# Can I raise rabbits inside?



## BamaBelle (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi all!

I'm a new poster with lots of questions and I apologize if this has been asked before-- I couldn't find what I was looking for in my search. 

My family is thinking about raising meat rabbits but we aren't sure that we have the potential for a good set up. We live in southeast Texas-- very hot and VERY humid-- so I'm assuming that the rabbits would need to be inside during the summer (please correct me if I'm wrong!!). If that's the case, how could we go about raising them inside? We have a small house, but have some room for stacked cages-- although I don't know how big they should be (we're considering Calis or NZs). Is it feasible to do this? Is it feasible to keep them inside year round? If so, are there any special considerations we should be looking at?

At this point, I know so little that I'm not sure what questions I should be asking, so I'll stop there for now. Looking forward to your help!


----------



## o&itw (Dec 19, 2008)

Raising a rabbit inside is a cinch. They can be litterbox trained and make great pets (if you can get them to stop eating the lamp cords )

Raising meat rabbits in the house would be a problem due to the urine smell and the "fuz". IF you have an adjoining garage, then you can use racked cages with pans..., but I don't think you would actually want them inside. There are several breeders from Texas that can answer your questions better than I. Colony raising may be an option, or if you live in a low humidity area, an outside shed with some kind of swamp-cooler might work. They will not work in high humidity, because their cooling power depends on evaporation. (basically if you get wet from sweat when you're outside doing mild activity, they are not practical.)


----------



## BamaBelle (Dec 4, 2008)

Thanks so much for your reply-- that answers a lot of questions. We definitely live in a high heat/high humidity area, so I'd be really interested in hearing from rabbit raisers in the southeast TX (Houston) area as to how you raise your rabbits outside.

Our situation is that we live in a rental home in a subdivision with a HOA, so we have to be careful about what we do, what kind of modifications we make. We figured rabbits might be a good fit for us since they don't make nearly as much noise as chickens. We hope to move to a place with more space within the next year or 2, but we really want to be more self-sufficient now. We don't have much space here, but we do have a garage-- my only concern, again, is the heat.

Any help or advice you fellow southeastern Texans could provide would be so very welcome!


----------



## MaggieJ (Feb 6, 2006)

I can't give you climate-related advice, but you could try a small scale indoor rabbitry, especially if you have an extra room. Maybe just a doe and a buck and perhaps medium-sized rabbits like Florida Whites (they are a meat breed) rather than New Zealands or Californians. I think this would be manageable... and serve as an introduction to raising rabbits. By the time you move you'll know lots about rabbits and can expand if you are still enjoying them. If you decide it's not for you, at least your investment will be small.

Edited to add:
It would be a good idea to get the rabbits using litter boxes. Much easier to manage indoors than trays under cages... although the trays would be a good idea to catch any "mistakes".


----------



## vikav (Mar 30, 2009)

My NZs are in the garage under our living room. We don't nearly have the heat of Texas here, so they stay cool in the garage. I also have the AC in the house, so if it was to get too hot in the garage, I can always just open the door into the house for a couple of minutes, to cool the garage down. It stays between 55-70 F in the Summer, 40-55 F in Winter (we do get some very cold weather here). I have 5 adult NZs, the does are in 30"x36"x18" cages, the bucks - in the same size cages, divided in half. The rest of the rabbits are for the freezer. I handle the rabbits a lot, but they are not pets. I have metal dropping pens under the cages, and have to clean them out every 3rd day at the most (much more often if there are kits), if I want to avoid my living room smelling like a barn.  There is a small window in the garage, which stays open most of the time. I also run a fan with the garage door open x2 a day (while I feed them), to completely exchange all the air in the garage, at least twice a day.
The trick is a balance of good ventilation and temperature control. Clean cages are a big part of the solution. Having a setup where it is easy and convenient to clean out the droppings is very important IMO, especially if you have neighbors close-by. Also, you have to consider where the droppings will go, because you will not believe it, but it appears rabbits poop about as much as they eat (my DH says it's impossible, but I know better  ). We keep our manure in the outdoor composter, away from the neighbors, until it doesn't smell anymore, then just spread it over the garden.
I recommend figuring out how hot it gets in your garage, and what would be the way to cool it down if you needed to, and also, figuring out a way to daily exchange air in the space. It may be challenging in a closed space like the garage. IMO, all the air has to be exchanged in the space, at least a couple of times a day. More if it's hot, or if there are a couple of days worth of droppings under the cages.
I also recommend putting the cages on casters. Mine are, and I can move them easily to often clean and sweep everywhere, so there is no dust or fuzz in my garage. I also have urine guards on all the cages, so nobody sprays out, and I keep a big, clean tarp under all the cages, for ease of cleaning and so that nothing would get soaked into the concrete floor.
I'd start with a pair, even a pair of NZs or Cals, in stacking cages on casters.


----------



## bluebird2o2 (Feb 14, 2007)

I have my rabbits in my basement in the garage.friends of mine raise New zealand reds in there garage.I Have stacked cages with trays.i have a window fan but when its very hot i shut the window in the day time ,it stays cooler.you need 3 foot by two foot wide cages for new zealands.I would start out with a buck and two does.breed both does at the same time.


----------



## laughaha (Mar 4, 2008)

when I was a kid I had a pet lop that lived in my bedroom, her name was carrots. she was litterbox trained

I would say "go for it" for 3 rabbits, but more than that and you would have serious smell issues once all the popples were growing up. Indoor rabbits require vigilance if in cages as you will have to clean them ALOT to keep the smell down. I'd get a breed that the buck seldom sprays much as that would be gross in the house. 

there are cord and outlet protectors that are cheap to buy. 

Honestly, if keeping in the house I'd get Flemish Giants and let them free range a room. They are very large, but very gentle and friendly and curious. They are easily potty trained and bucks don't usually spray. You won't get the meat gain of a new zealand, but they were originally a meat breed. Oh, and if you fall in love with any of them, you can easily sell them as pet and pay for all feed costs. Of course, I am very partial to Flemmy's and my view of other breeds is probably slightly skewed. lol 

Alot of people keep housecats, think of your rabbits as housecats who won't claw up your furniture or climb your drapes.


----------



## vikav (Mar 30, 2009)

laughaha said:


> I would say "go for it" for 3 rabbits, but more than that and you would have serious smell issues once all the popples were growing up. Indoor rabbits require vigilance if in cages as you will have to clean them ALOT to keep the smell down. I'd get a breed that the buck seldom sprays much as that would be gross in the house.


Definitely require frequent cleaning, and good ventilation. If you'd keep them in the garage, the best thing would be to leave 3-4 inch crack at the bottom of the garage door open, and put a fan in an open window. This would take care of the ventilation. Unfortunately, I can't do that here as we'd have all kinds of outside critters in the house through the opening under the garage door  . 
I have 2 NZ bucks, and one of them is a sprayer. The urine guards completely take care of this issue for me. And, of course, the tarp under the cages, just in case


----------



## BamaBelle (Dec 4, 2008)

OK, so it sounds like raising indoors is probably not particularly feasible. How to deal with heat and humidity issues outside? It seems like I've read that anything above 85 degrees is dangerous for rabbits. Around here the heat index has been over 100 quite often recently. Surely there is a way to keep everyone happy and healthy. Any thoughts?


----------



## vikav (Mar 30, 2009)

BamaBelle said:


> OK, so it sounds like raising indoors is probably not particularly feasible. How to deal with heat and humidity issues outside? It seems like I've read that anything above 85 degrees is dangerous for rabbits. Around here the heat index has been over 100 quite often recently. Surely there is a way to keep everyone happy and healthy. Any thoughts?


I wouldn't say "not feasible", just depends on how much time you are willing to spend on this every week. If you only get 2-3 rabbits, it shouldn't take too much time in any case. There are a lot of advantages to having the buns indoors: less issues with heat/cold/sun/rain, no problem of freezing water bottles, less problems with predators and parasites, less chances the newborn kits will freeze in the winter or get cooked in the summer heat, less issues with flies, less shelter needed, so you don't have to build anything. As for heat and humidity, my way of dealing with it is to clean out the dropping pans well, rinse them out well, close the garage door and the window to keep the heat out, and open the door that leads from the garage to the house. Put a fan in the door, and let it blow some AC'ed air into the garage. When it's cool enough, it's done. If it's particularly hot outside, I leave the door into the house half-open, so the cold air can go into the garage, but I've only had to do this twice this summer. However, here it does not get even close to the temps you are having in TX, and our garage is partially earth sheltered, so this also helps keep it from overheating (unlike the house itself). Do you have an AC? How hot does it get in your garage?


----------



## BamaBelle (Dec 4, 2008)

Thanks for your reply. We have AC, but our garage gets like an oven in the summer and I'm afraid cooling it down would be grossly cost-prohibitive. I could be wrong-- it wouldn't hurt to put a thermometer in there to see what we're actually working with, but we keep the thermostat set at 83 inside and when I walk into the garage, I get hit with a wall of heat.

Perhaps we could think in terms of something small scale and mobile-- outside when weather permits, inside when it doesn't. Hummm.


----------



## vikav (Mar 30, 2009)

BamaBelle said:


> Thanks for your reply. We have AC, but our garage gets like an oven in the summer and I'm afraid cooling it down would be grossly cost-prohibitive. I could be wrong-- it wouldn't hurt to put a thermometer in there to see what we're actually working with, but we keep the thermostat set at 83 inside and when I walk into the garage, I get hit with a wall of heat.
> 
> Perhaps we could think in terms of something small scale and mobile-- outside when weather permits, inside when it doesn't. Hummm.


That's exactly what we did, before we had our current setup. We put a thermometer in the middle of the garage and checked the temps at the coldest time in the winter and in the middle of the summer (we actually needed to know the temps to make sure our garage was suitable to keep an upright freezer in). As for something mobile, that's where the stacking cages on casters can come in handy. You could just have 2-3 stacking cages on top of each other, with casters. You can roll them out into the garage when the temperatures allow, and roll them back into the house when it gets too hot/cold. You just have to make sure the cages can fit through the doorway. I have the Stack-A-Hutch kits http://bassequipment.com/Cages/Cages%2c+Stack-A-Hutch+Kits/default.aspx with casters from Bass Equipment, and regular wire cages and dropping pans made by a local breeder. The only problem with those are the lack of brakes on the casters. I sure wish I could just lock them, because I have at least one rabbit that likes to wheel herself to the middle of the garage during the night.


----------



## sherry in Maine (Nov 22, 2007)

from what I remember about living in Texas, shutting the garage door with animals inside wouldn't be a good idea in summer.

I can appreciate that you want to raise your own meat on a small scale. Wait til some texans chime in; they'll tell you about their experiences.

Sherry


----------



## BamaBelle (Dec 4, 2008)

Would LOVE to hear from some Texans or deep Southerners who would be willing to share their wisdom!!


----------



## jhuebner (Mar 29, 2009)

Try looking at arba.net (American Rabbit Breeders Association) They have clubs by breed, and by state. Gives you a place to find those Texas - California Breeders  

Good luck, we have some outside, some inside. Iowa in August (as I'm told) is a lot like Texas 

I've personally never been to TX, don't really leave Iowa much but to show in Wisconsin, Missouri, Minnesota, and Illinois. We all have our climate challenges  

Good Luck! 

JLH


----------



## Jennifer L. (May 10, 2002)

A friend of mine raised rabbits small scale in a one car garage and she had an air conditioner for them, and that's here in NYS where it doesn't get that hot. But it was really nice for the buns and for her when she was working with them. 

Jennifer


----------



## vikav (Mar 30, 2009)

Jennifer L. said:


> A friend of mine raised rabbits small scale in a one car garage and she had an air conditioner for them, and that's here in NYS where it doesn't get that hot. But it was really nice for the buns and for her when she was working with them.
> 
> Jennifer


I'm in NY too, and we only have a small 1-car garage. I have an AC for the whole house, but no vents into the garage. However, the temps very much depend on the design of the house, and which way the garage walls are facing. The walls in our house are concrete in the basement, with brick everywhere else. This keeps everything well insulated. In addition, 3/4 of our basement (and that's where the garage is) are earth sheltered - built into a side of a hill, and the walls of the garage face away from the sun most of the day. This really keeps the temperatures down in the Summer and up in the Winter.


----------

