Five-week-old Pannon White rabbits (n=112)
were weaned and housed into two blocks of
cages applying stocking density of 12 or 16
rabbits/m2. Both blocks were divided into four
cages of wire mesh (n=2) or plastic mesh floor
(n=2). In every second cage a gnawing stick was
fixed on the wall. The rabbits could freely move
among the four cages of the same block through
swing doors. A 24-hour infrared video recording
was taken once a week and the rabbits in each
cage were counted every half an hour.
Significantly more rabbits chose the cages of
plastic floor (16 rabbits/m2: 62.5%, 12 rabbits/
m2: 76.5%) than the cages of wire mesh floor.
With the increasing age between 5 and 11 weeks,
the ratio of rabbits on wire mesh floor increased.
This results show that the rabbits accept a less
preferable floor type instead of staying in higher
stocking density (kg/rabbits). The preference of
cages with gnawing sticks was also significant
(53.1-54.1%) but this effect was less pronounced
than that of the floor type
