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cheathac

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Hi! My name is Christa and I am in college. Next year I was looking to get a rabbit for my small apartment. However, I am having a hard time finding a proper cage. The one I have found is from petsmart and is All Living Things brand rabbit starter kit. It's 41 in L 19 in W and 24 in H. I will probably be getting a mini lop. I'm just worried that I won't be able to fit everything in there and for the rabbit to not have any room. It's well priced at $90 and comes with a lot of stuff. Is there any other design that beats this even though it may be more expensive? During the warm months I will have my bunny out in the porch and let him/her run inside during the winter months for exercise so that it will be in the cage when I'm in class or when I work. Please let me know. I am posting a pic of the cage.

Rabbit.jpg
 
Building one seems like a good idea but I'm getting the rabbit during the summer and taking it back to school. I'm afraid that the cage I make will be hard to tear down and reassemble again?
 
NIC cages can be made in panels and then re-assembled. Alternatively, you could use an exercise pen as a cage. Photo is a sample. By making use of an existing wall, the area is made much larger than just closing up the pen in a square or circle.

For flooring, one can use a heavy duty tarp topped with a cheap carpet or fleece, or one can use rolled linoleum. For a portable cage, I use the x-pen with tarp and fleece.

I would also highly recommend getting a bunny from a rabbit rescue. Theirs are fixed which means they practically litter train themselves. Fixed rabbits are much easier to deal with. I would not recommend getting a baby. They are more work and then will usually need to be fixed for behavior. The surgery can be quite expensive, so the already fixed rabbits are a bargain.

sams x pen.jpg
 
Okay. What about attaching the exercise pen to the small cage once the rabbit is litter trained? My room in the apartment isn't very big so that's why I still don't know about the NIC cages. Also, the rabbit I am getting is from a breeder. He or she will be young around 8 weeks old.
 
For what it's worth, I agree with Blue Eyes. You should really consider adopting a bun from a rescue. You'd be able to tell the temperament and really just have to concentrate on bonding. Plus they'd already get fixed, so no random personality changes! I speak from experience, I got my bun at 8 weeks and man was he a handful. Still is. You need A LOT of time if you're getting a young rabbit. You get back what you put in and if you have college work to do you might not have enough time.

I'd also deff go for making your own cage, it can be cheaper and bigger. Most of the shop bought ones are far too small and your bun will just get frustrated. I made my pen and it's a really good size:

Just bought "wire storage cubes" from amazon and a bunch of cable ties :D

IMG_20150222_155229.jpg
 
If you're in college definitely get a rescue so they can tell you things like if it chews or if it's litter trained! I am also a student living in one room and my bun is free roam because he is a champ about littertraining and he doesn't chew cords or baseboards or anything like that! Having a rabbit that would chew cords or carpet would be a worry you want to avoid while focusing on studies!
At first when I was working on litertraining I just used a metal fence similar to an X pen to keep him contained. Now he just has a litterbox of Yesterday's News and I scoop it like you would for a cat.

Free roam bunnies are awesome!
 
I had a 500sqft efficiency that housed my dog my cat and my bunny. I was able to build a 4grid by 2grid nic cage under my breakfast table. His cage sat over the laminate and I used the spongy gym puzzle pieces as his flooring. I got my bunny from a breeder friend and he was a 7month old French lop (about 8lbs of bunny). Once I got him neutered and he didn't pee on carpet is when I would open his cage during the day. It was much easier picking an older rabbit (but being still young) and seeing how he acted and responded to being handled. The good thing about NIC cages is that you can build vertically to increase cage space. If you really want to stick with the cage from petsmart you definitely need some expansion onto that. I imagine an xpen will take a large amount of space but if it works then that's great.

I do also recommend looking at an older rabbit that the breeder might have available. While a baby might be cute they can go through teen phases when they hit maturity (you can check some other threads about humping spraying and aggression) that can drastically change their personality. I was definitely happy with my boy and even though he was older he was still very playful and loving
 

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