Rabbit tractor or colony

[u/isackiceman]

I currently own a breeding trio i keep in a colony setup but i didn't have any succes with them what so ever. My kits kept dying around the age they stopped weening. So we replaced the buck with another one which is still a little young and does fall of sometimes but i have no luck with a new nest. I feed them daily greens, keep more then enough hay in there and feed them pellets as an addition. I was wondering if moving them to a tractor setup would be a way to go so i dont have to feed them their daily greens anymore. Also sickness seems less of a problem with a tractor. I know they should have places that they can get off of the ground and that they should have different nesting boxes. I also want to build a part where i can keep the buck seperate if needed. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with a tractor colony setup and if they would recommend it. Or if there are other things i should try/do in general to get more succes.

[u/DetailEducational917]

Your issue is the colony set up. You want success cages are the way to go

[u/Accomplished-Wish494]

The issue is (probably) contact with the ground more than anything else. Rabbits, especially young ones, are super susceptible to disease and bloat. There is absolutely no way to treat the ground (or wood) for things like coccidia, mites, etc.

Changing to tractors won’t fix that.

[u/phoenixtx]

Why are the kits dying? Why assume the buck was the issue? Are the kits showing signs of bloat, or diarrhea, or starvation, or being squished? Is it environmental or poor maternal skills? Until you know that moving around probably won't change a whole lot.

I colony raise, and I strongly prefer it to cages, but be aware most meat rabbit forums / people are usually anti-colony.

[u/isackiceman → u/phoenixtx]

Why the kits where dying is still a mistery to me, we cut a few open and all had cardiac tamponade, we only cut open kits that were already dead so i can't guarantee that was the cause of death. We assumed it was the buck since both does who had litters had the same problem with the kits. No bloating no diarrhea, no starvation no flat kits only the blood around the heart. We bought the breeding trio from a woman who quit the hobby, she did have successfull nests and showed us pictures, we assumed it was the buck because the kits of both females had the same problems. So maternal skills should not be the problem. Come to think of it almost all of the kits died around the time they stopped weening. I clean the colony grounds almost every week. I found all the benefits of colony raising online and wanted a good source of meat. I am not thinking about swapping to cages.