Hello & x-pen setup

[coneja]

Hello everyone!  I am planning to design a new habitat for my bunnywabbit, Ceniza.  I stumbled across this site while looking for info.  I’ve already gotten some great ideas from the Cool Habitats section and old forum posts, but I had a couple questions.

I think I have decided to do an X-pen type habitat.  Right now she has an NIC condo that I built probably about 4 years ago (I’ve had her for about 5 years), but I’m ready for a change.  I think I want to get rid of the cage completely and just do an X-pen with a hidey hole or two.  That way she can get exercise and roam around whenever she wants instead of only when I am home to supervise her.  Also I want to move her out of my bedroom and into the living room so I can replace the furniture and rearrange it in there.

My first question is how large should I make it in order for her to have enough room for exercise? With the types of X-pens with panels, there are a lot of ways I can configure it, especially if I use a as one of the sides. 

She’s a medium to large size rabbit, I suppose.  She’s somewhere in the 7 to 8 lb range–no dwarf but no giant breed either.  What type of shape would give the best area for her to move around in?  A long, run-type configuration?  A square?  Hexagon/circle?  My living room isn’t really very big, but I’m planning on redoing it too, eventually, after I figure out the habitat situation.  So I have a lot of flexibility in where and how I set it up.

[Beka27]

welcome here! i have a double xpen for my bonded pair and I LOVE IT! i purchased a large 8×10 rug and i have that over my real carpeting for some added protection. once a week i can drag the whole thing off the rug and vacuum thoroughly, daily i do quick straightening with a hand vac and i dump litterboxes usually every other day, or every second day…

now i’m not sure what your set-up is like, but if you could do a wall as a side, you could then have 2 panels deep and 4 panels long.

how much runtime can you allow outside of the cage per day? you’ll also need to take that into consideration. the longer she will be confined during the day, the larger you’re going to want to make her area.

[Sarita]

I think square is best – most of them are 4 feet by 4 feet – it does depend how much out time she gets though as to size.

I like Beka’s idea too but I wonder how stable the pen would be though if it was like that…

I don’t think 4 x 4 feet is going to be enough space though if she doesn’t get much out time.

[Bunnies4ever]

I had an x-pen set up for my foster bunny…but use caution at first. I found out (by accident) that she’s a climber! She climbed out of her x-pen not once, but 3 times and she’s a pretty good size bunny. This x-pen was not a short one either. It was pretty tall. She’s now in a huge cage – no pen, with outside time for a few hours a day.

My two bonded lops are in a x-pen set up. They are not climbers, so they are fine and they love it!

[jerseygirl]

Haha! Coneja, I think many of us have just “stumbled” here and just stopped!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Beka’s the best person to ask about xpens -she has an awesome xpen setup!!

Welcome here! Definitely-found this site one day and have been here since!

[coneja]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.  Yeah, I saw the pictures of Beka’s setup and that looks pretty sweet hehe.

Actually, I’m hoping to give her enough space so that she can get all of the exercise she needs inside the pen.  I have 2 dogs also, and it’s a bit of a challenge to keep them separated all the time.  And she is such a persistent chewer that I’d rather she had her own space with nothing inside that she could destroy haha.

I was thinking some more about it, and what I can do is to create an L-shaped pen along the wall, taking up roughly half my living room.  One wall is about 14.5 feet long, and the other is a bit more than 11 feet.   I could put the x-pen panels about 3 feet out from the wall. 

That should be enough space, I think.  It would actually probably be more than she has right now in my cramped little bedroom, and she would have access to it all the time. 

Those little hidey hole/nestbox things that I saw in the pics of BinkyBunny’s pen are brilliant!  I’m definitely going to make her one or two of those.  What is the easiest way to cut the doors in those?

I’m definitely going to have to use some of that wire mesh to cover the walls in the pen.  What exactly is it called, and what section of the hardware store would it be in?  Heh I’m always so lost at those places.  How should I attach it to the walls?  It doesn’t matter if it makes holes or anything.

Oh, and I don’t think she’s a climber.  At my last apartment, she lived in the sunroom, and I left one side of the French doors open with a panel from a smaller animal playpen I have to block it off.  She never tried to go over it.

[osprey]

The wire mesh is either going to be called chicken/poultry wire (this has large, hexagonal holes in it) or hardware cloth, which has smaller square holes. You can also use acrylic plastic like Lexan or Plexiglas as barriers if you do not like the look of the wire.

I had my guys in a 4×4 XPen setup for a long time before building their condo. You can see a picture of my bunny DJ in it in the cool habitats section. I put a plywood floor under it to protect the hardwood floor in the room, and add a small molding to keep hay and poops inside the pen area.

We did a video describing some XPen options that is available on youtube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjZ64sz1Lhs

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