Help with Condo Space

[aBeautifulHope]

I was recently given another bunny I was not expecting to have.  My current lop, Luna, is not yet spayed (bringing her to the vet soon to get an idea for when she can be), and is in a 4X4′ X-Pen with linoleum floors when I’m not home, and given free range of my room when I am home…the other bun is just in the ‘starter cage’ we got because she kept slipping out of the X-Pen we had for her (she’s itty bitty) and just really causing issues tbh.  The cage was the largest we could find in this county and the county over (we live in the middle of nowhere and there aren’t really any small pet stores…just feed stores for your horses and livestock, and then Tractor Supply), which isn’t saying much because it is really small   Nymph (the other bun) is not spayed either, but I think she’s a decent bit younger than Luna so it will be a bit before we could even attempt bonding them.

Now, since I was not planning on having another bun yet I do NOT have room for another X-Pen, even if Nymph couldn’t fit through the slats.  I have a medium sized dog, his very large dog bed, Luna’s cage, a queen sized bed, two bookshelves (with more to be bought soon because I’m sick of chasing bunnies away from chewing on my stacked books ?), bunny supplies, whatever horse junk I have in my room for repair, my easel, a guitar and violin with music stand, and a few other things already in a fairly small room.  Both Luna and Nymph are pretty cool with having their cages ‘share walls’ (they sniff each other and kind of hang out next to each other), so I’d like to try to make a NIC cube condo or something of that sort in the area next to Luna’s pen, but I was wondering if it would be big enough?  She gets out to hang around the room when Luna’s up (plus I may be building an NIC cube ‘wall’ that can go into my closet when not in use to split my room in half for them during part of the day), and when I leave with my dog I put her in the bathroom to chill and run around…But here are some pictures (It would have to be built around the easel since I don’t have anywhere else to put the easel)

Here is an ‘overview’ of the spot I would like to put it (and the only free spot in my entire room currently…and it wouldn’t be too terribly hard to build around the easel I just found out…I could just put it in the closet and store it when I’m not using it…but I use it a lot and that would be complete pain to have to take it in and out every day…also, where would I put it when it was out?  )

A close up of the spot (the tape measure reads 48 inches…the light’s just crud right now)

Another close up…this one of the back wall.  It’s 57in till where the wall ‘balloons out’ to 48in and a good 20in of flat wall space where it is 48in to the edge of Luna’s pen

48in…but it will actually come out a bit past this

And another picture of the width (48in)

What do y’all think?  Will it work till I can get them both spayed and bonded?  Unfortunately there is no where else in my room to put her unless I put her on the far side of my bed…but that wouldn’t work either because it’s only about a foot of space.  If Lex wasn’t my sister I would be killing her for putting my poor brain through so much work ?  I’m also contemplating calling either my engineer uncle or grandpa, or my grandfather who’s a general contractor in FL…or possibly even my architectural engineer major cousin to find a solution ???  Would that work for now?  Or even slightly long term since it may be a bit till Nymph is even OLD enough to be spayed?  Also, how would y’all recommend going about making this?  With NIC cubes?  Should I just cut the cubes into the shapes I need?  How would I make the pieces so they weren’t sharp?

[Lee]

You could get NIC cubes and just build something into that space. Or you could get another xpen and pull it apart so you only have the panels you need and put it from the corner of Luna’s Xpen attached with clips, to wall next to the book shelf – even have 1 panel behind the bookshelf to hold it up on that end. Then you could use a garden mesh or similar to run along the Xpen until Nymph is big enough not to squeeze through the gaps. It won’t be a huge space but I am sure you will be spending lots of time with them. You could even make Luna’s cage slightly smaller for the time being.

That to me seems like the simplest plan and also the easiest way for you to make that space still useable for your easel etc as you could just unclip the pens and push the second smaller one out of the way to use the easel etc.

[aBeautifulHope]

I can’t sleep so I decided to whip up a visual for y’all real quick  Does it look ok? I will probably add a second level to part of the 30in high part too.

And thank you Lee!  I’m probably going to go with the NIC cubes…It would actually be cheaper because I can get them from Walmart for fairly cheap (I’m in the states)…The X-pens are 50-100USD over here vs about 20-30 for the amount of NIC cubes I’d need.  I’m going to build a computer mock up in the morning (unless my insomnia continues to rear its ugly head) and play around with different ideas 

[aBeautifulHope]

Also, the reason I don’t think I could pull apart an X-Pen is because the space is oddly shaped and if I don’t cut it down RIGHT to size a) it’ll look silly and b) it’ll take up more room that she could use by not utilizing all of the space since there are lots of little turns and corners to it…hmmm, I’m going to have to get into town Friday and pick up some stuff to play around with. I’m thinking of wrapping the rough parts from where I cut it in either a rubber material or some fleece fabric?

[Lee]

ABH – wow that has got to be a first that something in the US is more expensive than in Aus!

I wonder if the NIC cubes will bend? That way you don’t need to cut them.

[aBeautifulHope]

Posted By Lee on 6/30/2015 3:34 AM

ABH – wow that has got to be a first that something in the US is more expensive than in Aus!

I wonder if the NIC cubes will bend? That way you don’t need to cut them.

I doubt it’s more expensive any where else in the US, just here in the middle of nowhere thanks to insane shipping   I could probably order it fairly cheaply off of Amazon (I ordered my last one..it ended up being around 40/50ish with shipping though), but I do think the cubes may just be a better bet.

I imagine they should bend…I have a large clamp and a bunch of ‘big people’ toys that I can go to town on them with ?   Maybe I could possibly score them if it’s a soft enough metal?  If it’s a brittle metal that would just break them…hmmmm, so many ideas going through my mind right now ?

[Jewey]

What if you built something on top of the pen? When I had my first trio, I lived in a tiny tiny apartment. I had the girls Condo in the kitchen which was the only space I had for it. I ended up with another bunny, he was a super tiny boy so I couldn’t bond them right away. The girls condo was three NIC cubes high and I just built another level for him. It worked pretty well. And when you do bond them, the NIC cubes are really easy to disassemble. The spot behind the easel is pretty small. This way would allow for more space. If it’s possible that is, haha.

[Jewey]

Also, if you do go with the corner space, be careful when bending the NIC cubes. I have the black ones and there is a coating on it. When you bend it, the coating kind of pulls apart. At least mine do, I have the ones from Bed Bath and Beyond.

[aBeautifulHope]

Jewey, hmmm…the only problem with that is the fact that it is RIGHT in front of the windows to the room…so it would block most of the light…I may try it anyways though and pull it apart if it just isn’t working. Thanks for the idea! I never would have thought of it tbh

[aBeautifulHope]

Also, how would I make sure the pen floor was super secure and wouldn’t buckle? It’s a 4X4 pen so I’m going to have to think about how to do that…maybe square dowels? I’m going to pick up some NIC cubes and whatnot this weekend so I will keep this thread updated with what I end up doing!

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