New Cage - Houdini

[Rescuemom]

The rabbit, some of you may recall I found abandoned.. Is an escape artist. I've tried her in x-pens.. Even tall ones, she can jump them or find a hole to squeeze through, everytime. She's a little acrobat. She can tight rope walk an inch wide top of an xpen. And then she chews EVERYTHING paper in my office. She can jump up onto my desk and my book shelf shelves to eat everything. It's absolutely insane and driving me crazy.

I finally caved and put her in my regular rabbit cage. But I wanted to add more space, so I added NIC grids to make a second level. Now it's a two level cage instead of a generic rabbit cage. I'm HOPEFUL that this is something she can't get out of. I'm getting tired of the mess she causes.. I was initially fostering her, but nobody with experience wants her either. So I'm stuck with her right now. I've named her Mouse for her acrobatic and squeezing-into-tiny-spaces tendencies. Wish me luck on this cage! FYI, she does get free range time. I just need a set up she can't get out of and chew everything in sight unsupervised.

 

[Rescuemom]

I'm going to note, before anyone suggests it.. I don't have enough NIC grids to make something bigger, and they're quite expensive where I live, and I've scouted free classifieds and garage sales for them for months and months with absolutely no hits. I bought the majority of what I have.

 

[Momto3boys]

You must have a Canadian Tire there?
Home Depot?
Kent?

All those places have grids and they're only $20 a pack.

Even the dollarama has some. The only thing with the dollar store ones is its 6 squares instead of 9 and they don't sit in the plastic clips very well so you need to use zip ties or something.

But there is definitely lots of places in Canada to get grids

 

[Rescuemom]

Yes, there is. However, $20 per pack of grids when only half the grids are usable due to size of squares(the packs come with big squares and little squares for some strange reason) is a lot of money to make a big cage out of. This cage is temporary while I convert a wardrobe into a three level cage. All the same, this still has more space for her than she would have had otherwise, and she still gets free time. But if she can escape, she will do everything in her power to attack my other rabbit.

 

[MaryAnne]

I use zip ties on the cage rather than those little clips that come with it as I think my guy could easily pull one of those out.

 

[Blue eyes]

Using the NIC grids to expand the cage is a good idea. I agree, though, that the zip ties work better. I've had rabbits break apart the grids with just the round connectors.

One thing you could also consider is that the grid boxes that have some of the grids with too-wide openings are not a total waste. The grids with the wider openings can be used for the ceiling portion of the cage, and can also be used as the shelf or floor portion since the shelf or floor portion gets covered anyway.

I couldn't quite tell in the photo on the top whether there is a clasp to hold the top down. I have found that the metal thumb clasps (don't know what they are called) work great for any door or opening portions of a grid cage. I'm attaching a photo of a temporary cage (I know it is small) that I used during bonding. But it shows the clasps I'm talking about. One is hanging on the open door and another is hanging on the right side of the cage.

Please note that this is an old cage from years ago. I no longer use corner litter boxes, bottles for water, and I offer way more hay.

 

[Heli]

I love the idea of using the cubes to add extra space, something I'm definitely going to try :wiggle

 

[Watermelons]

If you were closer you could have some of my grids think theres like 100 in the garage at my parents place.
Not sure what shipping from vancouver to alberta is....
Know anyone coming down this way?

 

[Rescuemom]

Unfortunately don't k of anyone coming down that way until June.

Okay.. So... I'm going to just break this down for you guys. And totally swapping to zip ties now, knowing that. This rabbit.. She's small. And she's CRAZY acrobatic. Like, when she was put in the original part of the traditional cage, she managed to get out of it through the water bottle opening in the ceiling of the cage(same size as the wider opened grid squares!!). She squeezes through tiny spaces, can take insanely high leaps, can tight rope walk narrow ledges(inch wide), and is great at finding weaknesses. I'm actually building a bigger, better, three level cage out of an antique armoire. I even tried various types of roof on the xpen to keep her from escaping, and she managed to figure out every single one I tried(including, but not limited to tied sheets, NIC grids with the wider opening, and even a board of wood). It saddens me to admit this rabbit is so smart and has outsmarted every single thing I've tried putting together lmao. The top part of her NIC cage opens, actually, and is held closed with a tiny metal carabiner, although I'm sure those other clips would be much better, and give less space for her to try to squeeze through! Great idea!

This rabbit is way too smart for her own good.