Plastic Pens and chewwing

[Paradigm]

I’ve been eyeing up those white plastics pens, but they’re not available in the UK without shipping costs (and possibly import duty) so I was thinking about a similar sort of pen:

This one is the large white one and this one here is smaller and cream (which isn’t quite what I was going for): the cream one…

Alternatively, IRIS themselves have a similar type of pen which you can buy 4 or 8 panels for (would have to look into size but could possibly be a better choice as if I wanted to expand the pen at a later date I wouldn’t be restricted to Pet Planet).

It seems the spacing of the grids is 5cm which is definitely bigger than George’s current cage and we would make a cover for the roof of the enclosure to stop her jumping out.

I have, however, noticed a note at the bottom which says its not for avid chewers. My question is, do you think it is likely she could chew through the pen (being a rabbit and not a dog)? I’ve never seen her chew through anything plastic yet, but can’t rule out that she could if so inclined.

[BunsAndDolls]

I have the IRIS plastic pen and KitKat is HUGE chewer, but she’s never bothered the pen. It’s hard, tough plastic so I’m not terribly worried about it. Even Toby doesn’t mess with it when he’s over there and he’s a big plastic chewer. I think they put that on there just to keep themselves covered in case someone puts their German Shepard in there and it eats the cage, lol.

[Paradigm]

The IRIS plastic pen is the lattice crossed one, rather than the one I’ve seen pictures of on here so I was worried about whether the plastic would be more flimsy. It’s pretty much identical to the PetPlanet one I linked above. We don’t have enough room for the 8 panelled version so it would be L90 x W90 x H60cm rather than L100 x W100 x H75cm for the PetPlanet version. They’re the same price for 4 walls.

I do worry that PetPlanet will have used $*&!ty plastic, though.

If not we’ll get a metal dog cage but those seem to be less deep.

I’ve tried to fashion a pen from George’s existing cage, but it’s not got a door (and no way to attach a roof, whoops) and my wife isn’t terribly impressed with my DIY so a C&C cage is out, lol.

Thanks for your reply.

[vanessa]

I’m not familiar with that pen, but my bunnies looooove a good nibble on some plastic. To discourage her from the start, how about a sprits of bitter apple on the plastic?

[Boing]

My pen is IRIS, and Cincinnati doesn’t chew it. He chews everything else (!), but not plastic and not his pen. Maybe it’ll work.

[Paradigm]

Hm, maybe will give it a go. My wife thinks our current set up is fine (she feigns sleep whenever I discuss whether to get the 90cm (3 foot) or 100cm one) and that we should probably just put lino under it but since I’m the one ‘opening’ and ‘closing’ it, I feel like we need proper door. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal if I had actual flooring rather than just adding books and heavy things to hold down the towl and rugs.

George seems to love it though – she’s stopped jumping out and now spends most of the day in there even when it’s open.

Haha, yeah. I bet at some point someone has, a German Shepard would have much stronger jaws than little George.

[Paradigm]

For those of you with the IRIS cage (it has the same dimensions as the lattice one), if you could only have 4 panels set up would you want more space for your bun? Going around in circles about when to get the one that’s 10cm squared bigger (but also unattractively taller). It doesn’t seem like a huge amount of room, but it could be when you’re as small as George. (She’s about 1.5kg now.)

[Boing]

IMO, for many medium and large bunnies, 4 panels would be too small. I started with 4, adopted a bunny, put him in it and immediately ordered extensions.

[Paradigm]

Mm, I wouldn’t want to keep a large bunny in anything close to this size!

George is 1.5kg/3.3lb so she’s not a dwarf but not enormous either. Charlie still has some growing to do but will probably wind up about the same size.

We wound up picking up Charlie and a pen from where we could buy one the same day. So they’ve now got 96cmx96cmx50cm and still no bloody door!

They can both stand up in the cage, but it doesn’t have a door which is an annoying oversight. Thankfully the way it’s built is with pegs that hold the panels together so by removing a peg I can make enough room for them to leave.

My only issue would be whether it’s big enough for both to stay in. The pen is also able to be extended, so that’s something for the future.

They seem to like it though (not in at the same time because they’re not fixed, I’m going to alternate them each day) and seem to be able to run about it in and play with toys.

[Author]

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