cube enclosure questions

[Beka27]

this is kind of a part two of my cage/enclosure thread… but i wanted to give it a separate thread so maybe more people would comment on it.

i looked at the habitat section and the pics are really cool!  i like the idea of the NIC cubes… and i was thinking about using them before we got Meadow.  i do have them around the perimeter of my living room blocking off the "no-no" areas and behind the computer desk.  they work miraculously well… usually

i have some questions about the construction of the cubes. 

1) i have had almost no luck with the round connectors.  they pop off easily.  i use zip ties to hold my bunny-proofing together but i was wondering what you do to make the connectors more secure.

2) levels?  how?  what materials to create the levels… and how does the thing not collapse?  are ramps necessary or can the bun jump from level to level?

3) does anyone use an indoor/ outdoor carpeting type flooring?  or a berber material?  is this less likely to be chewed up since there are not long fibers?

what i would do would probably include her cage as her litter area, and the bottom floor but then extend two or three levels upwards as well.

thoughts?  what did or did not work for you?

[osprey]

The round connectors did not work at all for me.  The vibration of the buns jumping up and down loosened them within a couple of weeks of installation, so I finally gave up and went with all cable ties.

OK, so getting it to stand up.As long as your base is wide enough (mine is 3×2 on the first floor), you can just let the cube walls rest on the floor, and if you zip tie everything tightly, they stand up on their own.  You make a floor (say 2×2 for this example) and zip it together.  Now, you zip a set of panels at 90 degrees from the floor, zipping the top edge of each panel to the floor, and at the corners, zipping the two perpendicular squares to each other.  Once you go all the way around, you’ll end up with a rectangular solid with no top.  Turn it upside down, and there it is, the first floor of your condo!  The second floor is the same, except this time instead of resting the side panels on the floor, you zip them to the first story. You leave out some of the internal panels to make shelves or to make vertical space.   When you are done, you cover the wire on the flat surfaces.  I use plywood, you can also use coroplast, carpet, rugs, anything to keep the buns’ feet off of the wires.  I learned the hard way to use something sturdy; Curly Sue developed sore hocks from walking on thin mats thrown over the wire floor.  Make sure to leave yourself some access points for cleanup, litterboxes, grabbing buns for snuggle time, etc.  I did this by leaving a few top panels unzipped, and closing them with clothespins when the buns are supposed to stay home.  I guess if your bunnies do not jump you can just leave the top open, but I actually closed mine all the way.

It made no sense to me either when I started making ours, but it is like a big lego set, you just sit on the floor, try various combinations, cut and re tie when you mess up, and eventually you come to understand how to get it to work.  Have lots of zip ties on handl, you’ll use them all!  it isn’t hard to do, but it is hard to explain   If you make it wider than 2×2, you will likely need some wooden dowels or 1x2s to place across the bottom of the flat surfaces so that the flat surfaces do not sag when bunnies stand on them.  Again, once your condo is together, this will become obvious.  No tools are required other than a saw to make the lumber the right length, it attaches by sliding it through the grids.

Now, ramps.  I have none, mostly because they take up floor space.  I opted for shelves, and even our tiny two pound wonder Deanna can navigate up and down with no trouble.  From the floor to the second level is a one panel jump (14 inches I think), then I have a shelf at about 8 inches to allow them to get to the third story.  We put unused ceramic floor tiles (12 inches by 12 inches) as a floor on the shelf to protect their footsies.  Our whole condo is basically 3 panels by 2 panels, and it sits inside of a 4 foot by 4 foot XPen.

Good luck with it!  Once you get the hang of it, it is actually alot of fun customizing these set ups.  Who ever dreamed up the idea of making rabbit housing out of wire shelf units was a genious!

If I remember I’l  take a picture of ours so you can see what the heck I am talking about.

[Scarlet_Rose]

I use zippy ties to secure the round connectors, I find that they provide more stability, especially with the flooring. I zippy tie right nex to the connector through the two edges of both panels that are making the connection with the round connector, plus the zippy tie pulls them into the connector completely as sometimes it can be real tough by hand. They are secure and I’ve had no problems what-so-ever. So I guess it all depends upon your experience.

[Beka27]

osprey… wow.  that’s the best explanation i’ve heard yet.  thanks so much for taking the time to explain it.  just a couple questions… is the 4×4 xpen in addition to the 2×3 panels… or is are the panels set inside of the xpen?  how secure are the dowels for the shelving?  they don’t slip out when buns jump from floor to floor, or do you secure them some way?  are the plywood levels attached to the wire or do they just lay on top?  how many levels do you have?  if you could take a pic and post it, i’d be super appreciative!

scarlet rose… the zip ties with the connectors are a good idea… when we initially got the panels for our bunny-proofing set-up, the instructions make it sound like it’s so easy to assemble, but we had to give it a few tries to make it work.  i’m a pretty crafty person too… i should be able to figure out a nice set-up.

i can’t wait til we have unlimited house space (yeah… that’ll be the day huh? )  we have a three-bedroom house, but we have a friend who lives with us.  our son in the 2nd bedroom and us in the 3rd.  our living room is our living space, bunny space and computer area all together.  it wouldn’t be so bad if we had a separate office-type room… but that will just have to wait.  i’m perfectly happy to make sacrifices so Meadow has the best possible set-up in such a tight house.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Oh Beka you got that right! I wizened up and got a pair of thin gloves to help protect my hands. Meadow sounds like she will have a wonderful set-up.  Give yourself a lot of time to set up the cage and make sure it is structurally sound.  Oh, and don’t get too frustrated.  It can if you are working on them for too long trying to figure stuff out and what panel to put where.

[osprey]

OK, here are a couple of pics:

You can see in the pictures where I place the wood braces.  They just slide across and the weight of the floor keeps them in place.  You can also see that I cantelievered the 3rd story over the empty space where the huge litterbo is.  I also used a couple of lengths of lumber to support that.  The buns spend 90% of their time on the 3rd story, it is their favorite spot.  I think they like being up high and getting a good view.

 

[Beka27]

thank you osprey!  that gives me a really good idea of what you mean!  that’s a huge space with the xpen set up there too.  do they always have the xpen attached?  i see that there is a swinging door on the front of the cubes.  Meadow is allowed out in the rest of the room anytime we’re home (which is often)… so i don’t think the xpen would be necessary… but it would be a nice alternative if we had to be gone for the good part of the day.  i’m thinking i’d put down an outdoor rug for under the xpen to protect the carpeting… maybe.

[osprey]

The gold colored XPen is always there.  That is the one you see with the door open.  The white colored pen is part of their "veranda"; when we can’t be in the room with them and/or do not trust them to not get into trouble, I set up and enclosure for them to run around in.  The enclosure is 2 additional xpens, with a blue tarp on the floor as a binky mat.  Our setup is very much a hybrid, the condo is not self contained and the xpen is required to keep them in during the time that we are out of the house.  If you look at binky bunny’s cool habitats section, and check the pen section, you’ll see how the enclosure looked before we built the condo.  Since the XPen enclosure was there already, we just put the cube condo inside of it to utilize the vertical space.

 

[Beka27]

oh i got ya!  i was confused there!  what a neat set-up!

[Deleted User]

For flooring I went to fredmeyers and I got a carpet that was the perfect size for our bun apartment. The coolthing is it is natural fibers, not died, that real stiff and short type carpet (not sure what it is called) so he can’t pull it up with his teeth, and it has a rubber backing (like a bath mat) so if he pees it does not soak into our regular carpet. He tried to dig at it and it is quite heavy duty and has not one snag or hole in it.

[skunklionshow]

We used zip ties.  I also have rag rugs on the various levels.  We used the grids for the floors, put cardboard over the grida and then I lay the rag rug over it.  I clean up w/ a vacuum.  We had to put a few support beams around their condo to hold up one of the floors.  I like the rag rugs, they’re cheap and machine washable if they get peed on.

[MsBinky]

Personally, I suggest both the connectors and zip ties together. The connectors help keep it looking neat. If you look carefully, the cages always look like they are about to collapse even though they are solid. Lol. I just use a hammer and hammer the grid into the connector. Then I use zip ties and form an x with them in the corners. I know the connectors can be a pain at first but after the first 2-3, you really get the hang of it.

* If you use zip ties, you will need to cut the long ends. I suggest you also take a lighter to them and burn the ends so that they aren’t so sharp so that you or your bun get injured on them. Just errr don’t have your hand under if you burn the tie as the plastic will melt and drip if you burn it too long. Just burn it enough so that it softens, don’t set it on fire.  It’s not dangerous though.

Here is mine:

[Gravehearted]

ours was made just with the zip ties, I just clipped all the long ends after we were done.
My buns have 3 levels, the second level has two dowels under it for structural support. The top level is just one grid deep, so with extra securing seems pretty stable.
The floors we have are made of coroplast. Easy for cleaning and lightweight. We don’t have a ramp, but I did make a lil step between the first and second floor using a longer leftover grid piece from a closet shelf.

[Beka27]

msbinky… what kind of flooring do you have?  the dark part on the bottom and middle?  with yours being so narrow, you don’t find that it’s top heavy at all?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

These are too great! I looooove cube cages!!!

[Beka27]

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