Frankie & Major’s New Digs

[Dreya T]

I’ve been getting quite excited about the idea of constructing a new house for Frankie & Major, post bonding. And then everywhere in the whole country ran out of NIC grids and I had to rethink my grand design scheme.

Which I did….

I’m extremely pleased with the little ladder, which the bunnies are not sure about yet, but which I sawed and sanded and nailed together myself.  

Chipboard insert, with hinged ladder, plus original cage:

Constructed cage. (Time lapse of quite a while because getting the insert in was hard!)

Frankie takes a sniff:

Woop! This ain’t so bad!

I’m concerned they haven’t worked out how to get back down from the second floor yet – did I need to leave more space for the ladder or will they work it out themselves?

[meow1]

Maybe needs more room, like the ladder is too steep. I think if you could cut back where the top of the ladder connects, then reconnect it, they would have more room and could even jump down. There’s not enough room between the bottom of the ladder and the cage for a a ladder that steep, I think.

[Dreya T]

We gave them a nudge earlier this evening to see if they could get down and they were apprehensive but didn’t have any trouble actually tackling it. It seems there’s lot of grip, it’s just a psychological thing. :p

[peppypoo]

Oo, I like it! Creative idea with the ladder too…it’s great that they can use it easily

[Dreya T]

Can confirm (groggily) that they are now quite competent with the ladder – they woke us up at 7.25am chasing each other up and down the flipping thing.

[Beka27]

How do they get down from it? It does not look like there’s enough of a “landing area” for safely jumping down. I am concerned that they might jump wrong and injure their foot or leg on the ladder. Can you open up the square some?

[Sarita]

I agree, the ladder placement is not the best. My condo ramps have adequate landings and have a very good incline. In my own personal opinion, I would be wary of letting my rabbits go up and down that ladder without a proper landing – it’s like stairs running into a wall.

[RabbitPam]

It’s really interesting, but I too have some concerns about the ladder. You might consider putting a thin piece of backing behind the ladder, like a sheet of coroplast or even cardboard, so that the rungs of the ladder act more like steps. I can see tiny paws popping through one of the openings and getting injured. With a backing blocking that, the edges become steps that will hold feet securely.

LOVE your platforms top and bottom.!

[Dreya T]

They sort of hop half on and then hop off sideways. I was concerned there would be butting of heads on the bars (there’s now a towel there for a soft landing, just in case) but even at high speed they seem to have no problem just twisting around it. If I’m honest the idea of having to take it out to amend it causes me stress because it was flipping hard to get the thing in right in the first place and I’d have to take off all the cables ties holding the NIC grids on…

I see what you mean about paws slipping through the bars – I was originally going to have a solid ladder and then couldn’t get hold of a sheet of wood the right size and ended up using planks. I’ll back it with something just in case.

(It’s worth noting we’ve seen them trying to climb on the NIC cubes at this height and because they’re both small they tend to struggle. Hence putting in a ladder at all.)

[KatnipCrzy]

I think you should take the ladder out- if a bunnys leg slips thru they could easily break a leg. You could replace it with a ramp (with more room so it is not so steep) or a box for them to get up on to jump up onto the top level/
Are you keeping both bunnies in here? What are the measurements? That could be why they are scuffling- it is quite a small confined space.

[Dreya T]

Okay, I’ll re-arrange it. I think I’ll have time later today.

Measurements are 890mm x 590mm x 940mm. (British engineer speak – that’d be 35in x 23in, with two levels of 18.5in height.) Its the equivalent of 2 NIC grids high, and a little less than 3 x 2 wide. We were originally going to make a 3 x 2 NIC grid cage. But like I said, we couldn’t get the grids to make it up. And there just isn’t the space in our flat to put anything bigger.

[Sarita]

You need a minimum of 4 feet x 4 feet – that is much too small for 2 rabbits. I think Katnip is correct that they just don’t have the right about of space and that is causing a scuffle.

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