07/17/2025
Why do we cage?
To some, the sight of rabbits in cages may feel unsettling but there's more beneath the surface. Responsible breeders often choose individual housing for two core reasons, disease prevention and controlled breeding.
Health First
Separate housing lowers the risk of contagious illnesses. Rabbit’s harbor parasites and bacteria and are prone to diseases that spread quickly in close quarters, especially those with fragile immune systems like kits. When housing a number of rabbits, it’s not matter of if we will encounter illness, it’s when. Cages allow for decease prevention and controlled breeding.
🦠Decease Prevention
* Isolation during illness or quarantine
* Targeted cleaning and sanitation
* Controlled feeding to monitor appetite. For weight management. To tailor diet to the needs of each rabbit.
* Hydration and monitoring urine and f***l output.
🧬Thoughtful Breeding
Not every rabbit should breed, and accidents happen fast in communal setups.
Cage systems support:
* Strategic pairings with traceable lineage
* Protection of does during pregnancy and kindling
* Prevention of stress related fighting and injury
Colony setups can look ideal, and they can work in specific, well managed contexts but they come with significant health risks.
* Rapid Spread of illness: Shared surfaces, grooming behaviors, and scuffles allow illnesses like coccidiosis, Pasteurella, and E. cuniculi to spread quickly, often before symptoms even appear.
* Contaminated Resources: Communal feeding and watering stations can become hotspots for bacteria and parasites, making individualized monitoring nearly impossible.
* Fecal-Oral Route Exposure: In colony settings, exposure to f***s and urine is almost constant, increasing the risk of internal parasites.
* Overcrowding Stress: Limited personal space can heighten anxiety, trigger aggressive behavior, and reduce rest. All of which weaken a rabbit's immune systems and give illness a foothold.
* Limited Observation: Subtle signs of illness or injury can be missed when many rabbits share the same space, leading to late interventions or unnoticed suffering.
So while cages may feel unsettling individual setups offer a level of control and care that colonies simply can't match.
I may sound like a broken record when I talk about rabbit health, especially when it comes to the parasites and bacteria they naturally harbor. But here's the truth, how illness arises in rabbits is one of the most misunderstood aspects of their care. Illness doesn't always come from "bad" environments or neglect. Sometimes it stems from invisible imbalances, immune suppression, latent infections, or exposure that slips under the radar. Rabbits are masters at masking symptoms, and by the time you see a problem, it's often been brewing quietly for days. When this happens in a colony setting the results can be devastating.
Prevention isn't just about products or protocols, it's about understanding what's happening before the crisis. I want to help caretakers, new and seasoned, make proactive choices from a place of understanding not just out of traditional practices.
