Anyone used rabbit wire on a condo??

[LeVar Bunton]

Hi!

I’m trying to make plans for a condo for my little bun.  I’ve seen a lot of people build the condo out of the NIC cubes and zip ties, but I am a little concerned about him trying to chew on the ties.  I’ve been trying to find a different kind of wire or xpen panel to use, but I am having trouble finding something with spacing less than 1 inch between the bars.  That’s what he has in his play pen now and he loves to stick is little nose through the wires and try to chew the canvas.  I found the rabbit wire at the hardware store.  It’s designed to keep rabbits out of gardens, but has anyone used it for a condo?  Or, does anyone have other suggestions for what I might use?  I know chicken wire is too flimsy.

 

[Azerane]

Bandit liked to stick his little nose in the squares of the NIC grids when it was treat time He never even hinted at chewing on a zip tie though.

You could probably use that wire mesh for the cage, you’ll obviously need more support for it as it won’t be as strong like NIC grids which can essentially be a standalone product.

I’m sorry I don’t have more to suggest.

[Bam]

Chicken wire is like “knitted”, so if you cut one wire (or your bun’s teeth do), the whole thing can come unravelled. Is the rabbit net you found welded? Welded netting is fine, it’s less flimsy + every square is separately welded. I have welded netting on my bunny-gate dividing my apt. It’s nailed on to a wooden frame.

[Vienna Blue in France]

I think the only way the rabbit will chew the cable ties is if you leave a ‘tail’..
if you pull it tightly and then cut flush to the ‘neck’ of the cable ties, then he won’t get any hold on it….

Loads of people have these NIC thingybobs for their buns and apparently they seem fine for ‘average’ or small sized buns (LOL)

IMHO chicken wire (the sort of knitted hexagonale shaped stuff), personally don’t think ‘looks’ very nice esthetically for indoors…

To make my outdoor fence (second time as the first time I used plastic gridded fencing. = holes !! d’oh !!!!) I bought big sheets of metal grids for cemeting (put down on ground to hold the dried cement together…). Agreeably their intervals are 2 inches between each upright but maybe look in that department and you may find something else. Other type of smart metal grids were 10 times as expensive.

You could make a NIC thingy and ‘line’ the inside – first couple of inches from floor up – with a wooden skirting board or something so he can’t put his head through…. (is he really so small as to put his whole nose through a one inche square…??!!!)

One thing is sure, when you have rabbits, you have to be useful with a hammer and “think outside the box” to invent some wicked condos for them. (Mine has a 3 floor living-room-sideboard conversion !!!)

[Bam]

Metal grids for cementing is what I mean by welded netting, it’s sold under either of those names in places where you buy DIY home improvement stuff. It’s also called mink-netting because it protects (mainly chickens I think) against minks and ferrets and martens and foxes and weasels. We don’t have a lot of those in my apt =) but I have to keep my bunny boys apart. I’ve netting on both sides of my bunny-gate with a distance in between so the terrible monsters (Oh, I mean the sweet little bunbuns) can’t reach to hurt each other.

[tobyluv]

This may be the same thing that bam mentioned, and called welded netting, but there is a fencing product sold in rolls called hardware cloth. It comes in a variety of sizes for the individual squares. The smallest sizes are 1/2 inch and 1/4 inch openings. It’s inexpensive, but when cut, it does leave sharp edges, so it is usually stapled onto wooden frames. There may be a way to clip all the cut edges short enough that they don’t pose a problem, but I don’t know what that would be.

http://www.homedepot.com/b/Search/N-5yc1vZbrk7/Ntk-Extended/Ntt-hardware%2Bcloth?Ntx=mode+matchpartialmax&NCNI-5

[LeVar Bunton]

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone, I will look into your ideas! Vienna, I don’t think he could put his nose through if it were a square, but he shoves his nose through the bars on his play pen and chews whatever he can get his little mouth on (he’s doing it right now, in fact). So, that leads me to be concerned about him sticking his nose through and chewing wood if there were a wooden frame around the cage and bars with spacing big enough to get his nose through. I know there’s bound to be some wood gnawing, I’m just trying to keep it minimal. This was the stuff I found. http://www.homedepot.com/p/YARDGARD-28-in-x-50-ft-PVC-Rabbit-Gard-Garden-Fence-308377B/202024097

[tobyluv]

I don’t think the Rabbit Gard fencing that you linked to at Home Depot would be safe. Some of the openings are 4 inches. Besides the danger factor, your rabbit would easily be able to stick his head through the fencing and chew on the canvas.

Have you thought about using an x-pen?

[LeVar Bunton]

I just noticed that the openings were bigger at the top. I initially thought it was all uniform. I’m probably going to go with an xpen. I finally found a pen at KW Cages that has smaller openings.

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