Hoyle's Belgian Hares

Prize winning stud located in West Yorkshire- email mandhhoyle@yahoo.co.uk

BELGIAN HARES - KING OF THE FANCY

These rabbits always attract attention because they are so different in build to most other rabbits, and because of their bright chestnut colour.

They make good pets, as they are intelligent and friendly.

The size of an adult show rabbit should be about 9lbs in weight.

Because of their size they need a big cage with plenty of height.

There are plenty of good plans for building cages on the web.

Some people worry that wood floors aren't easy to clean but taking all aspects into consideration they are still the best all round. I just use plywood for cage floors. It is about 1/3rd of an inch thick or 8mm. If the cage is outside a thicker plywood would be better. I have no problems with keeping them clean. I do not use corner trays. I clean the cages twice a week removing any soiled wood chippings etc. I use finer sawdust in the wet corners. I use a paint scraper or/and a great scraper I got at the Convention, USA, to get into the corners or scrape any deposits from the wood. I scrub empty cages with Vanodine 18 which kills viruses, bacteria, and fungus on contact. I let cages dry and reuse them. Many of my cages are nearly 20 years old. Of course some have had new floors in because pregnant does have tried to dig them up to make a hole for their nest. I have 4 foot to 6 foot cages. When young are weaned from Mum I halve the 6 foot cages and each single youngster lives in 3 foot until about 14 weeks old. This does prevent them dashing about too much and possibly causing injury to themselves. After that the ones I have selected to keep go into 4 foot cages and they are allowed out to exercise for 15 mins weather permitting.