Walkthrough of building a rabbit Condo (56K will take time)

[addicted]

First off, I did something really bad when making this. Try it at your own risk and if you hate me for it, oh well.

It started in Target where we bought the wire racks. They were a 6pack for 16.99. The problem was that the grids in the box were divided up. 9 smallgrid and 16 large grid.

Now here is where I was bad. The boxes were only sealed by a little glue. I bought 4 boxes, removed the small grids from all the boxes and swapped them with the large grids. Once I made sure that 2 of the boxes had the proper amount I resealed them with large grids. I then returned them to target.

So, lets get started.

Needed parts
grids
wire snips
zip ties
linoleum (sp) tiles
drill w/drill bit
razor blade
little saw

Lets start building

first thing I did was lay out the back. Then the sides. I did use the connectors that the grids came with as well as zip ties to make sure they dont come loose.

rough shell

now we started on the shelves.
for this we used the large grids since they will be covered anyways

We went ahead and zip tied all 3 shelves to make sure this is how we wanted the cage to look

And to give you an idea on size here is my wife inside the cage

 

[addicted]

Now that everything is made we went to home depot to get the flooring and such.
We were originally going to get 3ply plywood but saw this for 2 dollars more. It was a lot lighter, thinner, and smoother. We measured the dimensions before we went to home depot. We then asked them to cut the pieces out for us. They were happy to do so and didn't even charge us for the cut. fyi, they could charged you up to 50 cents a cut which still isn't bad to be sure they are straight and exact.

We then bought linolium squares at 99 cents a square. We then laid out the squares for the floor

I then used my razor blade to cut off the excess and this was what we ended up with.

Now, to attach the floor I drilled numerous holes all along the outside edge of the floor. We then turned the cage upside-down and zip tied it to the cage

We then flipped it back over.

now to laminate the shelves

Now we have a completed project

hope this helps a lot of you out when you go to build your own and if you have any questions, by all means let me know.

Total cost invested was roughty 70 dollars.

 

[mardigraskisses]

Yay! Thanks for the post.

And between you and I... h34r2

I did the same thing. :shock:

 

[SOOOSKA]

Great job! Now can i make a suggeston, I would have the bottom grid (door)open too, it will be much easier to clean. WhatI did was I bought dowels to go under the shelves to make them sturdier.

Also I would put cardboard behind the cage because sometimes when Bunnies are in their litter boxes and jump out you will end up with Pee Pee all over your wall. take it from me i have Pee Pee all over my wall behind their cage. LOL

You have a very cute bunny, I bet he/she just loves it.

Susan

 

[JadeIcing]

:shock:I work at Target. Yea...

 

[addicted]

ok.. now something has come up. Did most of you build ramps to the different levels? Our bunny just stays on whatever level we put him/her on. Any suggestions? I have no problem building ramps, but I wanted to see if anyone else had this problem.

 

[Mom of Joy and Love]

I feel sorry for the people who buy those boxes with only the small squares in them. Don't think you would appreciate it either.
Better to buy the extra boxes and use the small cubes in another project.
Not Flaming but cannot applaud dishonesty.

 

[werecatrising]

Mom of Joy and Love wrote:

I feel sorry for the people who buy those boxes with only the small squares in them. Don't think you would appreciate it either.
Better to buy the extra boxes and use the small cubes in another project.
Not Flaming but cannot applaud dishonesty.

Yeah, I'm with you. Couldn't you use the small grids for the levels since they are covered anyway? Or just buy from someplace else.Someplace that sells the regular ones.

 

[SOOOSKA]

I'm with addicted, I would have done the same thing. These stores can write it off anyway if they notice it or they can put them on sale and still make a ton of money on them. I'm sure this stuff is made in China and they pay their workers 10 cents an hour so they are making a HUGE profit.

In my cages i don't have ramps they just jump from level to level. However in Winston & Vegas cage I have one of those purple hidey houses that they use to jump onto the second level.

Susan

 

[werecatrising]

Maybe so, but what about the person who buys the boxes that were tampered with? Now they have to go through the hassle of exchanging them.

 

[SOOOSKA]

Here's a picture of Winston intheir cage. They use the purple thing to jump up and down. Sometimes they just jump to the top level without using iit.

Susan

 

[JadeIcing]

SOOOSKA wrote:

I'm with addicted, I would have done the same thing. These stores can write it off anyway if they notice it or they can put them on sale and still make a ton of money on them. I'm sure this stuff is made in China and they pay their workers 10 cents an hour so they are making a HUGE profit.

Actually not really. Every little is penny counts. According to profits is how hours are allocated. I work in a Target and trust me I know that almost every Target is hurting maybe not on a larger scale but none the less we are hurting. Our store is doing better than most in the district but we are still losing hours. We struggle to do our job with little hours and barely any man power. Things like this our very disheartening when we are just trying to do our jobs.

Plus even if they did resell it would more than likely be for $3-4.

I have a vivid memory of my brother once taking a little gun that was left in a package. Someone had taken the rest. My mom made him go back in and say sorry. She told us no matter how we looked at it that it was wrong and we couldn't make it right.

 

[TinysMom]

Mom of Joy and Love wrote:

I feel sorry for the people who buy those boxes with only the small squares in them. Don't think you would appreciate it either.
Better to buy the extra boxes and use the small cubes in another project.
Not Flaming but cannot applaud dishonesty.

I've heard it said that character is what you do/say when no one is looking....its a shame that someone else will pay the price for your decisions by buying those boxes.

I agree with the poster I quoted above - I know I don't applaud dishonesty and I know that many folks on the forum don't applaud it either.

Those "unwanted" sizes could have gone to use on a top level or in the flooring or making ramps or something. No reason to screw up someone else's purchase of those boxes by doing that.

As far as the stores - I have friends that work in retail and they're among some of the hardest hit with this economy right now. I have one friend whose hours have been cut dramatically - to the point that they're hurting bad....actually - now that I think about it - I have more than one friend who has been hurt to that point. As a merchandiser - whose jobs depend upon how the retail economy is doing - my work in the bigger stores like Walmart, etc. is down due to the losses they've taken - and I've lost work left and right from some companies that lost contracts because of stuff like this. Acts like this really do hurt the stores and cause the hours of the workers to get cut, etc. etc. etc.

Anyway, enough about that...

By the way - I see you're a newer member due to your post count - I want to take the time to welcome you to the forum. Nice cage design - thanks for sharing about it with us.

 

[TinysMom]

werecatrising wrote:

Maybe so, but what about the person who buys the boxes that were tampered with? Now they have to go through the hassle of exchanging them.

I think our society has become such a "me first" society...that probably won't matter to most people.

 

[SOOOSKA]

Good God, I'm sure everyone on this forum had done something like this at some point in their life. And if you say differently I find that hard to believe. Even the most honest person out there has done something that is a little shady me included. I have done exactly what addicted had done. I have also bought things that had parts missing i just went back to the store to exchange it.

Gosh look at some of those preachers out there who are supposedly preaching Gods Words they are the biggest crooks among other things.

I have worked at a Giftware sales agency in the past for yearsso I am quite well aware of the markup on products. They could sell those things for $3.00 and still make money.

Anyway sorry to hijack:threadhijacked: this thread but I just had to get my 2:twocentscents in.

Susan

 

[Mrs. PBJ]

I don;t think I could take them back like that either.

Try turning them over to your local humaine society. Myne makes puppy cages out of them all the time. There easier to disifect.


But I am glad you got your cage together it does look great.

Storm won't walk on tile at all.


Don't get me wrong I have done some side ways stuff in my day.

 

[TinysMom]

SOOOSKA wrote:

Good God, I'm sure everyone on this forum had done something like this at some point in their life. And if you say differently I find that hard to believe. Even the most honest person out there has done something that is a little shady me included. I have done exactly what addicted had done. I have also bought things that had parts missing i just went back to the store to exchange it.

Susan,

I have NEVER done anything like this in my life - whether you believe me or not - I do not care.

The two "worst" things I ever did - was to open a package of Kool-Aid drink mix in the store and use my fingers to "eat" it when I was about five. Not only was I made to apologize to the store manager by my mother - I had my rear end whooped till I could not sit down and I had to pay for the package from the little money I had. I was taught at that age that taking something that was not yours was wrong - no matter who it belonged to.

The other "worst" thing I did was to steal some pens and paper from work - office products being one of my weaknesses. I tossed and turned that night and couldn't sleep because I felt so guilty...I returned them the next day - having never used the pens (two) or the paper (a steno pad). The lessons my mom taught me at a young age wouldn't let me sleep.

On the other hand - more than once have I gone back into a store to have them charge me for something they accidentally missed when ringing up my purchases. Usually they're like, "You WANT us to charge you for this? WHY?" I then try to explain that I owe it....

Lest I seem too perfect - I must admit that a few months ago I was tempted to steal something. I was destroying some items in Family Dollar - a curling iron/hairbrush set. I loved the little hairbrushes - and they were just being trashed.

I couldn't bring myself to do it. The hairbrushes weren't mine - and even though it seems like Robin and I keep misplacing them...I realized I would never be able to use it without feeling guilty. So I trashed them all.

I know this thread is about the original poster's cage...and I was going to try to leave it on that topic...but I didn't appreciate the idea of being lumped in with others who would have done this - because even as a child - I wouldn't have....

Anyway....since this thread is supposed to be about the rabbit cage itself...I'll shut up.

I'm needing to make the Cali boys new pens....I may try to take some ideas from your pictures.

 

[Evey]

Hello!

Your bunny looks fairly young so maybe that it why he/she isn't able to jump to the other levels quite yet. It also takes a while for rabbits to get used to new cages.

There is one suggestion I have: I would be nervous with the setup of the levels right now since your rabbit could jump/fall from the highest level straight down to the bottom--ouch!

Hereare somepictures of a 3 story that I just built for Toby. I hope it helps

Kathy

 

[addicted]

ok I see I caused a ruckus about what I did, but let me say this. The pictures on the box only showed the larger grids on them. I opened the box in store to see how large they actually were. It was at that time I noticed it came with 9 small grid and the rest large grid. Looking at it from this perspective i'm willing to put money on it that whoever buys the boxes that I returned will 'never' know that there was supposed to be small grids in there. I made sure not to open any of the connectors or anything and made sure that the proper amount was put back in the boxes I returned. Even the directions didn't say anything about the small grid ones.

Anyways... now that this has been beat to death.

Thanks for the design ideas to help with the bunny. The bunny is now hopping from the bottom to the next shelf with no problems. Only a matter of time before he/she hops to the next shelf.