aozora
Amy, Member
Hey guys!
Since I'm changing up the litter soon I turned my attention next to possible litter boxes as well as a hay rack. The litter pan I have so far is a jumbo corner pan from Amazon that comes with a handy metal grate on it. It's large enough for me to put a bunch of hay in one corner for him to sit with his bum against the high corner back and eat to his heart's content, but one thing that has always bugged me is how messy he can be when he's choosing all the choice bits and flinging the rest of the hay on the floor and around him like nobody's business!
I therefore knew I wanted to get a hay rack, but the more I looked the more I grew frustrated because most hay racks either seem too small or would not fit properly. I use an xpen as a cage for him and the wires are for the most part vertical, with a single horizontal wire running all the way around at about 14.5" from the ground up. This makes it much too high for regular hay racks to clip on easily. I tried looking for some DIY options next such as wire baskets, letter trays, those Ikea plastic bag holders and even plastic bottles but either the dimensions were too big/small or it would fit at a really odd angle for him to try to get the hay out of. Not to mention a lot of those were surprisingly not cheap-- even the cheapest ones at Dollarama were not ideal because the slits were way too small to fit hay through!
So I decided to look around the house to see if there were any existing containers I could possibly make a hay rack out of, and then I stumbled upon this little gem. It's a tin can from a Body Shop holiday gift set (called Feet Treat) that measures roughly 5.5" x 4.5" x 4.5", with a large transparent window in front so you can see the contents inside. Here is a photo of the product itself:
I was so happy to learn that the window was just a thin sheet of stiff plastic that can easily be cut! I decided to cut out about 1/4 to 1/3 from the bottom to make a slit where the hay could be pulled out. I deliberately left some extra plastic along the edges so that I could bend them away from the surface and used a lighter on the extra sharp corners for good measure to prevent my bunny from accidentally cutting himself. I then soaked it in vinegar and water for a while before rinsing it out and drying with a paper towel.
The next thing I had to do was figure out how to connect it to my xpen, since the tin has no holes to loop anything through and I ideally wanted something that could easily come on and off at my convenience; I regularly clean out Mocha's cage completely and I do so by folding up the xpen and moving it to one corner of the room, so I knew I didn't want to use cable ties to fix it permanently. I decided to go with a single binder clip just to see how it might hold up, and I just so happened to have a 3/4" binder clip on hand that fit perfectly between the vertical bars of the cage and fit around the lip of the tin + horizontal bar perfectly!
Since it was still a bit too far up from the ground for my liking, I took out the pear link from a toy I had purchased from Leith Petwerks (they also sell them separately here) and looped it through one side of the binder clip so it would dangle a little bit lower. Here is a pic of the finished product, clipped onto the outside of the xpen so I can get a good clear pic of it but it will be moved inside for him later. I'm really proud of what I came up with at zero cost when I was originally estimating about ~$20 for a new hay rack! I would love to hear what you think about it, or suggestions on improvement
Since I'm changing up the litter soon I turned my attention next to possible litter boxes as well as a hay rack. The litter pan I have so far is a jumbo corner pan from Amazon that comes with a handy metal grate on it. It's large enough for me to put a bunch of hay in one corner for him to sit with his bum against the high corner back and eat to his heart's content, but one thing that has always bugged me is how messy he can be when he's choosing all the choice bits and flinging the rest of the hay on the floor and around him like nobody's business!
I therefore knew I wanted to get a hay rack, but the more I looked the more I grew frustrated because most hay racks either seem too small or would not fit properly. I use an xpen as a cage for him and the wires are for the most part vertical, with a single horizontal wire running all the way around at about 14.5" from the ground up. This makes it much too high for regular hay racks to clip on easily. I tried looking for some DIY options next such as wire baskets, letter trays, those Ikea plastic bag holders and even plastic bottles but either the dimensions were too big/small or it would fit at a really odd angle for him to try to get the hay out of. Not to mention a lot of those were surprisingly not cheap-- even the cheapest ones at Dollarama were not ideal because the slits were way too small to fit hay through!
So I decided to look around the house to see if there were any existing containers I could possibly make a hay rack out of, and then I stumbled upon this little gem. It's a tin can from a Body Shop holiday gift set (called Feet Treat) that measures roughly 5.5" x 4.5" x 4.5", with a large transparent window in front so you can see the contents inside. Here is a photo of the product itself:
I was so happy to learn that the window was just a thin sheet of stiff plastic that can easily be cut! I decided to cut out about 1/4 to 1/3 from the bottom to make a slit where the hay could be pulled out. I deliberately left some extra plastic along the edges so that I could bend them away from the surface and used a lighter on the extra sharp corners for good measure to prevent my bunny from accidentally cutting himself. I then soaked it in vinegar and water for a while before rinsing it out and drying with a paper towel.
The next thing I had to do was figure out how to connect it to my xpen, since the tin has no holes to loop anything through and I ideally wanted something that could easily come on and off at my convenience; I regularly clean out Mocha's cage completely and I do so by folding up the xpen and moving it to one corner of the room, so I knew I didn't want to use cable ties to fix it permanently. I decided to go with a single binder clip just to see how it might hold up, and I just so happened to have a 3/4" binder clip on hand that fit perfectly between the vertical bars of the cage and fit around the lip of the tin + horizontal bar perfectly!
Since it was still a bit too far up from the ground for my liking, I took out the pear link from a toy I had purchased from Leith Petwerks (they also sell them separately here) and looped it through one side of the binder clip so it would dangle a little bit lower. Here is a pic of the finished product, clipped onto the outside of the xpen so I can get a good clear pic of it but it will be moved inside for him later. I'm really proud of what I came up with at zero cost when I was originally estimating about ~$20 for a new hay rack! I would love to hear what you think about it, or suggestions on improvement
