Help me build the ULTIMATE double rabbit cage.

[ldoerr]

So as most of you know my rabbits Shiny Things and Beauty were bonded. They got in a big fight so I am having to house them seporately. Currently 1 is in their 3.5x2x2 NIC cage. The other is in a medium sized wire dog crate that is probably 3 feet long and 18" wide. That is obviously to small for a rabbit (there is very little room for even a small litter box). I have been talking to my parents about building a new rabbit cage and I THINK that my mom is on board for it (it might be a Christmas present to me in the way of materials). I am HOPING to make it 4x2x4 devided in 1/2 so that each rabbit has a 4x2x2 cage. I would like to maximize the area in there that they can hang out on. I also want to be able to easily convert it to a 4x2x4 cage for when they get along. I had some initial thoughts that the bottom of each cage would be a full 4x2 grids, with a shelf in the shape of this [ but, flipped so that the long side was in the back and there is a gap of 2 grids in the middle of each shelf, so that the rabbits can stand and stretch. Then last night I had a thought on how to connect the cages for when they are getting along. I was thinking of making a section the floor of the top cage that was on hinges (or loose zip ties) and able to fold under the other part of the floor of the top cage. That way they could hop up onto the shelf in the bottom cage and then onto the floor of the top cage. Does this sound reasonable?

Now I have a question about what to use for the floor of the cage. My mom does not want to use wood because it is heavy and I will be moving quite a big (college student). I also do not want to use fleece for the majority of the floor because it can not be vacuumed very well, my rabbits pee on it, and I do not want to be constantly doing laundry. Any ideas that are light weight and relatively cheep? I also do not want to use carpet for many of the same reasons.

Finally I also need ideas for a 3x2x4 NIC cage incase my parents do not go for the 4x2x4 NIC cage. If you got this far thank you

 

[tamsin]

If it's to go on a solid floor eg your carpet, the easier thing might be lino/vinyl which you could roll up when you need and would be wipe clean. Cut it a bit bigger than the cage so the edges are on the outside and the bunnies can't get to them to chew

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

For the flooring, I would recommend coroplast. It is easy to clean, light weight, easy to cut. It can be chewed, but you can put stuff on it to prevent chewing. You do need something on top for traction, but fleece or towels will work well.

If your parents are ok with the cage being 4X2 grids, you can do it 3 high. Each rabbit would get a cage 1.5 grids high. You can still do a level and it should not be too low for them. This would save about 12 grids without really affecting the space they get.
The design of your cage sounds good. I have a 4X2X2 cage with the level going along the back and sides for a bonded pair and it gives them plenty of room.
I am not sure about how you would convert 2 cages into one big one. It may take some figuring on your part to get it right and what works for you.

 

[JBun]

If it were me, I would be more inclined to do the cage with the 4x2 split into 2x2 for each rabbit, so that they could still be near each other and have some companionship through the cage bars. Unless they can't stand the sight of each other now, in which case, your idea for a 4x2 and a second level sounds good. I just think that if they like each other enough when they are separated, that it would still be nice for them to keep each other company, even though it would be in a separated cage. You could do 2x2 for each rabbit, with the second level being a 2x1 shelf at the back, then the 3rd level having more floor space with a L shape, and if you do a 4th level just whatever you want. 3 levels would give them more then 10 square feet of floor space, plus the exercise of having to jump up and down from each level, plus whatever free run they get. If you can't let them free run in your room, you could just do the cage split into the 2x2x3 for each with 3 levels , and then get an xpen you can set up to let them have turns running around in.

For lightweight flooring options, you could do something like what Imbrium did with hers, the coroplast with a vinyl runner over the top of it so it's not slippery. Or you could do a really thin plywood. You may want to just go to a home improvement store to see what kind of flooring options they have available.