Non-toxic Paint ?

[Tami]

Hello Everybunny !

I have a question, but don’t know if anyone here can answer it for me.  I hope so *fingers crossed*

Doug & I just bought some used cages (6 of them).  We bought them sight unseen, unfortunately, believing this person to be of some sort of integrity *rolls eyes*, but I should’ve known better *sigh*

These cages came from a person that had/has a rabbitry and by the looks of things, she was using these cages outside.  Why don’t these people care about the condition of their rabbits’ home ?  I was just flabbergasted when I saw these cages and if it wouldn’t have been so far that we had to travel to pick them up, I would’ve just told these people to “shove it !” because they are appalling !!!  I can’t believe the condition they’re in !  I would’ve been too embarassed to sell them to anybody !!  The girl I was in contact with about these cages never came outside to meet us, instead she sent her boyfriend/husband out (very nice guy, btw !)…….but now I can see why she didn’t want to show her face !

Anyway, there was matted hair, dirt and God knows what all else, attached to the bottom of the cages.  The paint on all the pull-out trays and cage bars are chipped to hell and back….UGH !  People just infuriate me sometimes !!!

So……we just got a $99.00 Karcher power washer and mixed 1/2 bleach & 1/2 water in a bucket and fed it through the power washer to clean them off and disinfect them at the same time.  My question is……..Is there any type of non-toxic paint we can use to re-paint these cages with that would be safe for the buns ?  I hate to think we paid $50 for nothing…….not to mention toll money for the turnpike and gas money on top of that !!!

These cages are in pretty good shape (supposedly, they’re only a year old) other than the paint, so I sure hope someone can give me some hope here

Thanks !

 

[Beka27]

yikes. can you sand off all of the paint? i don’t know if there’s anything you can paint them with that would be safe. what kind of wood are they? they have wire-bottoms, i’m guessing?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

You know what I would do…I would phone the 1 800 numbers on the paint can’s ( like pop in a home store and write them down) tell them why you need to know the ingredients and ask for them. Ask to know if any of them can be toxic when ingested, THEN phone the animal poision control centre and confrim.

[Tami]

Well, I called one of the manufacturers, Precision Pet Products, in CA and talked to a really nice lady.  She said that the wire used on their cages is covered with an Epoxy type finish, kinda like vinyl or plastic coating, before it comes to them to be welded together.  So unless I can find someone around here that can do that, I guess that won’t be what we’ll be using :o(

Yes, Beka, they all have wire bottoms so their excrements can fall through and stay off their skin and out of their fur.  We found a really good vendor, though, to buy these things called “Standing Boards”.  Here’s the link to the place where we found them the cheapest and a picture so you can see what I’m talking about:

http://www.pointerhillcagesandpetsupplies.com/cs427-standing-resting-board-p-375.html?osCsid=86af02cd87919f57cba72f2e99fe8a07

We have quite a few of these and it’s really helped in keeping our buns’ “bottoms” clean and matt free, while keeping tender bunny feet from getting sore :o))  Our Tractor Supply here in Bedford has them but they’re almost $8.00 a piece compared to $2.50/piece from the above vendor.  Somebody’s pocket is getting lined nicely, I’d say !

Here’s a picture of the cages as they would look brand new:

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2752682

When we were in Greensburg to pick these cages up, we actually stopped at the PetSmart out there (we don’t have one in Bedford) and saw this cage on display.  It has a LOT of room to stretch out in and to hang toys.  Of course we have an xpen for exercising and play time and actually plan on getting another one in the next week or two.  Since a lot of my buns don’t get along with each other, even after being altered, we thought having another xpen would be in order so that we could have more than one bun out at a time. 

We’re trying to re-arrange our home so that we just have one room where all the buns are housed.  We’ll get our living room back, LOL, but still have space out there for setting up one of the xpens.  The other will be set up in “their” room and clean up will be a lot easier.

Kokaneeandkahlua, that is a great idea !  I will definitely look into doing that and hopefully I won’t get the big “run around” like these company’s love to do so much !

I’m not going to give up just yet, trying to get these cages to be useful in some way or other, until all my avenues have been exhausted.  Doug’s already given up and has been doing nothing but complaining every day, at least a dozen times a day, about all the time and money we wasted on these cages.  I’m so sick of hearing it and could really slap him around, getting lots of satisfaction out of it, if I thought it would help, LOL !  He’d probably get right back up off the floor and start all over again, though, LMAO !  I mean honestly………how can you have a positive attitude about anything when you have a whiner/complainer around all the time ?  The earplugs I bought, just don’t work……..and yes, I could probably give him some cheese with that whine (wine), but he loves cheese, so the point I’d be trying to make would go over his head because he’d be enjoying the cheese too much ! *sigh*  Maybe he’d get the point the next time he tries going to the bathroom after eating alllllll that cheese !!  Never thought of that !    Bwaaaahahahahahahaa !!

[Sarita]

In my opinion, those cages are way too small too.

I am not fond of wire bottom cages either – if they are litter boxed trained, I don’t think you need this type of cage.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I’m going to ditto Sarita…wire bottoms are terrible on their feet and typically breeders use them to minimize cleanup since they have so many rabbits, still not good to use though…

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