Fun, Furry Bunnies

When buying pellets for your rabbits, read the ingredients carefully. Some rabbit pellets contain mostly fillers. This can cause a rabbit to become obese very quickly.

The pellets available at WalMart stores are NOT good for rabbits. They contain very little nutrition and a great deal of fat and filler.

You don't have to be a carpenter to build a nice rabbit hitch. Home Depot or Lowe's will cut a piece of plywood for a base and shelves, to your specifications. Buy some casters that you can attach to the bottom with screws, so you will be able to move the hutch easily. Drill holes in the plywood base every 12 inches. You can attach a piece of linoleum to the base to make it easy to clean.
WalMart, K-Mart, and Target carry square metal grids for making storage cubes. You can use them to create the sides and top of your hutch. Most are 14" squares, so make sure you figure out how many packages you'll need for the size you want. Get heavy duty zip ties for connecting the grids. You'll need at least 100.
You will need wooden dowels to stabilize the sides. They will be attached with zip ties at each grid joint. You will also want to attach them on the top to keep the grids on top from sagging. You can put a narrow piece of plywood on the top for rabbit supplies. I put houseplants on mine, so my rabbits have natural greenery around them.
Rabbits like to go up and down, perch, and have places to hide. You can add shelves that are covered with carpet or tile by drilling holes in the wood and attaching it with zip ties. You will need a piece of plywood installed vertically to support the shelves. Use corner brackets to attach the verticle board to the base and the shelves.
My rabbits have a tunnel on the first shelf. I used extra boards and corner brackets to create it.
The hutch should be big enough to put a litter box on the bottom and have food and water a good distance away from it. You can put a cardboard box in the hutch in different locations. Your rabbit(s) will hide in it, chew on it, and tear it up. They love that!
Don't forget a door! Leave 2 verticle grid patterns unattached on the top and bottom. You can easily secure the door with twist ties.
The size of the hutch is up to you. This design concept is very flexible. The one I built is 5 grids long, 2 grids wide, and 3 grids high. I put 8 casters on the bottom, so I can roll it outside every so often to hose it down. My Flemish Giant and Holland Lop have room to run, jump, dig, and get some personal space.
It took me 2 days to build the hutch, mostly because I made mistakes that had to be undone. If you know exactly what you need and how you want to build your hutch, you can do it in one day.

Rabbits love to eat, but not everything they like is good for them. Alfalfa hay is good for babies, but only rarely for adult bunnies. Rabbits go nuts for spinach, but they should not eat it very often. Celery is popular with rabbits, mostly for the leaves, but the stalks contain fibers that are difficult to digest. They can bind a bunny up.
Everyone knows that bunnies love carrots, but did you know that a daily dose of carrots will make a bunny fat? Limit carrots to once a week.
Bunnies need a variety of greens. Parsley is a favorite, but also give different kinds of lettuce. Just don't give your bunny regular head lettuce or cabbage. Try green leaf lettuce, romaine, and kale. Rabbits love broccoli, but give in moderation.
Many people don't realize that rabbits like fruit. Apples, plums, peaches, strawberries, and grapes are all popular with rabbits. Fruit should only be given as an occasional treat.
Be sure to give your bunny some clean wood to chew on. Rabbit teeth grow continuously. Chewing on something hard keeps the teeth ground down. Cut tree branches are great, as well as twigs, but a small block of wood will do. Just make absolutely certain that the wood you give is not poisonous to rabbits.