Cage Plan -- Thoughts and Suggestions?

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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 7sd replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 13 years ago by Sibi.

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- 03/22/2013 at 9:33 PM
  Sibi
  Participant
  28 posts
  Hey everyone! I’m new to the bunny world and will be getting a pair of buns in the next few months, but I want to get everything sorted out before I bring them home, so I thought I’d share my cage plan and see what you all think.
  
  They’ll have free range of the basement area (It’s a finished basement, where I’ll be living, so it wont be cold for them), but I want to make sure that their cage is big enough for when they have to stay in it. I’m going to have a two level cage, each one 4×2, so they’ll have 16 feet to run around in. I’ve had guinea pigs before and made their cage out of coroplast, so I was thinking of doing the same for the buns. I was going to make a base/storage area, and the base of the second level out of wood, and the actual cage be out of coroplast. I was thinking of making the walls 1 foot tall, but will that be tall enough? It will be raised, so I don’t want them to try to jump over the sides and hurt themselves. I was also wondering if they’d chew the coroplast too much, don’t want them getting sick!
  
  This is what I’m planning to make (the sketch looks a little off, not used to drafting, sorry!).
  
  And I think instead of a ramp up to the second level, I’ll put a little step that I can also make into a hidey house.
  
  For the bedding, I was thinking of just making some fleece liners to put on the bottom, maybe getting a pad of sorts to put underneath, but not sure yet. As for litter trays, I was going to get a fairly big one, but for two bunnies, should I have more than one in the cage? Also wondering if plywood is safe for them to chew, as that’s what I was planning on making it out of and expect they’ll nibble at it a bit.
  
  If anyone has comments or suggestions or tips for my bunny home, they are all very, very much appreciated! So thanks for all of your support in my new bunny adventure, can’t wait to see your opinions on my setup!
- 03/22/2013 at 11:01 PM
  peppypoo
  Participant
  1945 posts
  Wow, what a thorough plan!
  
  I think your space allocation is perfectly fine, especially if the bunnies will have access to the basement most of the time (be sure to bunny proof!) What do you mean by coroplast walls? Do you mean for them to be opaque? Many people build rabbit (and guinea pig) cages out of modular storage cube grids; there are some great examples under the BUNNY INFO section of this website if you want to look around for inspiration. Also, walls 1ft high are nothing to a rabbit! In fact, we usually recommend that people buy ex-pens that are minimum 36 inches high. It may seem like a lot, but even tiny bunnies have been known to scale 36 inches. One easy solution to this is to create a ceiling of some kind, which is pretty simple with a cage made of grids.
  
  As for bedding, it seems like a necessity for us humans since we like nice soft surface, but bunnies do perfectly fine without. In fact, having bedding all over the cage often just confuses them and impedes litter training…strangely enough, a lot of bunnies like lying on hard surfaces anyways.
  
  If your bunnies are already bonded upon adoption, one large litter pan suffices for both of them.
- 03/22/2013 at 11:15 PM
  Monkeybun
  Participant
  10479 posts
  Agreed, 1 foot tall walls will not be tall enough. One of my rabbits can jump clear over the couch without touching it, so be wary of jumpers Another of my buns climbs her pen too, so it does happen… The taller the walls, the better. Or, have a roof on it
- 03/23/2013 at 5:34 AM
  Beka27
  Participant
  16016 posts
  Do you HAVE TO have storage underneath? With that kind of area, you could actually have the cage start on the ground and do two additional levels rather than just one. I’ve seen coroplast cages like that for guinea pigs and they work well, but rabbits are always better with more space. A basic 3 level NIC grid condo (maybe 3×4 grids in size) would provide a lot of room for them.
- 03/23/2013 at 8:13 AM
  Sibi
  Participant
  28 posts
  Thanks for all of your suggestions!
  
  Peppypoo, the coroplast I was talking about is corrugated plastic, really just like plastic cardboard (I’ve heard it called by several different names and never know which people know it by).
  
  Monkeybun, that’s a good point. Since I’m used to guinea pigs who are fine with 8-10 inch walls, definitely will need to scale them up! But a roof is a good idea, I’ll have to think on that.
  
  Beka27, I think I do need the storage under it, I don’t really have a good place to store their hay and supplies other than the garage, and I don’t want to keep it out there because it’s damp, and could get mice. But I’m planning on having them out in the basement most of the time, so hopefully that is enough space for them. If not, I’ll have to come up with another cage design with some different storage in it.
  
  The reason I wasn’t going to use the NIC grids is because they’re 14 inches, and as plywood comes 4×8, it’s much easier and wastes less to make a 4×2 setup. I suppose I could still use the grids and just overlap them a bit to fit in the space. I’ll have to look at the space I’ve got in the house for them next time I go (I’m not able to move in for another month and a half) and rethink the grids!
  
  A question about outside the cage though, how many litter boxes should I have out? It’s not a ton of space, my full bedroom, a big hallway and the bathroom. The furnace room is also down there, but I think I’ll need to keep that door closed because I don’t think I’d be able to properly bunny-proof it.
- 03/23/2013 at 9:20 AM
  Sibi
  Participant
  28 posts
  Another question, would they chew through chicken wire/would it be too pointy? I’ve never used chicken wire for anything so I don’t know if it’s got any little burs on it that would hurt them. I was thinking that maybe if I could, I’d use that instead of NIC cubes to make the walls, but if not, maybe I’d at least use it for the roof.
- 03/23/2013 at 12:26 PM
  Beka27
  Participant
  16016 posts
  Chicken wire won’t work, but rabbit wire will. It’s also available at hardware stores.
- 03/23/2013 at 12:40 PM
  Sibi
  Participant
  28 posts
  Thanks! I’ll have a look around the hardware store and see what I find, hopefully that’ll work.
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