The Best Rabbit Cage

Rabbits have to be housed. If you’re going to raise rabbits, you’ll need a rabbit cage for every rabbit.

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Here are your rabbit housing options:

You can house your entire rabbit herd in a gigantic enclosure. This is called a warren.
A couple centuries ago, this is how folks in England and Europe kept their rabbits. When the menu called for rabbit, they simply caught a couple of them, and prepared them for dinner.

The problem with warrens: Can you truly contain the rabbits? Plus, you will have no control over who breeds whom.

You can house rabbits indoors.
Pet owners frequently use an indoor rabbit cage, and augment their enjoyment of their pet rabbits by offering them the run of the house, or parts of it. This requires that the owner "rabbit-proof" their home, since rabbits chew by nature. The owner ensures that all electric cords are out of reach or well-covered. They have to protect furniture legs. Some rabbits can be distracted by chew toys - wooden is best, since they eat wood and bark in nature. Learn more at our Pet Rabbits page, or at www.rabbit.org.

We’ve designed a PVC frame for use with an indoor all-wire cage. (The same cage can also be hung on an outdoor PVC rabbit hutch frame.) The beauty of a cage with a separate PVC frame is that you can very easily remove it from the frame and take it outdoors for cleaning.

You can house rabbits outdoors.
Many backyard meat rabbits are kept in hutches that support all-wire cages. Raising-Rabbits.com shows you how to build a large PVC frame that will support four to eight rabbit cages, depending on size of rabbit and cage. Once assembled, all you need to provide is the roof. You’ll love doing rabbit chores, with rabbit cages that remove in seconds for cleaning - easy-peasy!

The PVC frame and cages at right were placed outside so you could see how we hang the cages and install the automatic watering system. It will all be moved into the barn tomorrow. The broken castor doe is 'modeling' the cage. :-)

You can house rabbits in a traditional "rabbit hutch."
Countless rabbits around the globe are kept in covered wooden hutches on legs to keep them off the ground and a little bit more secure from predators. Go to Rabbit Cages for our review of some of the better rabbit hutch designs.

Wooden hutches have a couple drawbacks:

• They are usually enclosed on three sides, seriously reducing air flow.
• The hutch can get too hot, or become rank with odors if not cleaned very frequently. This will burn the rabbit’s lungs, predisposing him to snuffles and pneumonia.
• If you’re not alert, a rabbit could possibly chew his way to freedom.

Nevertheless, with the proper care and attention, wooden hutches can make excellent homes for rabbits. Many rabbit breeders successfully use wooden rabbit hutches.

You can house a rabbit in a portable rabbit run or rabbit pen. Rabbit runs are usually used for exercise, however some folks keep their rabbits in runs on a long-term basis, moving them to new grass every day. This is a great plan where predators are not a big worry and during seasons of pleasant weather.

The advantages to a portable rabbit run are the large size, the significant feed money savings, and the health benefits of fresh forage to the rabbit.

Check out our rabbit run plans.

A rabbit cage can be anything that safely contains the rabbit.
I’ve seen cages built out of a large concrete pipe buried in soil, a concrete container above ground, bamboo hutches (gotta watch that chewing!), and more. The only material truly unsuitable as cage material is solid metal, as it could heat up to unbearable temperatures during the day, and literally cook the rabbit in its enclosure.

And the best cage of all is ...

And, we show you how to fully assemble the PVC hutch and cages.

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Don’t have the time, tools or desire to build your own?

(This is Jornada, a show-winning castor rex doe...I just woke her up from her mid-afternoon snooze.)

Go to Rabbit Cage Plans

Go to Rabbit Hutch Plans

Go to Raising Rabbits Home Page