Which wood can I use in an inside rabbit cage?

[LPhillips]

Hi all,

I did search around the forum, so my apologies if someone’s answered this alread and I’ve missed it!

We’re getting two house bunnies soon and we’ve got everything set up for them (recycled paper litter, soft straw for bedding, hay, pellets, etc.) and we bought one of the largest cages we could find – but the secondary level in the cage has a wire floor. Now, it is removable, so we were thinking of just taking it out since we don’t want our rabbits standing on the wire (for obvious reasons!) – but it would be nice to give them a little extra space so we were wondering whether we could MAKE a secondary level + ramp ourselves.

We were thinking untreated pine since I saw that recommended elsewhere but I’ve since read about pine litters etc. and the untreated pine we’ve bought has a strong piney smell and since the rabbits will be kept inside (less ventilation), we’re worried that the phenols given off even by the solid pine will be bad for them. I don’t suppose anyone has any firm ideas either way? I’ve read a lot of conflicting stuff.

Maybe plywood? Once again, I’m worried about the rabbits chewing it.

Also, the bottom of the cage is pretty smooth plastic – we’ve bought a grass rabbit-safe mat, but it won’t cover the entire floor area. Should we put down any more flooring on the bottom of the cage?

Thanks for your time, looking forward to posting more on here soon

Laura

[Beka27]

Welcome here. Before you do any modifications, I’d suggest you reevaluate the housing. A petstore cage, even with two levels, is typically not large enough for two rabbits to share. The footprint of the cage should be at least 4×4 feet, not counting levels. Many people will use a metal dog exercise pen (which is 4×4 feet), or will build their own condo using panels from metal storage cubes (NIC cubes). Fortunately, it’s still early enough for you to return the petstore cage and go a different route.

[Stickerbunny]

Cage size has been addressed, so i’ll just comment on the wood…

A lot of people I know use plywood (make sure it is UNTREATED!) with tile or linoleum covering it (linoleum should be out far enough over the edges they can’t chew it). Or coroplast (the sheets of plastic they make signs out of it) which can be found at any sign store and sometimes home depot. I put down a big soft beach towel over the slick plastic, but my rabbits aren’t cloth destroyers. Some people use fleece blankets. Or you could buy grass mats and cut them down to size and replace as they get destroyed, a toy and a floor all in one.

[jerseygirl]

Welcome Laura. It’s great you’re getting well prepared ahead of their arrival !

With solid pine, it is considered a safe wood to use though as you noted, it can still have a scent. Some rabbits are more sensitive to this then others. As shavings, the phenols are much more readily released so they are considered unsafe.

So other woods you can use are things like birch, aspen, poplar, ash. With wood though, once it is peed on it can be harder to keep clean and likely rabbits will pee where there is urine staining over and over. So if you use wood, look into covering it with something waterproof like vinyl or tile. Or just use an alternate material to wood like coroplast as Stickerbunny suggested.

A small tip; I would not worry about bedding straw. Being indoors, it’s probably not necessary but also, the rabbits will likely toilet on it so it would make it trickier to litter train them. Mats or towels would do (though they can be peed on too!) but you may discover the rabbits actually like the plastic flooring.

[LPhillips]

Thanks for your replies!

Re cage size, both my husband and I work from home (he has a paid job, I’m freelance), so we will be around most of the time and the rabbits will have a lot of supervised time out of the cage and the run of the lounge when they’re out. The size did worry us, but we live in the UK and it’s very hard to find even a do-it-youself solution (like NIC cubes etc.). We’re probably going to get an additional ‘outside’ pen to extend the cage once they’ve settled in – but we have to build a ramp so they can get in and out of the cage first.

(The cage is 150cm long and 74cm wide – I think that’s 4.9 feet by 2.4 feet.)

Good to know about covering the wood – we’ll try that. I’m glad to hear that the pine shouldn’t give off as much as the shavings, and the smell is starting to dissipate already. Thanks for the tips about the bedding, too. We’ll have to see what they prefer as flooring .

Laura

[Howey]

Im from the UK and we got our cage from B&Q….its EXACTLY the same as the NIC cubes….£22per pack and we bought two packs You should go for that as an option as you can build it whatever shape you like, with as many levels as you like..

[Tate]

If you do keep this current cage, you wouldn’t necessarily need to remove the wire second floor. You could always cover it with linoleum and lots of fleece blankets!

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