Housing guide for healthy, happy bunnies
***THIS PAGE IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION***
If you don't know where to look it is pretty hard to find a 6' hutch for sale, let alone anything bigger. Google 'large rabbit hutch' and not much over 6' comes up but A LOT of promises do ... "The largest hutches on the internet", "Extra large hutches" etc but when you get to the website they are tiny prisons that no rabbit should have to spend any time in.​ So where do you go from there?
Over the last 15 years I have owned every conceivable style of accommodation, starting out with cheap hutches which all had to be replaced after two winters, and ending up paying out for quality that would last longer. I can't emphasise strongly enough how investing in more expensive housing right now, with your first pair of bunnies, will work out cheaper in the long run. A good quality shed and run will last the lifetime of your bunnies, a cheap imported hutch will need to be replaced several times over the same number of years.
Things haven't moved very far from Victorian times when rabbits were kept in small hutches and used for food. Replace 'hutch' with 'housing' and move your thoughts to playhouses, sheds, kennels and rooms in the house. Luckily things are changing and there are companies selling much more suitable accommodation and many owners who now give their bunnies the environment they need.
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The RPSCA and The Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund (RWAF) minimum size for a pair of rabbits is 60sq foot of space. This equates to a 6' x 2' hutch attached to an 8' x 6' run, but you can provide this is any number of ways.
The photo shows 60 sq ft kennel style housing.
Buying runs is slighter easier because you can buy two small ones and join them together. The RSPCA minimum runs size is 8' x 6' and preferably 3' high and needs to be safe, sturdy and fox-proof. The metal ones for sale online and in pet shops are not approved for RSPCA adoptions because they are flimsy and foxes (and bunnies) can easily lift them up and get under. ​