Hello to all. I just recently started building my own bunny condo and would like some opinions. The cage I built is a 2x2x2...is that too small? I do not own a bunny yet, since I want to get everything ready before I get one but I am looking into the smaller breeds like the lionhead. I don't really have a lot of room to make it bigger so I am hoping that size is sufficient. I am also planning on building levels to this cage and just trying to figure out if I should do two levels or three...as I am afraid three might make the levels too low. Thanks for all the help in advance.
Do it yourself cage size question
- Thread starter xxknite13
- Start date
Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:
PaGal
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure exactly what size is required for a lion head. I do think bigger is better though. Even if you can let the bun out everyday sometimes circumstances in life change later on or what have you.
Is there a height limit you have in the room? Or is there some other reason you will be afraid that three levels would make the height to low?
Is there a height limit you have in the room? Or is there some other reason you will be afraid that three levels would make the height to low?
Well, if I got any higher on the cage it will be blocking the window. I should be able to do three levels with the cage I made but it might be too close to each other...and two will probably be too big of a gap for the bunny to jump or will require a long ramp. It's just more the width I am worried about. 2x2x2 will make it 28" wide...which I guess makes it 28" high too...
I do the floor 48x30, then 18 inches to each level inside. Not too far if the rabbit decides to jump and not use the ramp and, 30 deep because I can reach that far if the rabbit chooses not to come to me when I need them to check them or treat them for something. I stagger openings so, it's impossible for the rabbit to jump more than 18 inches.
Imbrium
Jennifer
I would say that 28''x28'' is too small for a pet lionhead unless they're 100% free-range (ie they're never locked in the cage and only use it for a "home base" (food, water, hay, litter box and loafing on the upper levels)) - in terms of floor space, that's barely bigger than what breeders use for rabbits that size (24'' x 24'', I believe). Altered, pet rabbits need a lot more space than breeding rabbits (metabolism differences and such - house rabbits are more likely to be loafy couch potatoes that are a bit overweight if they don't have a lot of opportunity for exercise).
Here's my first condo, which crams a lot of levels into a small footprint:
In retrospect, I would never make the ground floor one grid high again - it's a huge pain to get down on your hands and knees and clean. I was reluctant to do it in the first place but wanted the second floor low enough that they could jump to it directly from their pen so that I wouldn't have to reduce the floor space on the second level by removing a grid so they could get to it from the first level (they had 24/7 access to a 120 square foot run).
Rabbits need a LOT more space for their size than most small animals because they're very active and don't have exercise wheels. Also, they're technically crepuscular (meaning most active at dawn and dusk) but it seems nobody has told them that because more often than not, house rabbits are bouncing off the walls in the middle of the night (and by contrast, they do a LOT of sleeping during the day).
A 2x3x5 condo provides lots of levels but is very limiting in terms of the exercise it offers because they can't really run much on a single level due to how short it is. In all honesty, because of how active they are at night (I'm mostly nocturnal, so I witness their 3 am psychosis on a regular basis, lol), I would say a 2x3x5 like my first condo is too small for a rabbit that is locked up overnight while their human(s) are sleeping *unless* they have an attached run made from one or more x-pens.
With my first condo, I used 2 four foot tall x-pens and some 3-grid-high NIC fencing (to avoid needing a third pen) and ziptied the ends directly to the condo - basically, I fenced in my ENTIRE living room (the joys of living alone with two bunns in a 3 bedroom house
)... with the second condo, I use a single 3' tall pen - I put 3 screw eyes per end in the walls and ziptied them to the screw eyes so that the fencing is secured to the wall and the walls make up two sides of the run (ie two x-pens worth of space for the price of one).
Whether you attached a run to the cage or to the walls, you could ziptie carabiners ($1 for two at Walmart, I believe) to the pen on one end (or both) and then clip the carabiners to the cage (or screw eyes) so that you could quickly and easily unclip the x-pen and fold it back when you were home/awake and letting the rabbit free-range - that way the pen would only be hogging up floor space when you weren't around anyway.
I made a new condo when we came to Houston for a year:
I went for a bigger condo because I had to reduce their run to around 64 square feet (60 being the minimum recommended amount for rabbits who don't get any free-range time, which mine don't because they're so freaking naughty - they'd eat the cat food, pee on the cats' stuff, bully them, etc.) due to having four sugar gliders, two humans, two cats and two bunnies in a 2 BR apartment that's significantly smaller than my house - I wanted the levels to be long enough for them to actually scamper around a bit instead of pretty much only being there to allow them to loaf high above the ground (which they love to do).
While it would still be ideal to have a small attached run when the rabbit was locked up if they weren't allowed to free-range 24/7, this condo is actually big enough that they won't feel awfully cooped up at night (we've locked the girls in the 2x4x5 condo for a while at times... like when they first lost their free-range privileges and were on "lockdown" >.>).
In my opinion 56'' long x 28'' wide (ie 4 x 2 in grids) is probably the upper limit on how long and deep you can go before one set of double doors per level isn't enough to allow easy access for cleaning. With a 28'' high ceiling on the ground level, it's very easy to get in there with a broom to sweep it out (a HUGE improvement over the first condo) and when it's in the middle, the level that's only 14'' high is also reasonably easy to clean.
Here's my first condo, which crams a lot of levels into a small footprint:
In retrospect, I would never make the ground floor one grid high again - it's a huge pain to get down on your hands and knees and clean. I was reluctant to do it in the first place but wanted the second floor low enough that they could jump to it directly from their pen so that I wouldn't have to reduce the floor space on the second level by removing a grid so they could get to it from the first level (they had 24/7 access to a 120 square foot run).
Rabbits need a LOT more space for their size than most small animals because they're very active and don't have exercise wheels. Also, they're technically crepuscular (meaning most active at dawn and dusk) but it seems nobody has told them that because more often than not, house rabbits are bouncing off the walls in the middle of the night (and by contrast, they do a LOT of sleeping during the day).
A 2x3x5 condo provides lots of levels but is very limiting in terms of the exercise it offers because they can't really run much on a single level due to how short it is. In all honesty, because of how active they are at night (I'm mostly nocturnal, so I witness their 3 am psychosis on a regular basis, lol), I would say a 2x3x5 like my first condo is too small for a rabbit that is locked up overnight while their human(s) are sleeping *unless* they have an attached run made from one or more x-pens.
With my first condo, I used 2 four foot tall x-pens and some 3-grid-high NIC fencing (to avoid needing a third pen) and ziptied the ends directly to the condo - basically, I fenced in my ENTIRE living room (the joys of living alone with two bunns in a 3 bedroom house
)... with the second condo, I use a single 3' tall pen - I put 3 screw eyes per end in the walls and ziptied them to the screw eyes so that the fencing is secured to the wall and the walls make up two sides of the run (ie two x-pens worth of space for the price of one).Whether you attached a run to the cage or to the walls, you could ziptie carabiners ($1 for two at Walmart, I believe) to the pen on one end (or both) and then clip the carabiners to the cage (or screw eyes) so that you could quickly and easily unclip the x-pen and fold it back when you were home/awake and letting the rabbit free-range - that way the pen would only be hogging up floor space when you weren't around anyway.
I made a new condo when we came to Houston for a year:
I went for a bigger condo because I had to reduce their run to around 64 square feet (60 being the minimum recommended amount for rabbits who don't get any free-range time, which mine don't because they're so freaking naughty - they'd eat the cat food, pee on the cats' stuff, bully them, etc.) due to having four sugar gliders, two humans, two cats and two bunnies in a 2 BR apartment that's significantly smaller than my house - I wanted the levels to be long enough for them to actually scamper around a bit instead of pretty much only being there to allow them to loaf high above the ground (which they love to do).
While it would still be ideal to have a small attached run when the rabbit was locked up if they weren't allowed to free-range 24/7, this condo is actually big enough that they won't feel awfully cooped up at night (we've locked the girls in the 2x4x5 condo for a while at times... like when they first lost their free-range privileges and were on "lockdown" >.>).
In my opinion 56'' long x 28'' wide (ie 4 x 2 in grids) is probably the upper limit on how long and deep you can go before one set of double doors per level isn't enough to allow easy access for cleaning. With a 28'' high ceiling on the ground level, it's very easy to get in there with a broom to sweep it out (a HUGE improvement over the first condo) and when it's in the middle, the level that's only 14'' high is also reasonably easy to clean.
Blenderpie
New Member
2x2x2 is the minimum sq footage for a single rat. Which is muuuuuuuch smaller than a Lionhead. I would think at LEAST 36" long 24" high and 24" wide. And I still think that's pretty small if your rabbit is going to be away while you are at work/sleeping. 48"X24"X24" would probably be much better.
This is what I got now. There is no more room for the width (which is now 42") and the depth (which is 28"). In time I might be able to move the height (which at the moment is 28") so hopefully this works for now at least. Thanks for all the help tho.
