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Of equal importance with the purchase of stock is cleanliness in the hutch. A dirty, neglected hutch means disease, deaths and failure. Accumulations of manure afford breeding places for flies, are the cause of sore hocks, and worst of all, the source of infection for coccidiosis. The ammonia fumes from urine irritate and inflame mucous membranes, encouraging catarrhal troubles and snuffles, and bleach delicate colors, while the odors from a neglected, filthy hutch are most obnoxious and may lose one a purchaser.
The rabbit is naturally a cleanly animal, and no effort should be spared on the part of a breeder to afford it a comfortable and decent place to live in. Scrupulous care should be exercised, therefore, in cleaning the hutches. Cleaning out droppings and moist litter every other day in hot weather and twice a week in winter is not giving too much attention to. this important detail. Once a week all litter should be taken out and the floor sprayed with a good deodorizer or disinfectant, after which clean litter should be introduced. The water and feed dishes should be kept
The nest boxes of those hutches containing bucks and those containing sick does should be examined, cleaned and sprayed and provided with fresh straw. Every effort should be made to keep hutches dry.
