Moving House - tips?

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Azerane

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Hey guys, I know there's a couple of threads on this already, but it will ease my mind if I just run through my vague plans for getting Bandit shifted and whether you can make any recommendations of things I haven't thought of etc. I'm only moving 10-15 minutes away, so travel isn't the issue, it's more the logistics of when to bring him over.

While I'm officially moving house next week Saturday, I have access from Wednesday, so I have a couple days prior to sort things out.

My plan is roughly as follows.
Wednesday:
-Take over grids and build NIC cage
-Move other small stuff (boxes etc)
-Run out of cable ties and go to buy more before finishing off cage :p

Thursday:
-Finish off NIC cage, measure and cut vinyl/plywood and glue together (giving time to dry etc.

Friday:
-Move boxes etc.

Saturday:
-Early morning, put Bandit in his large travel cage with hay and water and stash him away in the bathroom so he's away from noise and people walking by.
-Move most/all of the furniture
-Afternoon sometime... Move Bandit to the new house and put him in his new digs with possibly a partially soiled litter tray.

The only problem I'm seeing so far with the construction of his cage, is that I can't take precise measurements for plywood and cutting vinyl until I have the grids together. Then I can cut the vinyl and get the plywood for the second level, but I'm not sure I can get the plywood for the base until moving day. The seats don't go down in my car (most useless design feature ever) and so the overhang of the plywood sheet might be a little long, I need to check my state regulations.

Am I forgetting anything in regards to the move? I was thinking of keeping Bandit in his new cage until Monday afternoon (depending on how much cage rattling occurs) just so he gets to know it as "home base" before letting him out into the room where upon I expect territorial poop explosion to begin.
 
Your move plans sound about the same as ours a few years back, right down to staying in the bathroom until the furniture was moved! Only Gus had an already constructed NIC cage, so it was just a case of breaking it down and putting it back up again at the new place. The move ended up taking us a week, though, so he ended up staying in his pen for the whole time and didn't move into his NIC cage until we were moved out of the old place. But he took the move in stride. He's a very adaptable rabbit.

One thing, I'm not sure why you won't know the measurements for the upper shelves. NIC grids are consistently 14" square. So just decide what shape you want the shelves to be and cut accordingly. Have you seen the video on building a NIC cage here: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bLUDLbZYr4[/ame] You can read detailed instructions on the website, here: http://rabbitcondo.com/

Oh, and basically as soon as it was safe to let him out (furniture in place, etc.) we let Gus out to explore. He's not much for pooping everywhere, so we just let him run around and explore. :)

Hope that helps!

Rue
 
Are you able to build any of the cage before moving? Using zip ties, you can make the outside of it and it can them fold up reasonably well. This would allow you to plan it out, measure for the floor, and set up once you move should be easy. Even if you want to build it taller and that won't fit in the car, you could only build the bottom 1-2 grids and add more after. Just building some can help you measure and get the flooring done before you move.
 
I had thought about building it before hand, but I'm still undecided on that way. I honestly don't have much spare time before I move, and I still need to pack things, so that's really the priority.

One thing, I'm not sure why you won't know the measurements for the upper shelves. NIC grids are consistently 14" square. So just decide what shape you want the shelves to be and cut accordingly. Have you seen the video on building a NIC cage here:

Thanks for the advice, I have watched about a million NIC cage construction videos lol. I won't know the actual dimensions, since the cubes I bought aren't consistently 14 inches square. While they're sturdy, they're not great quality otherwise it would seem. One edge always seems longer than the other, and some of them even have curved sides (not too many fortunately, I'll just use them on the lid). So I want to have it up before making final measurements for that sort of thing.
 
Oh, I see. I've only ever bought two brands, Rubbermaid and the Superstore brand, and they were both exactly 14" square.

As a side-note, I'll never buy the Superstore brand again. They're not painted metal, but plastic-coated. The plastic has broken down (UV exposure) and now they're rusting and Pepper chews the plastic. The (much older) Rubbermaid grids have a bit of rust, but otherwise are still in great shape.

Rue
 
If I'd bought them in a store I might have taken them back, but since I bought them online which is the only place you can get black ones here, I don't have much choice. I never looked at the quality of the white ones that have recently come out in stores here. I will have to see how it goes with building the cage. I've only properly looked through the one box of grids, so hopefully there's not too many off ones in the other boxes. It's frustrating that they're that way, but I really don't have much choice.
 
I just moved a few weeks ago. My boys are in an adequate cage (though I'd love to get then in a bigger one). Basically, we moved nearly everything and then bright the cage over. This was over two days. I let them out the day they moved in. They have left 4 poops. Seriously, 4. At the old place, they pooped everywhere. I guess they like this one more. Though, come to think of it, there are no other animals at the new place and the old one had a cat and a bird. That might explain it.
 
We moved fairly recently too. Because of the hectic-ness of moving and unpacking, the buns stayed in their cage for almost 2 weeks. I couldn't let them out while stuff was being unpacked and would become fair game for curious bunnies!

They seemed to 'get' that this was a whole new place and even my Sapphire wasn't begging to get out of the cage (surprisingly). Once we were settled and I had the barricades in place, they were allowed out. They are out all day long and have done well -- no territorial poos at all.

I am having a hard time encouraging Mocha to walk on the laminate wood flooring. I put a mat in front of the open cage which only leaves about a 4 foot gap of laminate flooring between the mat and the area rug. He just doesn't want to go on the slick surface-- even to follow Sapphire.:dunno:
 
Yeah, mine won't set foot in my kitchen because of the flooring. They are fine everywhere else.
 
That is going to be one interesting thing, Bandit is used to tiles, but his new area will be all floorboards. I think he'll be alright, just perhaps a little more slippery than usual. I'm going to have to get some sort of area rug or something.
 

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