Bramble escaped last night!

[kirstyol]

Bramble managed to get out of his cage last night, although I don’t think he was out for long because there was no evidence of him going to the toilet anywhere but it has given me a bit of a fright. We have only just started letting him in the Living room under supervision and we use his pen to block off the area around the television so that he has no access to the wires or anything dangerous. Thankfully he hasn’t chewed anything he shouldn’t have, or anything at all that I can see but it has me a little worried in case he manages to do this again and we aren’t so lucky.

The weird thing is that he got out through the top of his cage not the side door, how he got the top door open I do not know surely it would have just closed back down with its own weight but I am absolutely sure that it wasn’t left open so the only explanation is he managed to do it himself. The problem is that I cannot set his pen up around the cage because there just isn’t room, during the day he is in his pen normally but he has been on cage rest for a week since his neutering and yesterday was the first day he was back out in his pen.

So I just wanted to know what you guys thought of my options. We are planning to get him a new cage when I get paid in two weeks, even though he is only in it at night, he has grown slightly bigger than we thought so I think he should have a bigger one (current one he can just and no more do three hops, I would like the bigger size for him) also the vet suggested getting him one with plastic sides so he doesn’t chip his tooth again but until then I only have a few options.

I can take one of the clips that holds his pen together and attach it to the cage door to keep it closed which will stop him from being able to get out but might encourage him to chew the bars more as he is trying to get out and he might chip his tooth again which I obviously don’t want. Or I can move his cage to the hall where there is room to put the pen around it, the only problem with that is it doesn’t leave much space for us to walk by, which I don’t mind at all during the day but I worry that I would get up in the middle of the night and walk into it without remembering its there. The hall also gets a little chilly at night and I don’t want him getting cold which is why he is in the living room at night in the first place.

Obviously when I go to get the new cage I will make sure that the top door is more secure but I just cant afford it until I get paid again, not after the vet bills I just had to pay last week. I might also see if I can get a smaller pen for around the cage in the living room then he has extra space and still has his big pen for the hall.

[litheandgraphic]

What kind of cage is he in now / what kind of bigger cage are you planning on getting for him? A large dog crate of some kind?

I think putting him the hallway would probably be a good option. It’s probably your safest option right now if the other option will increase his likelihood of chipping another tooth. How cold does the hallway get? Rabbits are pretty good with cool temperatures. If you’re worried you can always lay some towels in his pen.

But my first thought would be, are there any plastic lids or anything you can use to block the areas he chews in his cage otherwise?

[kirstyol]

I had planned on getting a dog crate for him but the vet suggested I get a plastic sided rabbit cage for him, on the one hand I don’t know if you get rabbit cages any bigger than the one we already have and I definitely want him to have more space, but I really really don’t want him to chip another tooth and as the vet said he is just as likely to chew bars on a dog cage as he is on a rabbit one. He is only in his cage at night, he has a huge pen for during the day if we are not about, if we are in then we let him free roam with our supervision, but I still don’t want him to be in something tiny.

The temperature in the hall would probably not be too bad as the weather is not really cold at the moment so I guess in the short term I could just set him up out there but I definitely cant have this as a long term solution because it really does get cold out there in winter. I am going to have a good look at housing options for him today so that I have it all sorted out for when I get paid.

Bramble is a rabbit who lives to chew things, I think if I put anything in there to try and stop him chewing his bars he would just destroy whatever I put in to be honest. I think its going to have to be his pen in the hall in the short term because I definitely don’t want him hurting himself again especially since he is not 100% over last weeks trip to the vet. He doesn’t seem to chew the bars in the pen quite as much as he does in his cage.

[BunnyLebowski]

They sell rabbit condos, but you’d be better off building one from scratch. There are metal grids you can buy (usually used as a shelving unit) and hook them together with zip ties. There are many tutorials on youtube that I found helpful. That way you can build their pen the way you want and give them as much room as you see fit! The most I spent on it was around $21 per shelf set (I used two) and then a two bags of 100 zip ties. (didn’t use ’em all of course :p)

Good luck! So far my BunBun hasn’t been able to bust out, and I just keep the gate door lock with those black clips you use in offices or schools.

[Pipje]

If it’s worth anything – I had a rabbit who persistently chewed bars, even during free time he’d go into his cage/pen and chew the bars… but once he was upgraded to a bigger house (NIC condo) with more room for toys and space to run, he never chewed a bar again. If you already find he doesn’t chew so much in his pen, it’s probably a similar reason. More space = happier and less tendency to do destructive, bored habits like bar chewing.

So yeah seeing as his cage is way too small (I’m assuming by the description a pet store cage, which are never suitable) I’d get some of the NIC cubes/storage grids, some zip ties and linoleum for the floor and build a bigger cage/pen. It’s so much cheaper than anything pre-made for rabbits and you can build it to fit in the space you have easily. Please remember that 4ft x 2ft is minimum for a rabbit, and enough vertical height for them to periscope. You can build upwards with the grids for more room in a tight space, which rabbits love for jumping, but levels dont count as initial floor space.

[kirstyol]

The cage I have is 4 ft by 2 ft, although probably not as tall as Bramble needs, we weren’t too sure how big he would grow since he is mixed breed and our estimate was a little off he is a wee bit bigger than we thought he would be. Before he came home I tried desperately to find these NIC things everyone mentions but I couldn’t find anywhere to get them, im in the uk so maybe someone else from here can point me to somewhere that sells them?

The cage we have was only ever meant to be a temporary measure while he was still young, I had planned on having him free roaming or at least in his pen once he was neutered and litter trained etc but the pen I bought is just too big to leave up all the time as we cannot get past it to get to the bathroom without squeezing and I worry I would bump into it at night. I might look at buying a slightly smaller pen, I am really just weighing up my options until I get paid I cant buy anything till then anyway.

The good news is that he didn’t escape again last night, I am beginning to wonder if perhaps his cage wasn’t closed quite right the night before. Before bed I put the pen round the tv like I do when he is out in the living room just in case but he was still in his cage when we got up. He is now out in his pen for a while before I let him out for a while, the vet said to build up his time out of the cage over a week after his surgery so we are keeping him in his big pen for a few hours then letting him out for the rest of the day.

[Pipje]

Buy them on amazon!
Just search for wire storage cubes. I live in Holland and had to order from the UK via amazon, it’s about £30 per box of cubes.

[kirstyol]

I searched Amazon for NIC cubes but never thought to try searching ‘storage cubes’ I will go and do that right now, thank you.

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