Need help with new cage!

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PeytonCara

PeytonCara

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Aug 13, 2012
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North West, Indiana, USA
I just ordered my bunny a new cage, it's a 48x24x16.5 inches. It was the biggest cage I could find, and I just did the measurements in my room, the thing is even bigger than I pictured. My question is, it is going to cost a lot of money to fill that whole thing with bedding. I use carefresh, and it has always worked well for me but I think with this big cage it is going to be too pricey. I was thinking of just putting the carefresh on the portion he uses the litter on (he is very neat and has good litter habbits) I don't want to just leave him hopping around on the plastic, I would feel better if it were soft on his feet. I was afraid of him eating any blankets/towels I put in there. What do you guys recommend? Is there some magical super cheap bedding I'm missing out on that can fill the whole cage? I just want his cage to be safe and comfortable:]
 
Rabbits really don't need litter in the whole cage. If they are litter trained or will use one area in the cage, then you only need litter in that spot. Using litter in the whole cage does get expensive and is wasteful as most of it is not dirty when you clean the cage.

Towels or fleece are good options, but if you are concerned about chewing, then you could maybe use newspaper. Fleece is a safer fabric as it won't unravel like a towel and there are no threads. Some rabbits like shredded paper a well, so that can be a good option.
 
I would use a litterbox. He's actually more likely to use the box if there is NOT bedding elsewhere in the cage. Not all bunnies will ingest blankets or towels. You'll have to just see if yours does. There are other options as well. I've used double-sided bath mats, woven grass mats (which is fine for them to eat), woven fabric mats, foam bath mats, carpet scraps, fleece, wicker mats (made for bunnies). (Just a warning though that thick blankets tend to be quite the peeing temptation.)

There are lots of options for what you can put on the slippery plastic. You'll just have to test things out and see what works.
 
I found that a litter box in the corner with recycled news paper litter worked great, and then just as others have said, towels or bathmats in the rest. My rabbits have always been a little funny though, and dug away the nice soft lining I put in there, and prefer to lay on the plastic, or in the case of my boy now, metal bottom. Maybe they get too warm? I did find though that with a bare bottom, they tended to pee on their hay if it was loose in the cage.
 
Thank you! I think I might try the grass mats. I'm afraid of him eating towels/blankets if he gets bored and getting sick or something. At least if he eats the grass mats it's safe:p
 
I put fleece over the bottom of Ripley's xpen, then carefresh in his litterbox in the corner. I'd definitly try putting a litterbox in the spot your bunny likes to go potty in; some people also use wood stove pellets which is way less pricey than carefresh can be.
 
Use a litter box with wood stove pellets, CHEAP $5 for 40lbs, this will reduce wasted litter and keep litter costs down. You can also get indoor/outdoor carpet scraps fairly cheap (no rubber backing).

also the more things you try the more your cage will change to fit your needs.
 
I also recomend fleece in the cage. My girls shelves are lined with fleece blankets. Their litter boxes are filled with either Kaytee Soft Granule blend bedding or Yesterdays News (I am trying to switch to the YN, but have like 6 bags of the Kaytee left from when I bought it on sale a few months ago). You can get a 50"x60" fleece blanket at walgreens for $4 if you want to try it out.
 
PeytonCara said:
I just ordered my bunny a new cage, it's a 48x24x16.5 inches. It was the biggest cage I could find, and I just did the measurements in my room, the thing is even bigger than I pictured. My question is, it is going to cost a lot of money to fill that whole thing with bedding. I use carefresh, and it has always worked well for me but I think with this big cage it is going to be too pricey. I was thinking of just putting the carefresh on the portion he uses the litter on (he is very neat and has good litter habbits) I don't want to just leave him hopping around on the plastic, I would feel better if it were soft on his feet. I was afraid of him eating any blankets/towels I put in there. What do you guys recommend? Is there some magical super cheap bedding I'm missing out on that can fill the whole cage? I just want his cage to be safe and comfortable:]
Click to expand...

Where is your cage from out of curiosity? I got one from Living World, and it is 47" wide, I think. I thought THAT was the biggest floor cage I could have found pre-made.
 
I just wanted to echo what others have said. Do not use bedding in your cage. Use a litterbox for where bunny will pee/poo. I also use wood stove pellets for litter and it works quite well.

It is actually very common to use blankets or fleece as floor surface. Most of us have NIC (neat idea cube) enclosures which aren't actually "cages" made for animals but storage cubes sold at office or home stores. They don't have a basin to hold bedding anyway as that is a dated way to keep house bunnies. Most actual cages are still too small for rabbits, IMO, so even with those measurements, although sound big, bunny ideally should still get lots of time out for free run.
 
I ended up filling 1/4 of his cage with the bedding, the rest of the entire cage is covered with a towel, a small pet safe bed, grass mats, and some of his favorite toys from his old cage to make it feel like home. The portion of the bedding is essentially his litter box, without the box part ahah! He only pee/poos on that section. I know most cages are too small, I even looked into other alternatives to cages. I just felt like this was much sturdier than anything I could put together myself. But no joke, this cage is gigantic. And my bunny always always always gets run time, and a lot of it, even if he has a huge home:p He really loves his new home, thanks for the advice everyone it really helped and he is super happy! :D

And BinkyBunny I bought my cage off of petco online. Here is the link: http://www.petco.com/product/119389/Kaytee-Rabbit-Home-Plus.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch
I saw how big it was in the store, and could not resist buying it for my little man.
 
If you can go on petco yourself, if you search "katytee rabbit cage" it should be one of the first ones on the result. On the box, it says 48x24 super huge. You can also find it on amazon or petsmart but petco has a sale going on right now and it is the cheapest I could find it.
If you need help finding it let me know!
 
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