Are you buying a “Predator Proof” Rabbit Hutch? What to look for before you buy!

What To Look For Before You Buy ANY “Predator Proof Rabbit Hutch”

There are many hutches on the market available at all kinds of prices (we should know, we have spend the last 33 years perfecting a few designs ourselves!). If you look closely however, you will notice many online retailers all sell the same style hutches (just do a Google image search to see for yourself). What you will learn is that any flat pack hutch available online or in big-brand pet stores, all come from the same factories in China. All of these hutches claim to be a so called “predator proof rabbit hutch” – which usually means fox proof. But there is an inherent design flaw in factory made hutches.

The design flaw in factory made, flat pack hutches.

We delivered a 5ft hutch on stand to a customer recently. There is nothing out of the ordinary about that. We make a 6ft version on a stand as standard so we had to make a bespoke stand for the 5ft version.

We were replacing one the customer had bought almost a year before from a well know high street pet store.

We recognised this hutch from all over the place – online websites and shops.

After we built it we stood back and looked at it next the the one we were replacing, and asked ourselves, why oh why do people keep buying hutches from China?

Rabbits will eat soft, cheap appetising wood used in flat-pack hutches (often toxic).

Let me give one tiny tip. When you are looking at hutches, many will have the wire panel fitted in a grove in the frames. It looks very neat but there are a couple of design flaws.

The first is that the gaps in the wire are far too large. A weasel can get its arm in and slash but the bigger issue is that your beloved pet will chew on the inside of the frames. After a while, the fox comes along and simply pushes the wire panel inwards because what was holding it in place has been nibbled away.

Don’t buy a hutch that will end up as an expensive rabbit chew toy!

We can not tell you how many sad stories we’ve heard.

*with pressure treatment added