cage too small???

[wabbitlove]

HELP!

We just rescued our two rabbits and they are huge! Really, like puppy dogs. We bought the x-large dog kennel from wal-mart to house them in, and their litter box takes up almost half of it already. I know it’s a small enclosure for them, but here’s the thing: they’re almost never in it. We started putting them in there at night, but all during the day they’re able to hop around and be petted and loved on in the living room. There’s enough room for them to stretch out, and they actually seem to like sitting in the litter box, too. If they’re only in there at night (and hop in and out from time to time during the day for food, water, etc) is this too small?? I hope not, because we already invested some $$$ 

The other thing I was thinking is, if it is too small just for the nighttime, could I/should I add some space by taking out the front door and attaching that cubing stuff with cables? We don’t have a very big house, and the cage is already taking up a lot of room.

Any suggestions? Please??

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[angoralvr]

If you look at the thread I made about Henri’s new enclosure, you can see what I did with the cubes. I know you said you don’t have much space so you may not have a lot of room to add to their cage but I think that you could add some by making a pen around their crate. You could do what you said and actually attach them to the crate if you wanted. The only problem I could see that causing is that then you can’t easily move things around. If you made a pen for them, you could put it away during the day when they are out of their cage even if you wanted. This way you would only really have to take up the extra room during the night when they would be shut in the crate normally. I am pretty new to the bunny world myself so that is really the only advice I can offer. There are tons of great people here though and I am sure they will give you some more good ideas.

[wabbitlove]

Thanks for the reply!
I’m also wondering what you all think of the cage I have now.
Is it too small for my bunnies at night? I don’t want them to feel locked up in any way, but we let them out all day long when I’m home (I take online classes so I’m home most of the time).
Is it mean to keep them in this cage? Or is it ok?
Any thoughts?!

[Gravehearted]

welcome wabbitlove! cute username 🙂 I’m so glad to hear that you rescued the bunnies, it sounds like they’ve been adjusting well to you and your home too.

One real concern is the floor in the crate, since wire floors can cause sore hocks. I’d recommend covering all the exposed floor with more of the mats, towels or at least some layers of newspaper. That cage is pretty small for them, even if it’s just for sleeping there’s not much room for themto flop out. You might think about using an x-pen(or doggie exercise pen) to make a “yard” for them at night. It’d be convenient since you could just set it up at night and easily fold it up during the day when they’re out. In fact, just an x-pen alone makes for a great bunny house too, as long as you pick one at least 36″ high, since bunnies like to escape sometimes.

You’ll hear a lot of us talking about NIC cube houses. I’d encourage you to consider one as well, since they’re not terribly expensive to make and allow your bunnies to have a lot of space without taking up tons of your precious floor space. If you check out the cool habitats section in the bunny info you’ll find photos and there have been a number of recent threads on how to built them and design ideas.

I’m not sure what Walmart’s return policy is, but you might be able to take the kennel back if you come up with an option that works better for you.

[Toki+Pumpkin+Elmo]

If you dont have much space you can try making a corner cage. So the cage would be a L-shape which you can fit in a corner. I’ve seen people do this rather than making a regular retangular cage and it seems to solve the space issue.

[BinkyBunny]

xpen is a great idea to add more space at night. Bunnies are rather active early in the am, so it would be a good idea to offer more room. Also, I just recently got a wonderful pen/cube picture from a member and added it to the “Cool Habitats section”. They used the cubes as more of a pen. Check it out. Go to Bunny Info, then the Cool Habitats section, and it’s in both the pen and the cube sections

[Lucy]

you don’t have to get rid of your current cage. you can just build around it with the cubes.

[Scarlet_Rose]

The cage you have is just fine, especially since they are hardly in it at all.  In fact, it is the same kind of cage I had my two in for years before making a NIC condo. What I would suggest is putting a shelf in there, not sure from the picture how tall the cage is, but you can just cut a plain pine board and screwing some cup hooks in the ends and hooking them over a horizontal support wire on the sides of the cage. Welcome by the way!

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