Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The pet store that had rabbits for cheap closed down and the nearest pet shops that supply rabbits are far any advice on breeding rabbits? Im runnig out of excuses to tell petsmart when i come in to buy guinea pigs lol

I would check with local feed stores to try to find someone near you that breeds rabbits.

Breeding rabbits is simple but usually not worth the time, money & effort for one or two snakes. A Google search of "breeding rabbits" will give you more caging, care, breeding, etc, info than you can read in your lifetime. Plus, your membership here at kingsnake gives you access to other forums and one of them has a few sections on rabbits. It's been a few years since I was on that forum so I can't remember which one it was.

Later!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

bet those little pigs from petsmart are getting expensive, im looking into breeding rabbitts myself, got a free one from a friend but by the time i got cage set-up and everything it was about 75 bucks. If u breed them what are u going to do with what u dont need??? Will u be able to sell them or make a little money for your troubles.

I figured i'd just keep them separate when i don't want any extra little thumpers running around. Rabbits around here in new jersey are mostly sold around Easter/Spring time.

OK, I have to admit a bit of laziness on my part in my first post for not providing much help and I apologize. Twas late at night & I was dog-tired.

It is a pretty broad subject that needs reviewing and then certain questions addressed but I'll try to give a few of the basics.

This isn't a perfect, official & complete list of things.

First & foremost you want to use a breed of rabbits with as little fur as possible for easier digestion for the snake & general care of the rabbits. Of course you could always shave the rabbits before feeding if you think you can make money from selling long-haired rabbits as pets, etc.

Caging - There are generally two different styles of cages or setups.
1 - All-wire cages kept under a roof or in a building.
2 - Wood & wire cages with roofs built onto them.

It depends on where they'll be kept as for the style of cage bottoms you use. I keep mine outside in wood/wire cages with 1/2" x 1" wire floors and the waste drops onto the ground.

Using anything smaller than 1/2 x 1 wire floor, like 1/2" x 1/2", makes it harder for waste to fall thru & is a pain to clean the inside of the cages. However, you can't go too big on floor wire size due to it not supporting the rabbits' feet good enough. Use small pieces of boards for the rabbits to rest on so they can rest their feet, replace as soiled.

You can use water bowls, bottles, or automatic watering system. All water & feed bowls/containers should be easy to remove for cleaning or maintenance. I use an automatic watering system & in freezing temperatures I bowls. Bowls are easier to deal with than bottles, during freezing temps. To me, at least. With bowls I can just take a picture of water out to them, with bottles I have to go get the bottles, bring them inside, thaw them out & then put back in cage.

I feel that rabbits should be kept seperate except for the few minutes it takes for them to mate, otherwise the males could pester the females. You guys know how that goes. I can't remember for sure but I think it's somewhere between 29 - 31 days after conceiving a rabbit has 5 - 6 babies.

One good thing about rabbits is they're born about the size of a small - medium rat, depending on the breed. That means they can cover a wide range of snake sizes. Some snakes switch from rats to rabbits fairly easy while some are a pain to get switched over.

I'll try to get some pics of my setups the next few days and post 'em here. My setups are 2 units, one is a 4 cage complex and the other is a 5 cage complex. I've also got a few all-wire ones I use for overflow.

If I have too many rabbits at the right snake-feeding size to feed at one time I use my CO2 chamber I made for my rats to put them down & freeze them.

Here are some links that I found from where I first got into rabbits: (not in any specific order)

I think this was my favorite link and it's a complete rabbitry webstie. Just follow the links on the opening page: www.debmark.com/rabbits/rabbits.htm

www.rabbitweb.net/

www.mahouserabbit.org/infopack.asp

petcaretips.net/rabbit_care.html

www.thenaturetrail.com/BuildingNestBoxes.htm

www.rabbit.org/health/index.html

exoticpets.about.com/cs/rabbits/a/rabbitbreeds.htm

Here's the link to one of Kingsnake.com's sister sites, part of the Hobbyist chain. From this link, click on "Rabbits" in the "Farm Animals" category. forums.horsehobbyist.com/

A few cage plans:

www.age.psu.edu/extension/ip/IP729-31.pdf

Various "Agriculture Building and Plan List" from University of TN. Click on "Poultry Plans" and see the various links under "Goat, Sheep and Rabbit Plans." Particularly #6340 & #6277.
bioengr.ag.utk.edu/Extension/ExtPubs/PlanList97.htm#top

Just to throw in an interesting link, you'd be surprised at the various PDF plans and documents the USDA has available for free. There are some plans for rabbit barns, cages, etc, but it might take awhile to find. This link has farmhouse plans, plans for horse barns, stalls, etc. Most, if not all, are in scale. Nice.
www.nal.usda.gov/ref/USDApubs/miscpub.htm

More cage plans can be found thru a Google search of "rabbit cage plans" or "rabbit hutch plans" and many variations of those.

Hope this helps.

Later!
HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

Haha!! Please excuse my typos, I didn't proofread that last post until I posted it.

"I use an automatic watering system & in freezing temperatures I bowls."

Ha! I also bowl in warm temperatures (summer bowling league) but I meant to say "I use bowls."

Also, a "picture" of water does nothing to cure a rabbit's thirst. Ha! Ha! That's supposed to be "pitcher."

It's usually worth the time & effort to find a local rabbit breeder as they most always have old cages they'll sell you for dirt cheap. I can get decent size all-wire cages for about $5 - $10. They might need a little fixing up but well worth it for our needs. I found my local breeder afterwards because I didn't beat the bushes enough to begin with. Besides, all-wire cages don't fit my needs very well, but I can make them work if/when needed.

Later!
HH
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

have you checked around to see if you have a livestock auction?
I'm in oklahoma- and we have farms everywhere so there is a plethera of bunnies available.
in the winter they're expensive 7-10$ each- but come spring/summer- i can get them for 1-4 $ each- sometimes i can get an entire cage of the things for 10-15$-- that has 5-7 rabbits inside...

don't know where you live- but i drive about 30-45 minutes to the good auction- and its well worth not messing with breeding.

We've got a wolf-hybrid... and well.. our last attempt at breeding ended us with zero rabbits- which was 7 rabbits less than we started with. She'd been around the rabbits for 2 years-- i guess she got bored... ripped a huge hole in the wire and had a snack...

a friend of mine used to breed flemish giants for me about a year ago- and that worked really REALLY well. He had 10 females and 1 male. he'd end up with 4 babies per mom...

just a thought...

beth
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The rescue site: www.freewebs.com/okreptilerescue

I agree, Beth, that's a good idea.

If it weren't for my kids I wouldn't have as many rabbits as I do (11) but I would still have a few for breeding since most of my snakes can eat newborn rabbits and up.

My 3 1/2ft ball python loves newborn rabbits and they're perfect size for her. But still, if I had to do the daily maintenance my kids are doing it would most likely be a different story.

I've got a German Shepherd that will tear into the cages so I put up a 15 x 30 x 5ft high fence for a pen to keep the rabbit cages in. I keep a turkey in the pen & it guards against other predators, including me & my kids sometimes.

Initial setup cost & maintenance time are the main factors, to me, at least. $8 for 50lbs of rabbit pellets that lasts about 3 - 4 weeks with 11 medium-size rabbits. I've got less than $100 in the 4-cage setup & just over $100 in the 5-cage setup.

All-wire cages can be built at a lower cost but then you have to have a covered area to keep them or cover the cages with something. To me it was about 50/50, depends on the style you want.

To me, it takes less time & effort to raise rabbits than rats. The main difference is the changing out of substrate in rat cages/tubs. Once a month or so I shovel all the rabbit waste out from under the cages & into a compost pile.

But there is the difference between the number of babies rats & rabbits have. There's almost always a trade-off somewhere, 'eh? Ha! Ha!

Good point, though, Beth.

Take care!
Mike
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

These photos were taken at night so some details may not be visible. If anyone needs a more detailed photo just let me know and we'll see what I can do.

This first setup is the second one I built. I put more time into it trying to make it a nicer looking setup than my first one.

This setup has 5 cages and is 12ft long x 3ft wide and 2 1/2ft high in the front (actual cage dimension) with a gradual slope towards the back. The top is painted plywood and the frame is made from 2 x 4s. The doors are made of ripped 2 x 4s. 1/2" x 1" wire on the floor, 1/2" x 1/2" wire (hardware cloth) on the doors & between cages (dividers), and 1" chicken wire on sides and back. Including the legs, the front of the cage stands aprox. 5ft tall with the back aprox. 6 inches less.

Close-up of doors.

This next setup is the first one I built. Twas a whole lot simpler to build and just as effective as the second one. If I had to build another rabbit cage tomorrow I'd build it just like this one, except I was use 1/2" x 1" wire for floor in place of the 1/2" hardware cloth I used on this one.

As you can see I've got my all-wire cages covered with tin & sitting on top of it. This setup is made from landscape timbers & 2 x 4s with 1/2" hardware cloth all throughout.

It's 10ft long x 3ft wide 2 1/2ft high (actual cage dimension). Including the legs it stands aprox. 5ft tall.

The doors are pieces of hardware cloth cut larger than the openings and secured with j-clips at the bottom. I bought some weak springs and stretched them out a bit and connected them to a hook and that's used to fasten the doors as shown.

Actually, I took some dog fencing I had laying around and fastened the hardware cloth to it for a stronger, less flexible door panel but if the wire used for doors overlaps the opening enough it shouldn't be needed. My rabbits never push on the wire doors and most won't even try to get out if the doors are left open. My kids inadvertently have shown me that a few times.

One thing to keep in mind when designing/building is the widths of the wire you'll be using. The hardware cloth and the 1/2" x 1" wire I used came in 3ft widths, thus the reason I built 3ft wide cages. On the cage in the last 2 pics I cut off & threw away 6 inches x 26ft of wire on the sides. I just couldn't bring myself to making the cages 3ft tall, even though I've seen some cages that utilized height by making an accessible upper level.

Hopefully this will at least give someone some useable ideas.

Ya'll have a good one!
HH

PS
This photo series wouldn't be complete without showing my guard turkey. You can see her in the 2nd photo from the top, under the rabbit cage, but here's a better photo. Meet Henrietta.

The kids got too attached to her so she survived Thanksgiving & Christmas.
-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

Oops! I forgot to include the link to Henrietta's photo.

Sorry!

-----
Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

N/P