My new tray idea for wire bottom cages

[Meganc731]

Hey everyone!!

I'm sure most of you don't even know me anymore because it's been so long since my last post. We've had our bunny Mr. Wiggles for 2 years now and from day one I have been struggling with pee spraying out the cage and the amount of poop he produces. Of course it only tripled when we decided it would be a great idea to get a second bunny!!! (2 bunnies equals 3 times the mess, lol JK!!)

After trying and trying and TRYING to fully litter train the buns we finally decided to redo our NIC cage so it would hold a slotted bottom. In the beginning it was great, but it was impossible to clean the slats and the bunnies had taken to spraying off of the top shelf, so we FINALLY did away with our NIC cage. It was such a sad goodbye, but someone actually picked it out of our trash by the next morning!!

We then moved on to an awesome one level, wire bottom, KW Cage. This has really been the best thing for us and for the buns. We go the Rabbit Space 4529 (42x30x26)Instead of using J clips to put the cage together, we used plastic ties so that we can easily take it apart when we decide to move (and we WILL be moving.... someday). We have two problems with the cage, the tray is so big that I can't change it by myself and if we miss even one litter change, we end up having to do a major overhaul. Because I'm currently pregnant (achy, inflexible, and nauseated), that puts most of the responsibility on my husband, Tim, and sometimes he just runs out of time to get everything done.

When I first purchased our KW Cage I saw the neat cleaning system they have on the first page of the catalog. I've been plotting ever since then trying to figure out how to make my own. Tonight, I think I have done it!!

This first pic shows the front of the cage, there's 4 PVC legs all together, you can see the two in the front and you can see the very top of one of the legs in the back. There is 1 sheet of coroplast that goes down the back of the cage and then bends back up to the front of the cage (there's no seams, so stuff can't leak through)

This pictures shows the side of the cage. There's about a 6 inch gap between the tray and the cage on the back against the wall, but it's angled up so that the tray touches the front bottom of the cage. (the only design flaw that we couldn't get around easily was putting the PVC leg through the tray in two spots, but those are usually the cleanest areas of the cage so it should be ok.

In this last picture, you can see how it all collects. The sheet of coroplast that creates the tray is mounted to the cage slightly crooked (if you look at the top you can see that the left side is even with the top of the cage, but the right side is dropped about an inch and a half). Now all we have to do to clean it is get a watering can and run water down the tray, everything flows to the back and then runs down to the right into the bucket. You can see in the picture that it's filled up with water a little bit after I tested it out. When it stops dripping you can go flush it down the toilet!!

We have one last thing to do, but we need to get some parts tomorrow. On the bottom part of the tray there is a seam (that you can't see) so that it can be turned at a right angle, that way it creates a little bit of a channle and water can't pour over the edges when rinsing.

I hope this has helped someone. If anyone has any questions or needs better pictures, ask away!!

Megan

 

[JimD]

MEGAN !!!!!! HI!!!!!!! :wave2

How's everything going? Congratulations !!!!!!

Nice cage! The buns look comfy ....& I LIKE the"Megan-matic PooPee Disposal System" Very nice set up :blueribbon:

With our eight indoor bunnies..... well, you can imagine :shock:
Even though they're all pretty well litter trained, the drop pans in our wire bottom cages still need to be cleaned every week. And litter pans are cleaned at least every other day.

I've seen some of the multi-cage systems that had something like you made, but I haven't got the room....right now anyway.

Good idea using the ties to assemble, too. I've used binder clips in a pinch (so very punny am i )

All of my cages are Wabbitat/Midwest. They're the portable ones and are really easy to set up and break down. Makes it easy to take the cages outside to clean. Their decent size for one bune....36Lx24Dx18h. They're also easy to modify....I put two of the smaller cages together for Binkie, and all I needed was a pair of pliers and some nylon cable ties.

Let us know how it works and any modifications you might make.

And keep us updated on everything else, too!!

~Jim

 

[pamnock]

Great design!

Bass equipment makes a "self cleaning" cage and could probably design a nice set-up for indoor use . . . http://www.bassequipment.com/Default.aspx?TabId=5

Pam

 

[JimD]

That's where I remember seeing those. Thanks, Pam!!

When dootsmom and I went to visit The Missus, we were looking through Buck's Bass catalog and saw lots of neat stuff that we wanted

~Jim

 

[naturestee]

Hi Megan! Glad to see you on again! :wave:

That has to be one of the best uses of coroplast ever!

I'm so putting this in the Bunny 101 Cage thread!

 

[Pet_Bunny]

Hi Megan! :wave:

How are you doing? Another one on the way I hear. How is Peter and Bailee the two most photogenic red headed kids?

You always come up with good ideas, and you always share it with everybody else.
You can still use Woody Pet in the corner of the chloroplast or in the pail to absorb the odors.

Rainbows! :bunnydance:

 

[Meganc731]

Hi EVERYONE!!! :colors:

Peter and Bailee are doing AWESOME!! Peter just finished 1st grade and is going into 2nd grade in the fall, and my little baby (Bailee) has her first "wob-wee" tooth:tears2: I Can't believe it!! She's starting kindergarten in the fall. They go back to school the beginning of September and I'm due with baby 3 on October 28th. From the beginning I swore up and down that it was a boy, but I had my ultra sound a couple weeks ago and they said girl!! We thought we were done having babies so we gave away all of our baby things. We're completely starting from scratch again. But it's fun to pick out stuff.

Now I remember, Bass Equipment was the very first place I saw that made a flushing cage. They make these for smaller cages 36x24 (scroll down to "flush-kleen") http://www.bassequipment.com/Default.aspx?TabId=4 I bet they'd work in your cages Jim!! That is actually what I really wanted to buy, but they don't make one large enough for our cage.

Here's a couple pics from tonight...

You can now see the channel along the side, I scotch taped metal L brackets on the edge to hold it at a right angle. I also took the coroplast off the side and angled the bottom so the dog can't get into the tray as easily. The side is now a bit lower for the buns, they like to aim high, but hopefully this is high enough!!

I did the same thing on the left side, I put a little dot of caulk in the corner incase water drips out during a rinse.

The only other thing I might do is take off the metal urine gaurds, I'm not sure there is any need for them now.

The angle front to back is pretty good, but if I were to do it again I would make the slope to the right steeper.

Megan

 

[Bunman]

Nice plan. Now someone with plumbing skills can install a real flushing arrangement!

My solution to dealing with the awkward large tray was to cut out a small space in the left back of the wire floor where Daisy likes to go. (Eliminates hangers, matted loose fur, & corrosion).

Under this i place a 11 1/2" baking pan, the bottom sprinkled with about 1/4" of baking soda to reduce odor. This way i can easily clean & change the pans. I put a few sheets of newsprint under the pan to absorb any spills. The big tray gets cleaned only once a month, with the cage itself.

 

[Meganc731]

Bunman- That's what my husband wants to do now after seeing it work so well!! LOL I'm sure if he could rig something like that for the new baby, he'd do that too hahahaha

Well I just came back to gloat some more, and let everyone know that after more practical use, it's still working well. I'm just so ecstatic with this new tray. It's working wonderfully! In fact there are benefits that I never thought of before. When they spray the sides of the cage, I can wash the coroplast in place, before I used to take it outside to hose off. This is the best part, when they get stringers, I lower the front edge of the tray so that I can brush the underside of the cage with a dish brush, (they come off much faster brushing from underneath) it gives me plenty of room to reach under there and the stringers fall down on the tray so I just rinse them away as normal.

The only thing that I need to adjust is that I only put a slight slope from left to right, I think it needs to slope more, but it still works well! Eventually I'll change that.

Megan

 

[tamsin]

The commercial litter trays never seem to be deep enough. The easiest solution I've found is to use a plastic storage box instead of a standard litter tray. They have plenty of depth to contain litter and poop.