The Homesteading Kid

How We Clean Out Rabbit Colony Pens in Winter 

January 12, 2024 | by Joshua Kid

blog cover photo for how we clean out our rabbit colony pens in winter

Introduction 

Well, Hello there and welcome to the homesteading kid. Today I am talking about how we clean out rabbit colony pens in winter. If you have not seen my other blog posts on cleaning out rabbit pens, please check out. How we clean out our rabbit hutches and how we clean out our rabbit colony pens in summer

Similarities 

There are many similarities between cleaning out rabbit colony pens in summer and cleaning out in winter but there are some differences. The main ones are you cannot use the jet wash because it will take weeks to dry so you must use dry disinfectant powder, but more on that later. Another big difference is you must put straw down which is not essential in summer unless they are nesting of course, and depending on your setup you may have a different number of rabbits in the pen which of course makes they amount of muck in the pen that you have to clear up different amounts of poop because of course you cannot expect 2 rabbits to make half as much muck that you have to clear up in the same space of time than 20 rabbits do. And last but not least the weather in winter in the UK is pretty cold and most of the time it is raining dismally too. Trust me the weather being cold and dismal can be and sometimes is pretty much one of the biggest discouragements to go out and feed your rabbits let alone clean them out! 

Spot Cleans 

This is pretty much the same as doing it in summer, but in case you haven’t read that one, I will put what we do here. 

We usually do a spot clean every day. A spot clean is where you clean just the bits where the rabbits have been pooing using a poo scraper. Decorating scrapers will work too. We also clean out the litter trays. They are very quick and easy and take about 15 minutes a day, dependent on the number of rabbits in the pen. So, it is very easy to do quickly before school or other tasks. 

Deep Litter 

When you are using deep litter in the pens you do not have to spot clean, but you still must empty out the litter trays, but you do not have to clean out pooy bits in the pen. Instead, you put straw down over the top of it and you can leave a full clean much longer, sometimes we have left our full cleans 6 weeks using this method! Deep Litter keeps the rabbits warm. In the summer you wouldn’t want to use it because they would get too hot and there would be a lot of flies.

Full Cleans in Winter

In deep litter you don’t have to clean out your pens so often but when you do clean out, it will take a lot longer. The poo and hay can go mouldy when practising this method, so make sure you have your face masks on! Instead of jet washing the pens like I usually do in summer we put down some disinfectant powder which says it is for chickens but have never had problems using it, but as a precaution ask the seller if it safe for rabbits first as a precaution. 

Conclusion 

It is the not so glamorous part of keeping rabbits, but if you do it your mum doesn’t have to and then she has more time and energy to do fun things with you. Also, if you are doing it together it is a great way to spend time with each other while getting something useful done. And by useful, I mean very useful if your rabbits aren’t in a clean environment, they are more prone to illness, and to give you a fun fact, did you know that in the wild a mummy rabbit changes the bedding in her nest. 

Related Resources

7 Foods You Can Safely Feed Rabbits 

When Rabbits Get Bored – 4 Easy Rabbit Enrichment Ideas DIY

How We Clean Out Our Rabbit Hutches 

How We Clean Out Our Rabbit Colony Pens In Summer

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