This is a specific conversation about Rabbit housing — space and setup that works — ask about yours and get one honest answer for your exact situation.
inparticular.ai
Most rabbit hutches sold in pet shops are far too small — rabbits need enough room to do at least three full hops, stand completely upright on their hind legs, and have clearly separate areas for sleeping and toileting. A Palomino is a sizeable breed, so that matters even more here. Before I point you toward the right winter setup, tell me: are you keeping this rabbit fully outdoors year-round, how much garden space do you have to work with, and is it just the one rabbit?
Yes, just the one Palomino, fully outdoors all year. I'm in northern Scotland so winters get properly cold and wet. I have a decent-sized back garden but I want something that can sit against the fence without taking over the whole space.
inparticular.ai
Northern Scotland winters are no joke — you're dealing with sustained cold, driving rain, and damp that gets into poorly built hutches and causes real problems for rabbits. A Palomino is a medium-to-large breed, so you need a hutch that's genuinely spacious, not just marketed as large. What's your rabbit's approximate weight, and does she currently have a run attached, or are you looking at a hutch-and-run combo?
She's about 4kg. Right now she has a separate run I put out during the day, but I'd love something with a run built in if possible. Mostly I'm worried about keeping her warm enough through January and February.
inparticular.ai
4kg is solidly medium-large, so you want a hutch with a minimum floor area of around 180cm x 60cm — and ideally more. For your situation I'd recommend the Chartwell Extra Large Rabbit Hutch with Integrated Run by Pets Imperial. It's a genuine two-storey design with a lower enclosed run, thick tongue-and-groove timber construction, a lift-off roof with mineral felt, and a raised floor that keeps the sleeping area off cold ground. The enclosed upper section gives her a proper insulated sleeping compartment you can line with deep barley straw in winter. It's built to cope with northern European weather, which is exactly what you need. You'd want to add a hutch cover or snuggle safe pad for the coldest nights, but the structure itself is genuinely robust.
That sounds like what I need. Is the run section big enough for her to actually use, or is it just token space?
inparticular.ai
The integrated run on the Pets Imperial Chartwell is better than most — it's a proper enclosed lower level she can move through freely, not a cramped afterthought. That said, for a Palomino who's active and 4kg, I'd still suggest using your existing separate run for a couple of hours of daily exercise when the weather allows. The Chartwell handles the housing and overnight security brilliantly; it just isn't a substitute for real run-around time. In winter when the ground is frozen solid, the lower run gives her somewhere to move that isn't the sleeping area, which matters for toileting separation too.
Makes sense. What about insulation — do I need to do anything extra to it, or is the timber thick enough on its own?
inparticular.ai
The tongue-and-groove timber is a good start, but in northern Scotland I'd add two things: a fitted hutch cover for wind and rain, and a generous layer of barley straw — not hay — packed into the sleeping compartment. Straw insulates; hay compresses and gets damp quickly. On nights where temperatures are dropping below minus five, a Snugglesafe microwave heat pad tucked under the straw bedding gives real peace of mind without any fire risk. That combination — solid hutch, weather cover, deep straw, and a heat pad on the worst nights — is exactly what keepers in exposed northern climates rely on.
