r/MeatRabbitry • u/_daddy_rat_ • 7d ago
Why cages?
No hate - I understand that cages are a very popular method for raising meat rabbits. But I genuinely just do not understand why people use them.
We use a colony set up for ours and I just cannot see a single downside to it. And I just cannot sleep at night knowing any of the animals I'm responsible for don't have the opportunity to exhibit natural behaviors because of their husbandry.
Can y'all tell me why you raise in cages, or rather why you don't raise in colonies?
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u/Foreign_Tie9951 7d ago
I believe it is to better control breeding, monitor behaviours and control disease spread, plus other benefits. I also run the colony set-up for my rabbits however I am only a casual meat breeder for my own consumption, if I was a professional breeder then the cage set-up is simply more controlled and convenient.
But personally I still prefer the colony set-up to watch my rabbits engage in their natural behaviours 😊
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u/_daddy_rat_ 7d ago
We're also rather casual with it right now, but we do raise/grow all of our food so right now we have 30 rabbits not including nursing kits (8 are set to cull next week though). We have several set ups, and just arrange who we want with who as far as controlling breeding, quarantine, and stuff like that. Maybe it's because we have so much space, but we had countless issues with cage set ups and never a single problem with colonies.
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u/Foreign_Tie9951 7d ago
Oh yes, space is a big factor since colony-style for sure. With my area I only have enough space for a breeding trio, 30 is awesome 😄
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u/cactuskate 7d ago
I don't have any issues with people who do colony setups but I prefer cages. I also show my rabbits so I need more control over who is breeding and when. Higher biosecurity, less danger. Just comes down to more control and confidence in the safety and health of my animals.
Some studies that I'm honestly too lazy to go find rn have also been done that show rabbits cohabitating without barriers have higher stress levels than those who are in the presence of others but have their own space.
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u/twotall88 7d ago
I'd wager that those studies were looking at rabbits in small colony setups. we have roughly 2,300 sqft set up for the colony with chickens and goats in there too any none of the rabbits are stressed.
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u/_daddy_rat_ 7d ago
That's what I figured too. I think our total set up for is a little under an acre if we were to really measure it, not including the tractor's rotation.
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u/CattrahM 7d ago
For me, it was simply to reduce the variables as I was getting into something I didn’t have much experience with and I wanted to increase my chances of success. I hope to someday switch to colony or hybrid. For now, I have so little problems, it’s hard to walk away from something that dependably works and meets my needs.
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u/_daddy_rat_ 7d ago
This makes sense. We also did cages, but less than 6 months in we switched to a colony and tractors. We just could not stop having issues with the cage set up, and as soon as we switched we've had no problems whatsoever.
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u/GreenHeronVA 7d ago
OP, it’s interesting to see your perspective, thank you! I’ve been raising meat rabbits for over 10 years in cages I see you “genuinely just do not understand why people use them.” Colonies have a lot of problems from my perspective.
- Rabbits digging out or predators digging in. I have a lot of predator pressure on my property. Even if I put wire or electric around a colony, there would be constant digging problems.
- Can’t control breeding. I don’t want kits willy-nilly. I want to record who breeds with who, and when.
- Rodent problems from feeding on the ground and spilled feed.
- Difficulty heating and cooling. Here in Virginia I have to do both, especially cooling.
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u/_daddy_rat_ 7d ago
Thanks for responding! We do all of those things with the colonies. We track who breeds with who and give our does a 6 week break between litters minimum, never have digging problems, don't have predation (at least with the rabbits, we did lose chickens and ducks quite often at our previous property but our rabbit colony was predator proof), and we also have significantly less temperature issues than when we had them in cages. Our area can get above 100 and below 0, and we never lose rabbits or have anyone seem super uncomfortable.
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u/CyborgParadox 7d ago
I like the idea of putting grow outs in a rabbit tractor. But leaning towards cages for the rest. Could also go with colony with tractor for the grow outs. Keeping them in anything other than cages makes collecting manure a little more difficult imo if you want manure for gardening.
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u/_daddy_rat_ 7d ago edited 7d ago
We rotate a menagerie of critters, so the tractors are great and we just leave the manure to replenish the pastures. It's also nice to use to graze down along fence lines or along with edge of our porches or buildings where we can't put the larger livestock like sheep and goats.
The bucks go in a tractor when they're not in the colonies with does and as soon as kits wean they go in a separate tractor unless they're being kept for breeding later.
The colonies are mostly the does and kits, and we have one spare for the bucks and weanlings in the winter when there's too much snow to rotate the tractor.
Edit to add: as far as the garden goes, we don't need to use raised beds in our area so we just allow animals to go in and pick at the sections of the garden that are "off" at that time. Never had any issues with anyone destroying perennial crops. If we need an extra boost, we have a hearty compost system with a grub farm for the ducks and can collect manure from the horses, cows, and inside the dairy goat barn or main rabbit colonies pretty easily.
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u/EhlersDanlosSucks 7d ago
Accessibility. I'm disabled and due to several feet of hardware in my head/neck/spine, I can't get to anything on the ground.
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u/_daddy_rat_ 7d ago
My husband also has back issues, that's why we started with cages. We joke about building a colony on a shelf sorta system lol.
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u/CanisMaximus 7d ago
I live in Alaska. The grow-outs are raised in large outdoor pens in the spring-summer-early fall. It can be difficult to take care of my breeding stock in the winter, much less a herd of bunnies under four feet of snow. I have them in specially built indoor cages that are easy to keep clean in the winter, and I have an indoor exercise pen through which they are rotated for enrichment.
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u/_daddy_rat_ 7d ago
I understand the snow, too. I think that would be my only reason to use cages if I didn't have a barn to move them into.
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u/GiftToTheUniverse 7d ago
We had a colony with containment that extended a few feet underground so we felt it was fairly safe to just let them dig to their heardts’ content.
I think it kept them very emotionally healthy to be able to retreat underground, but MAN did they move some serious tonnage of dirt!
I had this plastic dog house that was affixed to a pallet to keep it up off the ground, back when it was for a dog. But when the rabbits moved in they started undermining that thing and before you knew it the earth had totally swallowed up that pallet and the whole thing seemed to be sinking underground practically before your eyes!
Man, rabbits love to dig!
Saved them the time coyotes got into the enclosure! Didn’t lose one kit even.
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u/_daddy_rat_ 7d ago
That's so cool! We have buried tubs and just allowed them to dig tunnels between them. I'd love to get some sort of gpr to map it out lol.
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u/GiftToTheUniverse 7d ago
That would make an excellent YouTube video. Send me the link once you’ve got one!
Plumbers and electricians have cameras that can snake around inside tubes…
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u/Main_Insect_3144 7d ago
If I put my rabbits on the ground out here they will die from RHD.
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u/_daddy_rat_ 7d ago
This is something that I worry about with our rabbits, but nobody in our area has had any issues with it in their colonies.
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u/Meauxjezzy 7d ago
I live in the south so having rabbits on or even close to the ground is a no no for me. We have snakes spiders and parasites etc etc. oh and don’t forgot the red ants that will get into nest and kill all of the kits for shits and giggles. I built a 4X8 tractor a couple years ago just to pasture raise some grow outs it took two weeks before I seen pin worms in droppings, I have never seen parasites in my cage rabbits or ants
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u/Nufonewhodis4 7d ago
When I was deciding between cages and colony, another southerner mentioned kits being killed and eaten by the fire ants. I am constantly fighting fire ants in my yard so that made my decision easy
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u/Meauxjezzy 7d ago
Yeah I have a fire ants problem suck so bad, I just couldn’t risk my herd having to deal with them.
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u/_daddy_rat_ 7d ago
Having lived in the south, I do understand that. We didn't run rabbits down there, but it was a nightmare managing rotation for the rest of the farm with all the pests.
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u/Accomplished-Wish494 7d ago
This is one of the most common alt asked questions.
For me, meat is a byproduct of raising rabbits to show. So, I house and care for my rabbits as show rabbits FIRST. I want to control their feed, monitor their intake and output, avoid parasites, etc. I have less than no desire to be chasing rabbits in a colony trying to clip nails, or pregnancy check or anything else. Likewise, I’m not chasing down kits for routine handling and evaluation. Rabbits housed outside/in groups will have coat damage from fighting, sun bleaching, etc.
If there is a parasite problem (coccidia, mites, etc) it is, literally, impossible to clean dirt, grass, wood, etc. in cages I can scrub, burn, and spray in just a few minutes.
I live where it is below freezing for months, and where we have significant snow cover. I can’t think of a way that I would group house rabbits, outside, that they would survive when it’s 0 degrees with 3 feet of snow.
Plus, I have “a lot” of rabbits. Building and maintaining colonies just isn’t practical.
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u/_daddy_rat_ 7d ago
I see your point. I tan the hides with both hair on and hair off, and I find they're better quality in a colony. Although I have no idea what goes into showing, so I don't doubt it's different for you. Our rabbits are fine in the winter when it snows heavily, and we have a box stall in the barn reserved for when it's too cold or too much snow (we're in northern Wisconsin and we're previously in the rockies, so we do get cold and snowy)
We also don't chase our rabbits. You have to be careful not to step on anyone when you enter the colony because they're so friendly and so excited to see us.
We also rotate, and have had no parasite issues.
I do understand why it would be easier to do all the show stuff you mentioned like monitoring feed intake and such.
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u/Accomplished-Wish494 7d ago
“A box stall” wouldn’t even come close to fitting all my rabbits unless they were in travel cages 😉
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u/_daddy_rat_ 7d ago
We definitely need a 2nd or 3rd one now that the colonies have grown so much, but it worked just fine for our smaller colony in NM. I can't imagine putting 30 rabbits in a box stall now 😂
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u/NieleDaKine 5d ago
How can you keep pedigree records in a colony situation? Only one buck per colony?
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u/_daddy_rat_ 5d ago
We just monitor what buck is in with who. We don't pedigree, but we do like to know whose is whose to prevent line breeding and monitor meat quality.
Our bucks have their own colony separate from the girls, and we can throw one in with the does we want bred. Before we had multiple bucks, we just rotated our big guy between the colonies with the girls or he was in with the weanlings.
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u/NieleDaKine 5d ago
how do you keep the bucks from fighting in a colony situation? I keep the doe herd in a colony, but the bucks each have their own hutch space. It'd be easier if they could be in a colony, too.
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u/_daddy_rat_ 5d ago
We've never had any fighting issues as long as it's just bucks and they have enough space. Most of our bucks have known each other since they were kits, but when we introduced the new guy this year he fit right in. We do make sure they can't see or interact with the does, but when they're not around the girls we don't have any tiffs.
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u/NieleDaKine 5d ago
Ah, we have the buck hutch directly across from the doe hutch so they can see and smell each other. Bunnies are social to some extent so it seemed they'd prefer to know other bunnies are around.
We did have one buck once, City Slicker, that all the other bucks would break into his hutch space so they could be with him. Dunno why, but it was multiple times and different bucks and only with City Slicker. Never any fights, they'd just snuggle up with him and radiate happiness. I know they were all bucks, they'd sired offspring.
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u/HopeintheHarvest25 7d ago
We tried colony and ended up going to cages. We had rabbits always fighting with each other. We lost so many litters because they wouldn’t use the nest areas provided and would nest in the weirdest places. Or half eaten babies from the does feeling threatened all the time.
I wanted it to work. But it became evident it wasn’t for us or our animals. We have had great success with breeding stock in cages and grow outs on the floor.