Tearing apart our NIC cage to remodel it

[MyJuneAngel]

I've came to realize our set up is way too small for our buns. This board is so helpful. I thought they had lots of room, in fact they do have more room than most pet store cages I've seen and more room than the other bunnies I've visited but they don't have the kind of space that some of your buns do and I have started to notice they just lay in one spot when they are in their cage. I want them to feel free to move around.

What is a good size for 2 large breed (I guess they are large... not dwarf or mini by any means but I doubt they are giant either) rabbits? What about 3? Eventually, after the girls are both fixed (sisters from the same litter who have bonded) I want to try to introduce their younger brother from another litter to them and see if I can, eventually, end up with a bonded trio. This won't be for a few more months at least though as he is not old enough to be neutered yet and I want to wait until all are fixed and fully healed to see if it will work. Until then I want to put Thumper in a separate cage beside the girls so that they see a lot of one another.

So, basically I am asking what is a good size for 2 - 3 buns?

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

The size does depend in if you can build up. For 2 rabbits, you can do 2X3 and then 2 or 3 high with levels. 3 rabbits would need 1 more high or one longer or wider. You can go bigger, like 2X4 and 3 high if you want too. The size of the levels depends on what works for you.
I do prefer to not go more than 2 deep since it then becomes harder to clean. I do have one cage that is 2X3 and have to access it where it is 3 deep, but the base comes out, so that makes it easier to clean.

I would build it with a bigger base, like 2X4, and then build up as you need to. It is easier to build up as you don't need to make the base bigger.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

The size does depend in if you can build up. For 2 rabbits, you can do 2X3 and then 2 or 3 high with levels. 3 rabbits would need 1 more high or one longer or wider. You can go bigger, like 2X4 and 3 high if you want too. The size of the levels depends on what works for you.
I do prefer to not go more than 2 deep since it then becomes harder to clean. I do have one cage that is 2X3 and have to access it where it is 3 deep, but the base comes out, so that makes it easier to clean.

I would build it with a bigger base, like 2X4, and then build up as you need to. It is easier to build up as you don't need to make the base bigger.

 

[Blue eyes]

I had my former 2 bunnies in a NIC cage. It was 2x4 on bottom and 3 grids high. Here's a photo of it just after I made it, followed by photo showing the bunniesand other stuff in it (sorry it's fuzzy). It doesn't seem so big with stuff in it. This should help give you a visual to see how much bigger you think it should be for a third bunny.

 

[Pipp]

:thumbup

 

[Samara]

My NIC condo is 3 wide x 6 long x 3 high, but Atts is an English Lop and loves to run. He is housed with Pidge (American Fuzzy Lop) and Starling (English Lop/Mini Lop mix) - Starling has the big ears and body structure Atts does so I'm expecting she'll be his size or very close to.

We're planning on adding levels and a top to the enclosure soon - so "remodellers" unite!

Props to you for wanting to expand your bunny territory!

 

[SOOOSKA]

Blue eyes, your cage looks great.

The only thing I would suggest is to make the doors open all the way up. When I had Wilbur & Jackie they had 2 beautiful NICcages they shared (long story) but at the time we were new with NIC and bunnies. The openings we made were not great to clean the cages and also if they happen to fight we would have had a difficult time getting to them.

Sammy I'd love to see a picture of your 3 x 6 cage, that's a Palace. They must love it.

Daisy's cage is 3 x 2 and Winston & Vega's is 2 x 4, both have 2 levels. Winston and Vega' have a step stool that they use to get to the second level and also they sleep under it. Daisy has the igloo she uses to jump up to the second level. My bunnies tend to be lazy but I'd prefer them to use the stool and igloo can't hurt themselves if they slip or jump onto something ie a toy. (like I almost trip on their bloody toys, that will teach me to look down.)

Susan

 

[MyJuneAngel]

2x4x3 would work nicely. Our current setup is 2x4x2 but separated. Do they need more head room on the bottom level though? That is what concerns me most about our setup now. They only have one small corner to raise up in and it just feels like they need more head space as opposed to more to play on.

Honestly, we thought we were doing right by ours when we built this. It was larger than we had seen other rabbits in and several people we know with rabbits said we were spoiling them by giving them so much space. I laugh now because it isn't that much space at all. Thankfully we DID give them a few hours a day to run.

Here is how our cage is set up now. (ignore all the text on the photo, I was showing a friend who was interested in making a NIC cage, she went with a smaller pet store cage in the end) It was originally designed for the parents of the buns we have now. The parents were re-homed (together) and my girls prefer to stay in the same cage so they are both trying to fit themselves in to half of this. It doesn't works so well but they get mad when separated. It's only been a couple of days and we've made sure to give them lots more time out of the cage so it has worked but I am ready to remodel. My new NIC panels will be here on Thursday. As much as I'd love to tear their cage apart today and start remodeling, I will wait until the new box gets here so I have more to work with. We have extra panels from the original 2 boxes that we used for this but they are in the garage holding balls and gloves and other outdoor toys and the shelves I made with the leftovers fit the space so well that I can't justify tearing them apart for cages.

I will definitely be adding a 3rd story. I'd like to keep the 2x4 arrangement because it fits nicely in the space we have. As you can see, anything deeper would be in the way of opening the door next to the cage. Anything longer would mean a new rug (though we've had two new rugs since this picture was taken, I just bought a new one over the weekend! and would like to use it a bit) too... not the end of the world, but I like how this size fits the space.

We ARE switching to pellet litter over the pine shavings (that we had no idea until a few days ago were bad for them ) and I would like to get a dish of some sort for water rather than rely on the water bottles. Thumper, in particular (though he won't be in THIS cage, yet) prefers to drink from a dish. The panels behind the cage were to prevent spray from going on to our walls. Our male adopted the bad habit of spraying. Of course, who can blame him when he was housed right next to the female? Live and learn, I suppose and we are definitely learning more about proper care now that I found this forum. I did hours of research before but never found such great information all in one place. I was led to believe that we had a great setup here...

I want to go one higher at least. We had to put a top on the cage with these guys because Rascal is a jumper. She managed to jump clean over a tall baby gate. We were on vacation and my brother was coming in to feed her and clean her area (before we had Bitsy) and every day he kept finding her out roaming the living room. We couldn't believe it until we caught her jumping clean over. She was quite proud of herself. LOL Anyway, I would love to leave some open area at the top when we remodel so that the cats can visit. The cats adore the rabbits and the rabbits love the cats and right now 2 of my cats spend half their day in Thumper's enclosure. We find them cuddled up asleep with him all the time. <3 I was thinking more head room on the lower level, maybe an L shaped shelf in one corner that they can lounge on or use to move to the 3rd level... I might even go one more wide (5 instead of 4) but as I mentioned that means replacing the rug we use for flooring. I also want to try the dowel method with the shelves instead of using the NIC panels for shelves like we've done. We did use the small gauge wire mesh that I can't even put my pinky through and I know it doesn't hurt them but carpet seems so much nicer, especially since they are all litter trained really well.

 

[Blue eyes]

SOOOSKA wrote:

Blue eyes, your cage looks great.

The only thing I would suggest is to make the doors open all the way up. When I had Wilbur & Jackie they had 2 beautiful NICcages they shared (long story) but at the time we were new with NIC and bunnies. The openings we made were not great to clean the cages and also if they happen to fight we would have had a difficult time getting to them.

Thanks. I actually do have separate doors on the upper levels. I just didn't have them open when I took the empty cage photo. You can see colored clips (sort of) on my fuzzy photos (one green, one yellow) on the second level that hold the doors closed. The top level has a piece of plexiglass that comes off.

You are correct though that it is a good idea to be sure to have enough openings on one's NIC cages to allow for easy access. :wink

 

[MyJuneAngel]

Another reason I don't want to go over 2 deep... this one fits through the sliding glass door and I take it outside about every other week and hose it down completely. As I mentioned, my male sprayed (shouldn't be a problem any more though) and hosing it off makes it so much easier to clean.

 

[SOOOSKA]

I have pictures I'll post this evening.

This computer at work is to darn slow.

Susan

 

[SOOOSKA]

here's some pictures of my past and present cages.

Winston & Vega's cage at the house.

Wilbur & Jackie's (RIP) cage at the house {one of their 2 cages}

Wilbur & Jackie's second cage

I have to find pictures ofWinston and Vegas & Daisy's cages.

Susan

 

[SOOOSKA]

Winston and Vega's new cage.

I used dowels which really help tokeep the cage sturdy, I use cable tiesto attach the dowels to the NIC grids.

Susan

 

[SOOOSKA]

Daisy's Cage

Susan

 

[Blue eyes]

MyJuneAngel wrote:

2x4x3 would work nicely. As much as I'd love to tear their cage apart today and start remodeling, I will wait until the new box gets here so I have more to work with. We have extra panels from the original 2 boxes that we used for this but they are in the garage holding balls and gloves and other outdoor toys and the shelves I made with the leftovers fit the space so well that I can't justify tearing them apart for cages.

The panels behind the cage were to prevent spray from going on to our walls. Our male adopted the bad habit of spraying. I might even go one more wide (5 instead of 4) but as I mentioned that means replacing the rug we use for flooring. I also want to try the dowel method with the shelves instead of using the NIC panels for shelves like we've done. We did use the small gauge wire mesh that I can't even put my pinky through and I know it doesn't hurt them but carpet seems so much nicer, especially since they are all litter trained really well.

Ha, ha. Yes, I've found many uses for extra grid panels! That large cage I posted was 2 panels short at the top for that reason which was why I used the plexiglass. I also used to use plexiglass against the wall to protect the walls - similar to what you did. Even without "spraying" my buns still seemed to get stuff splattered somehow.

Eventually I ended up with so many grids I could've built a mansion. Unfortunately, when we moved last year we had to majorly downsize (thanks to economy :X). We sold ALL our grids at a garage sale to one very happy man. (But that's how we came up with a different type of home-made cage for my current bunnies)

But I'm getting off track. The dowel rods do work well. I still used the grids for the shelves and put the carpet on top of them (zip tied so they wouldn't slip). I also kept the floor base just linoleum. I like to have at least 2 different flooring types in my cages so that bunnies have a choice of what they want to be on.

Have fun creating on Thursday!!



@ Sooska, What fun cages! I love to see how varied are everyone's cages :biggrin2:

 

[MyJuneAngel]

Thanks everyone! You have given me so many ideas I'm sure the kids and I will have a lot of fun designing the new space for the girls