Rabbits: When to move the kits to a hutch?

Question
Hi there, sorry to ask you another question so soon but i built a hutch for the
new kits and im wondering at what age can i move them without causing too
much disturbance to the mom/ the feeding schedule?

Rightnow they are in my closet.. In a box on my laundry.. ( not my choice, my
bunny didnt want to have them in the nestbox i provided in her hutch).. I built
a custom hutch for the closet so they will stay in the same place but need to
know at what age can i install it. I assume the whole operation will take about
an hour but durring that time i need to move the babies and momma to
another location and take everything out of the bottom of the closet. I can put
the nest back in relatively the same way.. But my concern is that if i let them
stay where they are without a cage they will wander off exploring and i'll lose
them.. Ive already caught one of the kits who crawled out of the nestbox at 9
days old..

When are you supposed to remove the nestbox? Id like to move them to
fresh towels as they have been on my laundry for almost two weeks.. When
is it safe to do so?

Thank you again for everything!!


Answer
Dear Lauren,

I think you can safely move the babies to the new digs pretty much as soon as they start wandering.  It's for their safety, and they should be able to make the adjustment easily.

You might consider keeping the nest box in the hutch until they just stop using it, or at least transfer the nest to the new hutch so they'll have something familiar in the new place, and won't feel completely displaced.

Good luck!

Dana