Do I need a cage in the bunny room?

[rabitgrl]

Hello.
Bob and Iris have their home base in the laundry room, which is roughly a 18' x 6' space. It is pretty bunny proof, as in they cannot access cords or other dangers. It is also an ugly room that we plan to repaint and re-floor at some point, although so far they have not done any damage to walls, flooring etc.

So the question is do I really need a cage?
I have one that I built, but I NEVER close the door on it. They go in and out of it, but I don't think they would mind it being gone. I would like to get rid of the cage becasue it takes up space, is difficult to clean around, and seems generally useless. To clarify, I would just store the cage for just in case purposes - not throw it out or give away. Just not have it in their room.

What do you think?

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

You probably don't need the cage. It can be good to have the bottom as a home base for the litter box and food dishes as some rabbits are messy, but it can just depend on your set up. Since they are in a confined area, you should not need the cage.
Free roam rabbits should have a cage or pen to be when people are not home. If there is a fire or emergency, emergency people will look for a cage and probably won't look all over for a hiding rabbit.
Definitely keep the cage. It could be used for travel or if there is an emergency. You could even keep a little emergency kit with the cage, a towel, dishes, and other basic supplies so you can just grab and go.

 

[funnybunnymummy]

In my experience, I wouldn't give them complete ownership of the laundry room, or you may find they start trying to drive you out every time you go in. Rabbits are territorial and really do need a space all their own. A friend of mine let her female have the laundry room and she'd attack the minute anyone opened the door. She had to carry a broom just to do her laundry! I also met a woman once who let her bun free-roam (no cage at all) in the house and he claimed the couch. No one could sit on it without being attacked. I've seen other similar experiences here on RO, where a free-roam rabbit decides to claim a room or a piece of furniture and won't share with the humans.

Upstairs at my house, where the rabbits are free roam during the day, I've got a mat (a 3x4 commercial entryway type) which I keep their litter box and dishes on. They know that's their space and can be quite territorial about it. Just this morning, I was trying to pet Pepper on the mat, and Gus was nipping my pants and nudging me, trying to drive me away. I can only imagine how they'd be if I didn't have it!

Anyway, that's my recommendation. You can get rid of the cage, but I'd keep some sort of "home base" for the rabbits within your laundry room (a mat works great), otherwise, you may find they don't want to share the space!

Hope that helps!

Rue

 

[rabitgrl]

Thanks for your thoughts. I think I will remove the cage. It is made from nic cubes tie wrapped together - so not very portable, and I will have to break it down a little for storage.
I will keep an eye out for territorial signs. I have only had the buns for a short time, but so far they seem happy to see me when I enter their space. Hopefully it will stay that way.

 

[Blue eyes]

My rabbits have their cage open all day long in our family room. I do have a cage for them and they honestly seem to like having their own space to go to. Generally, they sprawl out somewhere outside the cage, but there are times of the day when they hang out in their cage. I wonder if yours has times it likes to chill in the cage.
Mine know that they won't be bothered when they are in their cage. I won't reach in to pet them. It is their space. I think they get comfort in knowing they have their own place.

 

[funnybunnymummy]

Just be aware once the territorial signs show up, they'll have claimed the room.

I admit I don't know your laundry room's set up, but if you have room for a NIC cage, there's room for a mat (piece of cardboard? plywood? Fleece blanket?) where the cage was sitting.

Hope that helps!

Rue

 

[rabitgrl]

Thanks Blue eyes - I don't think they are very attached to the cage as they mostly hang out other places. They only really go in the cage because there is a litter box in there. Do you shut your bunnies in their cage at night, or do they have free roam then as well?

Rue - there is a piece of cardboard under the cage and I plan to leave it. The floor is concrete in that area and they seem to find it too cold to spend much time on without the card board.

Here are a couple pics of the space. As I mentioned it is not aesthetically pleasing, but the buns have not complained yet. Some day we will paint it and do something different with the floor, but our house has just had a lot of other things that needed attention first.

P.s. how can I make pictures show up bigger than this?

 

[Azerane]

Bandit has free roam of our laundry and I've never had a problem with him being territorial. Sometimes when I enter the room he'll try to push past me and dig at my leg a little, but he's not being territorial, that's him saying "it's about time you showed up with my breakfast" or "I want to come out and play". Your buns should be fine, as long as they have a space they can retreat to such as a cardboard box with holes in it that they can hide in if they get scared etc, shouldn't be a problem.

They must love all that space

 

[pacnw]

I read that a bunny or pair of bunnies should have a cage if they have access to a pen. The cage is "home base" and there they can find a place to retreat to, that houses their hay, litter box, food and water. Of course in a pen, you'll also want a litter box but a cage is "safe".

 

[rabitgrl]

Rather than removing the cage, I actually had to expand it. We had to have some work done on the house, and the workers were in the laundry room a fair amount, so the buns had to be caged for the day. I added more nic pannels, so the cage is now about 42" x42". It is not at all big enough if I was leaving them in it for very long, but I don't, so I think it is okay. At some point we are going to renovate our laundry room. Maybe even this winter. So, I am going to have to find other accomidations for them. I think I will probably have to further enlarge their cage and move it in the living room until paint fumes etc. subside in the laundry room. At least I have time to think about it.

If anyone has recommendations or links for housing a large bun I would appreciate it. Bob is around 13lbs so it needs to be very sturdy and large to accommodate him and Iris. I would like to make a multilevel nic cube condo, but I am not sure how to make the upper levels really strong?

 

[Blue eyes]

NICs are plenty strong for those size rabbits. Use large enough zip-ties (not those small ones that are only about 4" long). As long as you use the normal size zip-ties, those cubes will hold together very well.

Here's a photo of a NIC I made. I used a shelf bracket to hold up the upper levels, but a 1 x 1 will also work. (A 1x1 fits inside the grid openings.)

With mine, I used grids for the shelves and just put carpet on top of the grids (no wood). I'm including the 2nd photo because it shows my french lop on the 2nd shelf. He was 9-10 lbs. Not as large as your bunnies, but I know those levels could hold much, much more weight. The cage was darn near impossible to break apart when we finally dismantled it.

 

[Xiaohuihui]

I have a cage in the bunny room. It is too small for him now, but I keep it around because he started preferring to pee in there rather than his litterbox. He still uses his litterbox (which is in the corner) from time to time, but he definitely likes to go in his cage. I used to put him in there if he sprayed me, but one day he just bit the cage door, shook really hard, and it came flying off. He is like The Hulk.

He is a little territorial about his room - he is fine with me being in there, but is very fretful when I clean up. Like, when I sweep up some piece of vegetable that he just dragged around and left, uneaten and turning brown, on the floor for 24 hours, he jumps into the dustpan and tries to take it out like "heyyyyy thats miiiiine I was just saving it for later."

 

[Azerane]

I'd like to change my answer to: yes you do, because otherwise they eat your window frames

 

[rabitgrl]

Thanks everyone. Currently the cage is folded up and not used. They do have a piece of cardboard flooring with their food, water, and litterbox on top. So far we have not had any territorial issues.

Still not sure what we will do when it is time to renovate the laundry room, but we will still be able to unfold the cage when the time comes.