doesn't have zips either, you have to roll the whole thing up to fill up their food