Indoor Rabbit Cage Help

[Bribble]

Hey ya'll, so I'm looking to build my two indoor buns a cage that they can really get a good binky in. I really don't want it to be a super basic frame with some wire, but I do need it to be somewhat simple. Can ya'll show me some ideas or some cute cages you've built? I've attached a few photos of cages I would like to build/get inspiration from as well. Let's also keep in mind these rabbits will be slowly introduced to free-range of my room at some point. This cage will fill an area about 3'-3.5' x 3'-4'+

This one does have the basic framing but I like the look of the little house:

LOVE the picket fence on this one!

 

[Blue eyes]

Those are some really cute cages. A couple thoughts to consider...

The ones you are seeing in the photos are triple the size of what you are proposing (even taking your larger dimensions of 3.5' by 4'). Any of these cages would look considerably more cramped at your proposed size.

If you are planning on free roaming anyway, you may not want to invest too much effort/expense in building such a cage on that small scale. Unless you could make it large, it just may be more work than it is worth. A simple x-pen set up in a square is 4' by 4' - that's still rather small for binkies once you add a litter box, a hidey and bowls/toys/hay rack. Attach such a pen to a wall and the size can become much larger. But it would certainly be simpler than building something.

On a side note, in case you didn't already realize, the 3rd one with the white picket fences is fine for guinea pigs but would need to be considerably higher to contain rabbits.

Just so you can get a better feel for size, the following 20 second video shows my rabbit binkying in an x-pen set up as transition to full roaming. That area of carpet she is playing on (just the open carpet area) is at least 40 square feet. By contrast, the 3' x 4' space proposed is only 12 sq ft.

 

[JBun]

Yes, what blue eyes said(love the video! I love watching them when they are so excited and popping around like that).

If you still want some sort of base cage with the play pen around it, there are lots of ideas out there from using an outdoor hutch inside, converting an old piece of furniture, or assembling something from scratch. For my rabbits I assembled a cage from C & C panels, using 1x2 and 1x4 pieces of wood to build a support frame. If you google terms like indoor rabbit enclosure, indoor rabbit pen, c and c cage for rabbits, then click on the google images, you'll see lots of different ideas. Hopefully nothing too disturbing is included.

Here's my buns NIC condo.

 

[Bribble]

Thank you guys! The proposed area is actually smaller than the space I can fit it in, those were just my minimums for the area. I believe the area between my bed and the wall (where my cage is now) is actually more around 4ft wide and I can make it basically as long as I want. I've also got a wall storage space I've been wanting to insulate for a bunny "home base" but that seems to be quite a bit more expensive. Hard to explain in text so I'd have to see if I can upload a picture.

While I do plan to allow them to free range, I am quite hesitant because my entire room is carpeted. While I'm sure they have endlessly marked it before from running around, I don't want them to continue peeing on it. And it'll take me a while to bunny-proof my room as I have cords EVERYWHERE around my desk. Now that you mention it, I probably could just take their current cage and build a ramp down into the floor space of my room?

 

[Blue eyes]

(Thanks, Jenny, re: video)

Bribble, a photo of your current setup would be helpful. You may be able to just use a box/crate or two to create "steps" down to the floor.
You can see in the photo of Jenny's awesome enclosure that there are no ramps. Bunnies can easily hop to different levels.

 

[Bribble]

Please excuse the mess, I haven't cleaned it up for the night yet. And there's no bedding because I'm trying to litter train them.
I got this cage when I was like 12 for free with guinea pigs and when they died I used it for my rabbit (the one in my profile photo). She was about the size of one guinea pig and had free range of my room whenever I was there to watch her and I took her on walks around the neighborhood outside so it was great. Since moving from Florida to where I am now I didn't have as much time for her for a while so I got her a friend (the lionhead mix) and she got bigger than I expected. So yes, I realize the cage is not as big as it should be for them staying in there almost full time. Which is why I'm trying to upgrade them.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_yxP5dMCHnbdjJpcURIUkFRYmk0UVdlekpSa0MwWTVrZkJN

 

[Bribble]

I do like the steps idea, although they don't exactly just hop in and out of the cage even though I usually keep the front door open. I think I'd have to show them that they can get in and out haha.

 

[Blue eyes]

Can't tell from the photo, how high up is the cage (how tall is the stand)?

How does the door open? Does it open from the top down like a drawbridge or from the side like a normal door?

 

[Blue eyes]

Can the cage be removed from the stand?

 

[Bribble]

It opens from the top down, and the highest walls of the cage are 3ft. My lionhead has easily cleared it to jump onto my desk when it was next to it. No it cannot be removed, I've tried before.

 

[Blue eyes]

No. I meant the distance from the floor to the bottom of the opening when the cage door is open. In other words, with the door open, how far is it to the floor?

That will help determine what could be used as a "step." You'd have to cover the ramp either with something like this (pic found on google) or pad of carpet.