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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2022 13:32:06 GMT -6
This might explain some things for me. I have a path from the house to the hutch (a shed) and the same runs all the way onto the garden, but I don't often approach them from the direction of the garden, usually from the house to the hutch. I about give them a heart attack if I approach from the garden. If I go slow, they don't freak out but are all bug-eyed and leery. Perhaps it gives them time to catch my scent and they wait for visual confirmation.
I say the same thing every time I approach, "HI guys." but it doesn't seem to matter. After reading this article, I think, perhaps, they are listening to my feet instead. The path from the house is concrete slab, from the garden is grassy.
Rabbits warn the herd by thumping. After this article, I'd imagine they know each other by the sound of their foot patterns and it explains the thumping. Any of them can thump at any time. If the skiddish moms thump, the remainder of the hutch pretty much ignore it because they thump too much.
If Blackeye thumps, you can hear a pin drop in the entire hutch. They think he means business. I don't like it when Blackeye is scared.
When the weather clears, I need to put him in the play cage so he can binky. Thanks for this article. I'm pondering the type of music for them.
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Post by macmex on May 21, 2022 14:34:42 GMT -6
I think the author might have gone a little overboard but the truth is that rabbits do indeed LOVE routine. They don't even like to have their feeding time deviate by a little and I'm sure they have preferences about who takes care of them. They certainly don't like changes in diet unless... the change is from dry hay to green forage.
There's only one way into my rabbit shed and they can hear me doing chores before I get there. Seems like they're generally happy to see me. I don't play music for them but I do have to admit that I talk to them.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 21, 2022 20:26:34 GMT -6
It probably depends on the rabbit, or maybe the circumstances. Our rabbits run loose inside a 700-square-foot enclosure. Most of them run when they hear me coming, but one will come to me and want me to take time to scratch it behind the ears. She's a mama rabbit and knows our little Shih Tzu dogs won't hurt her and doesn't care if they come inside the pen, but if our German Shepherd is around, she'll thump her feet at him and run up on the fence to get at him in defense of her babies. That makes him crazy and he barks at her, making them all skittish. I have to tie him up when I feed them.
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2022 10:28:08 GMT -6
I lined the rabbit hutch with rusty old 2x4 fencing and then an occasional repurposed slat. Looks awful and also stymied some air flow. Im in the hAbit now of shutting thedoor at night. When three large dogs came through last night they couldn't get in. After we ran them off, a couple came back in persistence but we were more persistent. I have a yummy compost out there. Based on the behavior of my own dog, I suspect that dogs having a nutrient deficiency find the aroma of wet poo alluring.
I need to make a screen door out of cattle panel or some similar strength cloth for air at night when its hot.
I went into the hutch and turned on the light after the commotion ended and half the adults were thumping to warn me of danger. Nit this time my furry friends. Not this time!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 27, 2022 10:38:21 GMT -6
I find that a Daisy BB gun works way better than words when running off our neighborhood stray dogs. After a few rounds of that, they run off every time I open the door. (Very gratifying).
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2022 10:57:59 GMT -6
What you write makes sense because in the past I found some of them immediately ran off when I lifted a bb gun. I dont even know how to fire it. But their behavior to it speaks volumes. We need to keep the gates shut to reduce occurrences.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on May 27, 2022 11:43:20 GMT -6
I don't even have to shoot them with it, It works just as well to shoot a trash can or to shoot the side of the tool shed. Any noise scares them away and they pay better attention next time they see me open the front door.
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Post by macmex on Jun 7, 2022 7:03:24 GMT -6
There's so much good stuff in your comments, Bon. Yes, it's easy to lose track of breedings. I always say that meat rabbits and calendars go together. I have to put everything on the calendar or I will forget and get it all balled up!
Lately I've been tempted to breed another doe, just because our rabbits were slacking for the first part of the winter, but the fact is, we have enough ready to butcher now and in the coming two weeks, that our needs are well met. I hate to make the does uncomfortable during the hot time of summer, so I try to have them idle during that time.
I am cutting a heaping wheelbarrow of weeds every day. About half of it is for the rabbits. The other half is for penned goats. The rabbits absolutely thrive on weeds. With a handful of allstock feed and a bundle of weeds (assorted is best) they grow extremely well. In fact, I think the doe who never got pregnant for me (last fall) had that problem because during her growing months (summer) I stuffed her cage with all the very best weeds, feeding her too many. She got fat and that caused infertility. So, I even have to be careful not to overdo it with the weeds.
On the other hand, our goats happily take whatever weeds I send their way. Can't overfeed them.
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Post by macmex on Jun 7, 2022 17:12:02 GMT -6
Here's a photo of tonight's load of weeds. I may get by with just one but may need a second. We'll see. Because of the rain I was able to pull a lot of these without cutting them, thus getting at least a part of the root.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 5, 2022 9:56:43 GMT -6
I've been meaning to do this for a long time, but never could remember to take photos while I was outdoors. Today, I made a special trip to the rabbit pen with camera in hand to snap a few pictures.
Our rabbits live inside of my old "Quail Pen" The pen that I built a few years back, with intentions of raising baby Bob Whites to turn loose out here to reintroduce into the wild, only my wife needed it for her baby deer to stay in. Then, I used it to raise baby Cotton Patch geese, then, my wife commandeered it for use as a rabbitat ... Well, the story goes on, and I never got any quail yet.
Anyhow, when I built the "quail Pen" I pinned chicken wire to the ground all around the perimeter, so no stray dogs or coyotes could dig under the edges to harm my babies. Over the years, grass and leaves buried the wire until it's no longer visible, but it is still there and it still deters digging anywhere near the edges.
It turned out to be a very good thing that I did that because my wife's rabbits dig so many tunnels out there that it looks like Stalag 13. There are tailings of their excavations about 2" inches deep across a wide swath of the enclosure.
That's a good thing though, in hot weather, the rabbits live underground. When they come out to see me at feeding time, after having taken advantage of God's air conditioning, they feel a good deal cooler than the outside air.
A similar thing happens in Winter; they burrow underground to stay warm. So far, none have escaped. The chicken wire is about 4' feet wide around the inside of the enclosure. So far they have not burrowed that far back. It seems like most of their tunnels pop up out in the middle of the enclosure somewhere. They have at least 3 entrance/exits.
I'll attach a few photos of the enclosure.
this is a photo of the enclosure from the outside. It's 14' x 50' feet, made of chicken wire stretched over an old hoop house frame, reinforced with a layer of cattle panel wire to keep dogs, raccoons, and coyotes from tearing a hole in the chicken wire. I stitched the seams with hog nose rings, so not even a bird can find its way out once the door is closed. I put several man-hours into its construction. There are feed and water barrels near the door, so I don't have to carry those far to take care of my animals. I just dip rainwater out of the barrel and pour it into their water trough each morning.
This is a poor perspective of the tin Tee-Pee that we built on the inside to give the rabbits a little extra shelter. It's about 10' feet wide by about 6' or 7' feet tall, by about 6' feet deep from front to back. It's wide enough inside to set two folding lawn chairs for times when we need to bottle feed little babies or doctor one of the animals. In winter, we drop the tarp and keep a heat lamp on. The back wall is made of treated picket fence boards to block the wind. The split hollow logs in the foreground are placed over the entrance to their tunnels, so no one steps off into a hole.
This is the entrance to one of their tunnels.
I pictured my hand near this tunnel entrance for a size reference. The holes are about 6" inches long by about 4" inches wide. The rabbits have free range of the entire enclosure, but prefer to spend most of their time in the tunnels that they have burrowed. They come out to see us whenever we open the door each morning to feed and water them. Their water is just poured into a glazed water dish about 10" inches in diameter by about 2" inches deep. Their feed is put into a tin feed bin that has a little tin roof over it to keep the rain out. In winter, I place their water on top of a concrete block that has a concrete paver stone laid over it. There is a lightbulb inside that keeps the concrete warm. This keeps their water from freezing, makes a little warm place for them to get near to, though they are not smart enough to take advantage of it and prefer to stay in their tunnels.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 5, 2022 13:30:45 GMT -6
That's a nice setup, I like that. I can easily see how that would take a long time to build...
As a bonus, I had not heard the word "rabbitat" before. Guess I've lived a sheltered life or something...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 5, 2022 15:54:21 GMT -6
Whaddya know? Rabbitat is actually a real word, I looked it up just now.www.facebook.com/events/2463148727194041/?ref=newsfeed&__cft__[0]=AZVP2iUtKWcPZwpYS09J1S8Ol9PsmCRK7IhH9EwmqWSn2-dWJTByEhJPkxTxthImBP7C_OlpsVNag4BMCtUbHfBZgpXxLq8dcyxPQri9Ye8l6yZQD2y07ZAy7fALBB8HP57IDB98npPdAzNsl12xP3QFFsCwizzbbQ_6R6PSyVcijA&__tn__=H-RI love that little rabbit town they've built on the Facebook page that's listed above.
On a different website, I saw where someone had laid concrete blocks with the holes lined up to create a cool little tunnel for their rabbits to get out of the weather and kind of hide out when it's too hot. The blocks are in the shade in that photo. I don't think that would work very well if they were in the direct sun. (Maybe, if the concrete blocks were covered with dirt).
I've seen people use old pallets as a structure to slip short lengths of 3" inch PVC into, so wild rabbits can climb inside to hide. That way, they have some protection from dogs and coyotes. Those were pretty neat, but I haven't built one of them yet. I have some old 4" inch Schedule 40 PVC left over from a lateral line that I built for someone years ago, I just need to cut it up into 3' foot lengths and shove them into a pallet some day.
Back in 2015, I built a 30' foot long wooden bridge to cross the little creek behind our house. The bridge sits atop two 30' foot lengths of 5" inch steel square tubing that have been welded together in an 'H' pattern and painted silver to keep them from rusting. Every once in a while, I see a wild cotton tail rabbit go zipping in there to hide from our German Shepherd. Seeing that little rabbit find a place to hide almost makes it worth the time and money I spent building that thing. Most of the time that little creek is dry, but when it rains, sometimes it pours! If it weren't for this little bridge I wouldn't be able to get across the creek to feed my animals.Sometimes, that little dry creek gets downright scary to walk across. More than once, I've seen that little wild rabbit go in there to hide out during a heavy rainstorm. I built it high enough that I didn't think the creek could touch it, but I've seen the water get high enough at times, to lap right up against the bottom of the steel tubing.
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Post by woodeye on Aug 5, 2022 19:44:02 GMT -6
I had to look up the word rabbitat too, it is catchy, sorta rolls off the tongue.
That is a cute rabbitat town at the link you listed, even a jail for bad bunnies!
Oh man, I can see why you need that bridge, that would be a scary crossing without it.
Your entire rabbitat operation looks to be lots of fun. Cool!
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Post by woodeye on Aug 7, 2022 19:26:54 GMT -6
I just keep coming back to look at your rabbitat, heavyhitterokra. I've got to move on, I can't have everything, but boy o' boy it's tough sometimes at all times. Guess I'm gonna have to invest in one of these to punch when I see things like the rabbitat...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Aug 7, 2022 20:28:44 GMT -6
Oh, come on, woodeye, what's just one more tiny project gonna hurt?
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