The Bunny Bunch

I'm really liking how the indoor colony for my rabbits is working out. And the buns seem pretty happy with it, too. Here's Solstice's bunch, they're just about four weeks old in this picture. They are, all six of them, lounging on top of their nest box. They are at that awkward age, wanting to be independent but not wanting to be too far away from the safety of the nest. So they sit on top of their home, all big and independent in the world until a strange noise sends them diving inside the box.

A real perk of the colony is I'm able to give them much bigger nest boxes that have a bit more resemblance to a burrow. The doe will often collect hay and wood chips and build a bank up to the opening of the nest box, something that was impossible in a cage. Now the the nest boxes can have much higher sides, little kits don't fall out before they are ready to cope with the great big world. And the nice mound that Mama Rabbit makes up to the nest box makes it much easier for wee ones to manage to get back in.

I have also found it to be much less time consuming as far as cleaning goes. Rabbits are by nature, tidy and neat animals, leaving their droppings in corners. So I have put cat litter pans in the corners. It's a simple matter to dump into the worm bins, rinse the pans and pop them back in.

The mature does get along well together. I think there may-be some shared nursing going on but all the kits are roley-poley, alert and happy. I'm hoping to be able to expand on the colonies as time and experience permits. One thing I'd really like to do is have openings from the colony to enclosed areas outside so the rabbits could go out in the warmer weather. It's still in the planning stages and there's a few kinks to work out.