Winston’s Home

[LabAgility]

Winston lives in a 48 x 30 dog kennel that is 33 inches tall. I added a second level to his home, a repurposed platform I had for hauling crates in my Honda Element.  At its current height it leaves him with 12″ on the bottom story, stretches the length of his crate but is only 20 inches wide. The front of the crate still allows him to stand up on his hind legs.

I put the second level in this weekend and he seems to like it.  He gets up on the top for lounging but loves to hide down in the litter box area when my littles are being too rowdy. And trust me…1 and 2 year old boys can get pretty rowdy!

I can easily get taller pvc legs to build him more space on the bottom… Rigth now he has 20″ on the top level so can still stand up prairie dog style to check life out.  I have even thought about buying him a mini haven to put on his higher level.

His bum leg has improved with use- while it will never be normal he can now bear some weight on it and surprisingly can jump up and down on the level without issue… making a taller level worries me that he will try to do it. My husband built him a step but he wasn’t using it so we took it out.

Due to the bum front leg we also have traction issues… he has impeccable litter habits so I have left the wood bare. He definitely uses his nails for traction and has left marks! Any ideas for a traction providing cover? 

[LabAgility]

The picture shows his expen attached.  It isn’t up all the time; we put it up in the evenings and we leave it up for the morning. We usually let him have access to it all night.  During the day we take it down so the littles have their play area.

Winston loves his play area- here is he laying next to his best Labrador buddy- notice her black feet on the lower right corner of his blanket?

 

Are we doing ok for folks that fell into rescuing rabbits and never intended to have a house rabbit?

[Sarita]

Cute bunny butt! Can you put some carpet on the top platform – maybe staple it from underneath somehow.

[LabAgility]

He does occasionally attempt to chew on the bottom… which isn’t a problem considering that 1″ bracing runs around the outside edge of the plywood. Stapling something wouldn’t work…. he doesn’t chew on things, even his cardboard boxes. He does destroy willow wreaths, balls, baskets and pine cones with vigor. He also likes my kids softer toys. He chewed a vinyl block one of my  kids “donated” to him without my knowledge. He also chewed soft rubber tires off a bus from a similar “donation.”

Do you think the level is too low? In another thread here folks were saying that a rabbit should be able to stand up on each and every level of its cage. In a 33″ tall cage with a Californian rabbit that isn’t going to happen. When I originally asked about using the platform members suggested keeping it low if Winston likes it (and his litter habits are still impeccable and he can eat with is ears swiveling in a natural position) so that he can have ample head room on the top.

This picture may give a better idea of size.

[Sarita]

Well normally I think it would be but he has the run of the pen at all times doesn’t he? If that’s the case, then it’s perfectly fine – it’s more of a concern when a rabbit must spend more time in a cage w/out a “pen type” are 24/7.

[LabAgility]

He does not have full run all the time, usually at a minimum of a few hours in the evening, often all night. If we leave him out all night it is usually 12 hours.

Considering he doesn’t have full run of the x-pen at all times would you:

Floor is 48 x 30, level is 48 x 20, cage is 33″ tall, level is 1″ thick

A- leave it as is with a 12″ clearance below, 20″ clearance above
B- raise the level to split the difference – lower level up to 15″ clearance, upper down to 17″
C- remove the level and go back to a single level cage

All of Winston’s cage parts are repurposed with the exception of the fleece bolster bed which he lays his head on… if the level has to go, so be it!

ETA: Winston’s sleep place is the box in the lower right hand corner of his cage, where he is laying in the bottom photo.  He is typically always napping in the hide boxes or sprawled out on the floor by the door or on the top level.  He eats his pellets on top as well as his greens. He jumps into the dog bed as he has chosen that to be his “green eating” place.  Goofy guy!

[jerseygirl]

Yay! I’m happy to finally be seeing Winston! He looks very settled in.

The level obviously doesn’t extend all the way to the front of the crate, so that space there allows him to stand fully on his hind legs. That and the fact he gets a lot if pen time, I think he’s got it good.

If you wanted, you could reduce the width of the level even more (say another 5″ ?) so it extends out only over half the floor width.

I like that you have the level the full length of the crate so he can hop along a bit on that floor also.

For traction, I like using large floor tiles placed upside down. Nice and cool for them to lie on too.

[LabAgility]

Awww, thanks! He is a cutie. I think he’s settling in very well. He regularly binkies, does the bunny 500 and just hangs out by us. In fact, if we are sitting in the living room he will lie on the side of the expen closest to us and will crawl over us if we sit in the pen. We don’t get to touch him yet… but hopefully someday. He really hasn’t been with us that long… so we have time.

His cage had that exact set-up before we put the level in, under the level is his litterbox (which is 30 inches long) and his hide-box. The whole area in front of the litter box and hide box is the full height of the cage. I think we could narrow the platform quite easily, even keeping the bracing and moving the legs. Something to look into. We added the second level when he started jumping on to the hide box in order to look around!

Thanks for that suggestion for the floor tiles. I will look into them! Goodness knows the structure of his platform could hold just about anything… as it was designed to hold 2, 36″ dog crates with labs inside of them when paired with its sister platform.

[Ardelt]

If you think he can be trusted not to chew the carpet you could secure it using binder clips or zip ties. I use zip ties to attach a ramp between levels in Nigel’s condo and used the binder clips to hold a carpet strip on the ramp.

[LabAgility]

I thought about binder clips… but the level is too thick for those.

The zip-tie idea could work though… nothing says it has to be zip-tied to the level itself. It could just be zip-tied to the crate.

[jerseygirl]

Mmm… Just looking again, reducing the width of the platform would mean less clear landing room when he jumps up. I didn’t think of that before. If he manages with it all now, probably no need to change it.

[LabAgility]

Thank you so much… I decided to take your advice and leave things as they are and watch how Winston negotiates things. He does just fine with the platform, seems very happy and has zero issues jumping up and down. In fact, it has been pretty awesome watching him learn how to use his body effectively. He is so much more graceful now than when we first found him. That makes me very happy!

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