Att bygga en kaninbur i trädgården - To build a rabbit cage in the garden

Our fantastic little rabbit Candy needs a more permanent outdoor space, where she can spend spring, summer and early autumn. So here is what we did to create a nice outdoor cage for her.

1. Placement of the cage. We wanted her to be close to us, so that it is easy to see her, and to take care of her. Our idea was to place a cage next to our outdoor sitting area, and outside the kitchen. It was also the place which have most natural shade by our nice bushes during quite some time during the day, which is good for rabbits. They do not want to be overheated. The minus-side of having a cage close to the outdoor sitting area is that it may smell from the cage if it s not cleaned out regularly. We will see how that goes.

The cage should be close to the house so we could enjoy the company of Candy, and it was placed in the shadow of the big bushes.

2. Size of the cage. Our decision was to make a cage of 2 x 5 meters. It is not huge, but big enough to provide some fun for the rabbit, and  for our daughter with friends who want to spend time with the rabbit.  And yet small enough to be possible to build for us. The thought is to still use the normal "grass-eating cage" and move that around as usual so that she can have grass on different places. Realistically the grass in this bigger cage will be eaten after a while. 

3. Type of cage. Rabbits are lush food for quite some predators, so the best is always to have a cage which has a roof made of net, as well as net on the side. But that was not possible for us to build this time. Our intension is to move Candys sleeping quaters (a regular outdoorcage that she has inside the box in the stables) and every night she will be locked into this sleeping cage, so that she is protected from stray foxes or big birds or other hunting animals.

It took some time to plan, draw and calculate the price of all that was needed for the cage. The material ended up costing us just under 1000 Skr.

4. Planning the cage. This took some time - drawings, googleing on internet, new drawings, estimating costs etc.  I spent one day one preparing and bying the stuff. There are some nice blogposts on building rabbitcages where we got some inspiration - and this one was very useful: http://www.tigerharen.org/material/tips/kaninhagn

This is what we came up with:

A rectangular cage, with 8 poles (45 x45 mm x 1800 mm). The net we used is called "putsnät" and it was available in 25 m of 1 m height (the net being 19 x 19 mm). The net needed to be digged down ca 30 cm, and since we wanted a high net (our jumpy rabbit is not shy to try height jumping) we settled for net up until 120 cm.  At the joint seam (where the net that we used would overlap)  we put a wooden rim ( 25 x 45 mm läkt)  A gate of ca 1 m to enter the cage was also planned. Further, we bought scruws for the wood, staples to attach the net to the wood, and hinges for the gate.

5. Building the cage.

Digging 30 cm deep around the fence was quite hard work, and took longer than I thought, The grass I saved in big lumps, so that we could cover the trench afterwards. In the bottom of the trench we filled up with some gravel, to hopefully discourage Candy from digging herself out.

The poles were 180 cm long, and untreated. We deliberately did not want impregnated wood. The life expectancy is of course shorter if the wood is untreated, but we hope it will stand for at least 5 years. The poles were hammered down until 120 to130 cm was above ground.

New tool friend
- worked very well to clip the net. 

The net was lowered down to 30 cm in the ground.
A bit tricky, but Johan helped me to get it right.
The net was attached to the outer side of the poles,
to (maybe) prevent a predator to get in too easily. 

Finally - after 6 days it was ready! Now next step is landscaping before we introduce Candy
- and maybe soon get a friend to her!