Anybody have experience with this type of set up?

[GHbun]

When our last bunny joined his mate across the bridge 3 years ago, I got rid of all our bun supplies. I thought I’d never go back to the constant care and eventual heartbreak. But now, husband will be bringing home a year-and-a-half old neutered male next month after a business trip. (The bun was dumped on a friend of ours in Missouri.) We’re using this time to find the perfect cage. Husband hates the thought of the bunny sitting in his own waste and is adamant that we’ll use a wire floor and drop pan as we did with our others. I know, I know – it’s not recommended, and the little prince will need resting mats and lots of floor time. But we never had hock problems with our others and we’ll be careful. Additionally, we’d consider getting a companion bun down the road, so we we’re thinking about the Expandable Hoppity Habitat Rabbit Cage. You can connect one or two more units to it (in either an L or a Z shape) and have the doors open between the units or not, if bonding isn’t going well. martinscages.com is also an interesting site. Anyone out there have any advice?

[MissKris&Koji]

I’ve had a martinscages before for my rats. They are pretty nice cages for the price, but I will warn you to be ready for sore hands setting it up. They send you the wire panels, and c rings and a clamp device to pinch them on. It’s kind of a pain in the rear – and if you do go that route make sure you put all panels together right side up! I don’t know about rabbits and keeping them on wire, my personal view is better safe than sorry so when I made the decision last week about what living arrangements for the soon to come home bun wire floor was out of the question (plus the rescue he’s coming from doesn’t allow). If you’re cleaning the box regularly, and littertrain him, it’s not like he’ll ever be sitting in his own waste. Also, you can get litter pans which have screens – so that should eliminate that problem too, I would guess. Maybe someone else with more experience can give you better advice about the wire issue, I just assumed it’s not advised for a reason. But, if you all are deadset on going that way, that is my input on Martinscages – nice enough, but be ready for a good bit of setup work.

[Beka27]

I can’t recommend a wire-bottom cage. Even with a resting board, there’s too much risk of injury. If the rabbit is litterbox trained, there’s no reason not to have just a regular solid floor and a litterbox with absorbable litter. Even if the rabbit is not litterbox trained, clean-up is easier and more thorough when dealing with a solid floor than with wire.

Many of us used to do things one way, until we found a better alternative thru research and trial and error.  Just because your previous rabbits were in wire-bottom cages, that doesn’t mean you can’t do something better for this rabbit.  Especially since you’ve gotten rid of everything.  This is a good chance to start over.

[Kyoshi]

I can understand where your coming from (I’m used to learning mistakes I’ve made) and the reasoning behind it. I do have to agree with the other posters though. I think its a bad idea to even RISK injury. But everyone, you could be a bit nicer about it.

[Sarita]

Kyoshi nobody has been rude in this thread in my opinion.

It’s possible GHBun that since this rabbit is neutered he will be litter trained already (hopefully).

I’m not familiar with the Hippity Hoppity Cage – I’ll have to look that up. Martins Cages are generally used by breeders and they are WAY too small and they also look hard to clean.

Have you considered an x-pen? I think you would be happy with this and so would your new rabbit.

[Sarita]

Okay looked up that Hoppity Habitat and it’s basically a dog kennel that you can add on to and it’s expensive. And it’s SO SMALL…even that tiny rabbit they have as a model in there barely fits with the small litter box, small bed and food bowls. I think you definitely need to consider the x-pen or making one of those neat idea cube ones.

[Beka27]

I agree with Sarita. The good thing about build-it-yourself NIC condos/pens is that you can configure it in any way that works for you, and always change it later if necessary using the same materials.

[Author]

Messages