We have a small rabbitry that is currently housed in half of a 2 car garage, Jim's work area is in the other half. All of our cages are stacked 2 high on racks designed by Jim, they are on casters so that they are easy to move around as needed.

In the winter we have a small space heater that helps keep the temperature in the garage between 45 and 50 for the convenience and comfort of the rabbits caretaker. It is also much easier on the newborns and I don't have to worry as much about my winter litters. I don't do cold!

In the summer we have a ventilation fan that pulls hot air up and out the roof of the garage. I can also open up the door from the house and allow the air conditioning to help cool the garage.

All our cages have either EZ Pad resting pads or 12"x14" poplar boards to give them a chance to get up off the wire. Everyone also has a mix of toys, from hanging bird toys, to bells and balls to roll around, to various cardboard items to chew and throw around. I rotate different toys through to help keep them entertained and help prevent boredom.

We free feed a nice Grass Hay mixture and make sure that they have hay in front of them at all times. Pelleted feed is a controlled amount of Kent, Top Show Professional Formula, measured into their feeders twice a day. Lactating does and growing litters have feeders full of pellets and hay at all times. For the ones that need a little more, we use a conditioning mix of oats, barley, black oil sunflower seeds and Calf Manna. In the summer I omit the black oil sunflower seeds.

This feeding regimen gives us a steady growth rate and nice firm well muscled bodies without a lot of extra fat accumulation. Overall our kits have averaged 1 to 1.5 lb at 4 weeks, 3 to 4 lbs at 8 weeks and 5 to 5.5 lbs at 3 months

We use Aqua-Lyte regularly in their water bowls. After a bunch of problems with leaks, drips, clogs and dehydrated rabbits, I found that water bottles were just to unreliable and more headaches than they were worth. We have gone to using only crocks for water. Crocks are completely emptied and refilled daily and sanitized with a Vanodine solution twice a week.