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LEAcres · Dec 25, 2023 7:10 PM

Long story short: I've bred rabbits off and on for over 13 years starting with Netherlands, Mini Rex and Holland Lops to now we have Flemish Giant and recently Continental Giants...

Housing the smaller breeds is a peace of cake but now that we have our Continentals, we need to custom make new hutches to fit these massive rabbits...

Any giant breed breeders here with hutch design recommendations? Or even if you are a standard breed breeder that has a hutch design that works amazingly that we could magnify would be extremely helpful as well!

Here are our 2 new girls.. they are 4 months old and bigger than my 2 year old pet Flemish @-)
The WE Black girl is slightly smaller than her WE Agouti sister

Edit to add : must be off ground!

CheshireFarms · Dec 25, 2023 8:47 PM

@RunAwayDream breeds bunnies

annismyrph · Dec 25, 2023 11:52 PM

IN the past ; I ve found Chicken coops do amazing well for the "big" bunnies.

RunAwayDream · Dec 26, 2023 3:37 AM

Hey! I’ve been breeding bunnies for over 15 years now. I mainly breed Holland Lops, but I’ve also had some meat mutts, New Zealand’s, and Rhinelanders. With the bigger breeds I’ve raised colonies pretty successfully. Similar to what Anni suggested above, they were in like a giant chicken coop/run area.

LEAcres · Dec 26, 2023 7:34 AM

Unfortunately I need off ground options... our ground is loaded with cocci from before we moved in... and it's gotten to the point I've started pulling all of my animals off our soil and going to non grazing. Last animal I have left still gazing that is susceptible to cocci is my sheep until i figure out how to set them up off soil. Thankfully they are Katahdin so they are super hardy animals but definitely wanting to keep the buns off the ground.

annismyrph · Dec 26, 2023 11:08 AM

Am not super good at but here is a link :
https://morningchores.com/rabbit-hutch-plans/

HayesStable · Dec 26, 2023 11:14 AM

Ugh Flemish and Continentals are a dream of mine! But the size is why I haven't gotten into those larger breeds. I like having standard/smaller sizes so I can buy commercially built cages lol I breed Mini Lops, Mini Rex, and Rex for show, meat, and pelt. Unfortunately I don't have any specific cages plans to offer you but good luck! They're beautiful :x Fun to know I am not the only rabbit person here :D

(I'm Hidden Maple Rabbitry on Facebook)

LEAcres · Dec 26, 2023 12:19 PM

@HayesStable I liked your page! Super excited to watch your endeavors and I am so sorry your Christmas wasn't a great one :-S
I do agree that the smaller and standard breeds are much easier to house! Our Flemish girl is litter box trained and in the house (currently with her litter of 6 and 2 foster babies who belong to my friend who lost their mother during birth) so I haven't had to think about housing for a giant breed in a hutch aspect. My pet Mini Rex is so easy to house as she is in a 5.5ft long cage and litter box trained as well. With these girls being so big already at 4 months old, I'm definitely scrambling to find a housing solution before they outgrow their hutch they are in now! I did find a grow out pen plan that seems to work dimension wise off of Teal Stone Homestead's site. She uses them as maternity wards for her Creme D'Argents. Either way, I'm going to need a good bit of these hutches as I'm going to have to build their pedigrees from the ground up. We don't have many Continental breeders here in Maryland. I was lucky to find mine 14 minutes down the road :))

amber · Dec 27, 2023 9:21 AM

Here is a nice plan for big rabbits, it has the plan and material list and best of all the plan is free
https://www.construct101.com/rabbit-hutch-plans/

HayesStable · Dec 28, 2023 5:36 PM

@LEAcres Thanks! and yes, a very stressful Christmas week. But thankfully a wee bit of good news to share, I have my first litter of Rex! 7 born just a couple hours ago :x I'll try to remember to share pictures tomorrow :)

annismyrph · Dec 29, 2023 7:40 AM

@HayesStable , am So sorry for your losses over the holiday week >< Hopefully the new little beans will grow quickly and mature beautifully

Kattalakis · May 11, 2025 11:35 PM

Sorry I canrt help. I did Mini Rex and Netherland Dwarf both purebred and cross breds

kgstable · May 12, 2025 9:22 AM

I'm no help but I just wanted to stop and say those rabbits are SO cute!!

Brandybrookes · May 12, 2025 3:33 PM

Ohh theyre soo cute! Ive never seen bunnies with larger ears like this! My youngest child has a bunny and my sisters boyfriend is a bunny breeder as well! He doesnt do any type of giant though. I wish he did!

Ammit · May 12, 2025 9:18 PM

This thread was from a year and a half ago. ;)

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