On my thread about someone abandoning rabbits in our garden and us intending to keep them someone recommended heading over here for some advice so here I am ...
Last time we had rabbits must have easily been 10 years ago and they were kept in a hutch and small run but I can see times have changed since then and we'd like to keep them in the most "natural" way we can within reason obviously.
So we plan to make them a walk in run in a corner of the garden. Currently the run they are in is about 2m x 1m and just tall enough for them to stand up in but not stretch standing up if that makes sense. One of them literally charges around it and bounces off the sides. What would you say an ideal run size would be? Google seems unsure. We could give over about 4m x 2m without much issue, but if they need more we perhaps need to look at stationing them in the horse field rather than the garden?
We are going to mesh the bottom of the run to stop them digging out but how much would it benefit them to have a digging area? We could create a box in the run that they can dig in? Is the digging area better with soil or I have seen online that possibly old towels or shredded paper should be used?
Water. The corner where its easiest to put them has a small water feature in it as in its like a very shallow bit of water that flows across. Will that be OK? I can see rabbits can swim from google but its not deep enough to swim more like splash possibly, but then will they get cold from that?
Letting them out? The cats and them have come to a understanding in that the cats don't bother them - indeed I accidentally shut a cat in the run with them for an hour yesterday and found them just chilling together - slightly odd but there we go - so I think they could be let out for exercise onto the garden area if needed but how do I get them back? They are friendly in that they hop over to me when they see me coming but not quite convinced about being touched / picked up. How do I improve that with them?
They going to the vets next week for a check over and to tell me what sexes they are at which point there will be a decision on rabbit 2s name !
Anything else I need to do or know?
Gosh this is stressful!!!