Housing issues

[kmurphy]

We were just contacted by our university saying that our housing for our rabbit Kraken was not suitable. At the time he was in an xpen with a foam mattress topper as the base as he just developed sore hocks this last month. They can to our apartment and looked at our set up and said that he is not allowed to be in a pen but had to be caged at all times. We obviously really don’t want to put our bunny in a cage all the time because the cages we have found seem to be tiny and super expensive. I was thinking of making a NIC cage but the criteria they gave us are as follows : 

“A cage needs to have sides that are connected to both the top and bottom so it is a fully enclosed/contained unit & the bottom needs to serve as a protective barrier between the cage and the ground/carpet.”  

He also stated that you should be able to lift the entire cage up from the top. This is all new information as we have had Kraken for 2 years in our apartment with no issues whatsoever. 

Does anyone have any advice as to how we can make a suitable cage for our bunny (and in the short future, a bonded pair) that fits these rigid requirements. We were given only a week to make these changes unfortunately. 

[Mimsy]

I’m guessing you are on a university grounds? I imagine they want to protect the floor, not sure why they want the whole thing to be lifted.

You could still make a nic cage. Perhaps make a sort of wooden platform, think like a table that has very short legs. This will keep the floor completely protected. Then make the cage out of the nic, using them to make a floor/sides and ceiling. You can still cut out the foam to fit into the homemade cage so that his hocks can heal.

the only other option you could have would be to keep him in his pen as you have now, but buy a small rabbit cage, something suitable for travel.  Then you would have a travel cage and something the university would approve of.

[Azerane]

If you’re using coreflute/coroplast as the base, an NIC cage would be quite lightweight (depending what size you were looking at making). You could attach coroplast folded around the outside bottom corners with cable ties so it forms a little tub around the bottom. Then just put whatever flooring surface you like inside.

My NIC is quite heavy but that’s because I have a plywood base, a plywood second level and timber edging. It’s also 5x3x2. Even 4x2x2 is still a good size and should still technically be able to be lifted from the top, although it would be awkward to carry, haha.

By their standards they want animals kept in small, cramped pet store style cages that are too small.

[kmurphy]

Azerane- That is exactly what they want, a store bought cage. We have had our bunny in university housing for over a year with no issues with him being in an xpen so it is really annoying that now they have issues with it. We are thinking along the lines of a condo but we don’t have a car so I don’t think we can take public transportation to a sign shop to get Coroplast sheets. They do have small Coroplast sheets for sale on amazon but I’m not sure if they are ok for making a base out of. I guess we would have to tape it, but it seems like this will be costing around $100. We just bought a new xpen for our bunny last month and I don’t really want to spend a lot more on something I don’t even want…. I guess I know I have to spend that money if I want to be able to keep Kraken in our apartment. Management said that the bunnies are never allowed out, they have to stay in their cage. That is just ridiculous so I think we will still use the xpens to let the bunny loose while we are home. If anyone has any bunny condo plans or any advice on this horrible situation please let me now. I’m really frustrated with how we are being treated and how management want us to mistreat our pets.

[Azerane]

That’s not right at all, I get that they’re trying to protect the apartment but animal welfare is hugely important.

If you get stuck needing a cage without spending any money, I have in the past built a temporary cage out of xpen panels. You just assemble it kind of like you would an NIC cage. It then means you need to disassemble it if you need it as an xpen again, but it is an option. This post here has pictures of the cage I put together. http://www.rabbitsonline.net/showthread.php?p=977932#post977932

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