My NIC building/tweaking adventure!

[hokankai]

I have two buns, Theodore (a 2.5 year old Holland lop) and Ariadne (a lionhead/rex mix) who are bonded and living together. I built them a NIC cage back in June and have been tweaking it ever since! I thought I'd share my experience because I think the whole experience has been hilarious.

I started off building a standard 2x3x3 grid cage with the main level, one full second level, and two half levels and put it on wheels. The base and levels are made up of grids, 1x2s, and plywood which is then covered with linoleum. I cut the lineoleum long on every side so that it folds upward and keeps loose poop and hay inside the cage. I also made the highest 1/2 level as high as I could so that Ariadne could have her food separate from Theo because he would eat all of it. I had a cat litterbox in there with a metal screen I made which acted as the litterbox, and a hay rack I made out of linoleum rolls (like giant cardboard tube)

Ok, that's the basic setup I started with...now here come the tweaks:

1. one week into living in their new cage, Ariadne decided she loved the taste of linoleum and was chewing the edges of it. My solution was to add metal fringe along the edges to prevent her from eating it.
Problem solved!

2. She then started eating the edges of the linoleum that were exposed on the floor and at the edge of the levels. Solution: corner covers along all ledge edges superglued in place
Solved!

3. The sound of the rabbits slipping when they lept around the cage was keeping me awake at night. Solution: Add cheap rugs from Walmart
Solved!

4. Ariadne decides she loves the taste of rubber on the mats...Solution: use coroplast and tape the mats to it so she can't eat the bottoms of them
Solved!

5. Theodore discovers he can leap up onto Ariadne's level and starts eating her food. Solution: make a barrier tall enough to keep him from jumping up there but short enough for Ariadne to jump over
Solved!

6. Theodore figures out how to clear the barrier. Solution: 3 more prototypes
Solved!

7. Peeing and pooping out of the litterbox. Solution: build a larger one out of a bin and make a plastic screen.
Solved!

8. Excessive waste of hay from them pulling it out and not eating it. Solution: stick them in a shoe container to hold in the hay
Solved!

So here we are, several months later, and I think I have finally perfected it! It has been quite an adventure and I hope you guys can get some ideas if you have similar problems!
:biggrin:

 

[Blue eyes]

I love this post! It epitomizes one side of bunny ownership. Since each bun is different, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution to the needs of a bunny. It's all about improvising and learning as we go. :nod

All of my cages have been different and they were all tweaked according to the buns I had at the time.

 

[ldoerr]

That is a lot of modifications you have had to make to the cage. With my cage my modifications have consisted of putting in and taking out shelves a couple of times. I do agree that you have to find what works for you particular animals.

 

[hokankai]

Yeah I think one of the reasons it's been such an experience is because Ariadne is still pretty young (she's 6 months old now) and still likes to chew a lot. That and because she's young she gets more food than Theo does, so I have to keep him out of her food which is tricky when they live together.

Keeping the rabbits in my room led to a lot of tweaking too, since I have to hear everything that goes on in there at night. That and Ariadne's affinity to eating rubbery substances have made things a little tricky. I could have just put different flooring in, but I didn't want carpet because it's not easy to wipe up and I wanted to be able to pull out the linoleum to spray down or wipe down if necessary. I also needed to make it so that it was easy to take down since I'm in a very fluid stage of life right now and move a lot.

 

[ldoerr]

You should have tried coroplast. It is VERY easy to clean. I am sure that if you put it in a certain way it would be really easy to move. You should look into it. The only tool that you need for working with it is a box cutter.

 

[hokankai]

I used coroplast for the base of Theo's original cage and now in the cage at my parents' house and there's no way I'm putting that in there! WAY too noisy as they run around and just hop around on it. My housemate used to be able to hear him hopping around on it at night and she lived in the bedroom underneath him, let alone sleeping with it in my room. That and I hated how slippery everything was on it and how they didn't have very much friction as they were hopping around. Theo doesn't like slippery floors. I picked the linoleum because it was free (we had the scrap), not stark white, malleable, and quiet except for when they slide after leaping around. The plywood and cuts were also free, and I wanted to put it on wheels so that's why I used that as the base and levels.

 

[ldoerr]

Ya my rabbits cage is in my living room so I do not hear my girls running around at night. For traction I put bath tub stickers down. They are ment to provide traction in a bath tub so I thought that they would work wonderfully in a rabbit cage, which they have for the most part.