When we wanted to get meat rabbits, we felt bad at the idea of keeping them in small cages. As we only planned on a smaller operation of about 5-6 breeder rabbits, we decided to make our rabbits spacious pens on the ground. We made the runs roughly 5ft. by 12ft., fully wire above, below, and around, with electric fencing running the perimeter. Complete with 3’X4’X2’ tall wooden shelters, sand box, tunnel, hay feeders, feed pans, water crocks, and wood chews. It went well and the rabbits loved it. They’d hop and run around in their pens excitedly. Many liked to jump on top of their shelters and hang out. Come feeding time we’d be greeted at the door by excited little bunnies. And conveniently they would pick one corner to do their potty business in which made clean up much easier. Winter became the challenge. Cleaning up the poop became much more difficult, especially after a snow storm. Whenever we’d have a litter of babies it also became more of a challenge to keep up with all that poop.

So, we also built traditional cages both for winter, and so the neighbors didn’t have to deal with cleaning the poop every day. Understandably the rabbits were not very pleased to be placed in a small wire cage. Can’t blame them after getting to know the freedom of having a large run to themselves.   

Knowing that the rabbits coming in contact with the ground opens them up to disease, we feed them as healthily as we can. I buy them fresh herbs and salad greens. 1-2 times per week they also get a snippet of pine tree which are high in vit. C. When the weather is nice and everything’s growing, I’ll give them some of the natural greenery (edible flowers, meadow grass, etc.) 

Here are the following pros and cons I’ve seen with raising rabbits on the ground vs. in raised cages.  

Keeping Rabbits On The Ground 

Pros 

-Provides more space for exercise 

-Allows for more natural behavior like digging 

-More enriching 

-They love it! 

Cons 

-More labor intensive getting into each pen every day to feed/water/clean 

-Poop needs to be cleaned every 1-3 days 

-Potty areas need to be sanitized more regularly 

-Rabbits are more susceptible to disease

-More expensive to build 

-Not reasonable for a larger rabbitry operation 

Keeping Rabbits In Raised Cages 

Pros 

-Less time consuming, easy to access cages 

-Poop falls right into a self-cleaning system, usually a tarp that goes into a bucket 

-Less risk of disease 

-Rabbits raised from birth in cages are totally fine with it 

-Cheaper to build 

-Easiest set up for a larger rabbitry operation 

Cons 

-Small cage, not much room for exercise 

-Less enriching 

Ultimately, raising rabbits in outdoor runs on the ground is much more labor intensive, but allows the rabbits to live a more natural life. Another alternative, if you have the land for it, are rabbit tractors. You move the rabbits to a new spot each day, and they leave behind perfectly good fertilizer.  

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