Questions about NIC panel cages

[la vie est belle]

Right now my new bunny is living in one of our old cat cages but I think it's too small for him (it's 3 x 1.5 feet or 90 x 45 cm). I let him run around when I'm at home at night, but I'm at school full-time and am out of the house from 9-5 four times a week... he lives by himself so I don't want him to get bored and lonely!

So I'm thinking about building a cage using NIC panels for him. I just a had a few questions:

1.) Are there any size dimensions that work best? I saw the thread about the new style of NIC panels with large center squares that bunnies can stick their head through. What would an appropriate size be for my medium sized bunny?

2.) Where do you normally buy the panels? (I'm in the U.S.)

3.) Are there any types/brands I should avoid? (Due to toxic paint, stuff like that...)

4.) I know there are many options for flooring after looking through this forum, I'm just not sure which one is best... what's is the best type of flooring in your opinion and why? And where can I get it? (He seems to be good with his litter box, but I need some type of flooring because he'd be living on top of an expensive Persian rug lol).

5.) When I'm at home, I like to leave the door of his cage open so he can run in and out, to eat or visit his litter box as needed. Is it possible to do this if I make him a cage using NIC panels? Any good "door" strategies you guys have?

Any other pros/cons of using a NIC panel cage? Tell me all you've learned through trial and error!

Thanks! (this is my first bunny )

 

[MinnieMaddie]

The safe grids are the ones that are 9 holes by 9 holes and 8 holes by 8 holes. The ones that only have 5 are the unsafe ones. If that makes sense.

I order them off walmarts website. you can also get them at bed bath and beyond and k mart

I think they are all safe. I dont think any of them use toxic paint.

I use coroplast with fleece wrapped around it for flooring. Here is their cage.
http://s833.photobucket.com/albums/zz258/ctam12345/Piggies/?action=view&current=piggycage006.jpg
Th bunnies live on the pink floor. Guinea pigs live on the green and purple floors.
You can get coroplast at most sing stores. I get it at fast signs.

For a door, the door on my guinea pigs cage just flips down. Its kind of hard to explain but the whole front of their cage flips down. I hold it up with binder clips. Before my rabbits were free range thats the kind of door they had and it worked really well.

The pros of c&c cages are you can redo them if you want to. You can make them as big as you want. They are pretty cheap. You can make them fit in any space.
I cant think of any cons. I have had c&c cages for my pigs and buns for a while now and have not had any problems.

 

[Tweetiepy]

You can ziptie the door on as well. just make the ties less tight so the door can swing. I love this cage, as said above you can get any size you want with added grids. You can make it the shape you want too. I used plywood for my floors and covered them with stick on linoleum tiles (they seemed slippery to me, so I covered these with foam puzzle pieces - my bunny chewed them a bit in the begining - I think he stopped now - but you can cover this with fleece blankets). 20 grids can make a 2 grid wide x3 grid long x2 grid high cage (without a top)