* WARNING! * new style of NIC panels.

[undergunfire]

I bought a box of NIC panels a few weeks ago and noticed half of the panels in the box had large center squares. I used these panels as the backside of my NIC cage (the part that was up against the walls).

I decided to build my bunnies pens and use this new style of NIC panel as the door of the pen. I soon found out Morgan could just about squeeze his head through the panel...with little room left between his head/neck and the panel holes. I freaked! I quickly changed the door design to having the new style of panel as the top portion of the door, and used the old style as the bottom portion.

I wanted to put out a warning to every one who has purchased or will purchase this new style of NIC panel bought from Target in a box labeled "Organize It" cubes. PLEASE, if you are going to use these panels for your NIC cages or pens...put the panels with larger squares out of reach of the bunnies (use them for the shelves with a solid covering over them, use them for the roof of the cage if the bunny can not reach them, use them for the top portion of your pens, ect).

All I could envision was Morgan or another one of my bunnies getting their heads stuck in the new larger squares and breaking their neck, back, or seriously injuring themselves.

Young baby rabbits will be able to escape or injure themselves in these new panels if you use them on the ground level of a pen or NIC cage.

My small 9.5lbs dog and easily fit his muzzle through these panels and my cat can definitely fit his legs through these (which means claws, too)...this can pose a danger to some rabbits.





"Old style"...

"New style"...

Showing the size difference...

Size comparison with a standard sized toilet paper tube...

My hand through the "new style" panel. I could probably fit my other hand in there, as well...

The actual panel has the same dimension, but the squares are larger (as you can see)...

Morgan's size compaired to the "new style" of panel. It never struck my mind at first that his head could fit through the panel, until I saw him try it!...

This picture shows how you should use the "new style" of panel on top of the "old style" of panel...

**This may be obvious to some people, but I wanted to point it out to others who may not have thought of the hazard.

 

[NorthernAutumn]

Too freaky Amy!

Thanks for all your investigative work... That's such a frustrating product change!
We're going to have a black-market in NIC cubes before you know it...

Thanks again!

 

[undergunfire]

Thankfully I have a ton of "old style" panels to work with. I guess this means for people who are new to NIC cages, they may have to buy two boxes instead of 1 to build with the old style panels.

Ugh, did I mention the price increase? At my Target...for black, white, and blue panel colors the price went up from $14.99 to $19.99. The chrome panel color went up from $19.99 from $24.99!

 

[drunkenbunnyhugger]

WOW! thanks for noticing and posting for us! I wondering if all us bunny folks should start emailing them and try and get them to change back? jeesh. raising the price AND cutting back on material used in each panel making the holes bigger is ridiculous!

 

[Luvmyzoocrew]

wow thanks for making everyone aware of this, how scary

 

[JadeIcing]

Shes not kidding I bought some and my brother who is more or less a grown man can fit his hand through.

 

[BethM]

I came across some of these New Style cubes earlier this year. Thankfully, they still had some old style mixed in on the shelves, and I exchanged the horrible ones for the good old standbys. At that time, they only had the wide square ones in the colored panels, the chrome ones were still the old style.

 

[Boz]

I bought a box with these about a month ago and when I saw it I returned it. I was not happy!:grumpy: I exchanged that box with a box of the older ones.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Thank you SO much for this notice! Very very scary!

 

[Becknutt]

This should probubly be pinned wherever the instruction for building a nic pen are...library? so new members can see this and be mindful.

I'm very glad it was included in today on RO, I planned to pick up a box today to finish my new ex pen. If they have the old style I think I'll pick up an extra box to have just in case.

 

[RexyRex]

I got a box of these too! But only 1/2 of them were the larger grid, the other half was the regular size. Are yours like that? If you look on the box you'll see that they are different...it's kind of hard to explain, I'll take a pic of the box when I get home tonight. I bought 2 boxes at the same time, one was fine the other was mixed. Just make sure that you look at the picture on the box to make sure that you are getting the smaller ones. I decided to keep the larger ones to make the condo ceiling with.

 

[BSAR]

I wonder why they did that! We should try to contact them and have them put it back down to normal sized holes. I bet they are just trying to save on how much metal they use to make it. But now they may not get as good of business if us bunny lovers don't have a true need for it.

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

Wow! I know for sure bunnies will be able to get through that! It looks like they just didn't add four squares to each larger square, resulting in the new style...crazy. I've had baby bunnies get out of the regular NIC panels, but they would definitley have no trouble getting out of those ones!!

Emily

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Wait!

I wonder if they are just FAULTY? Maybe they messed up in the manufacturing. I can't tell for sure, but if you added lines to the middle of those squares, wouldn't it be the old ones?

 

[JadeIcing]

No it is meant to be that way.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

That's so stupid!

I found these at Bed Bath and Beyond yesterday. I think they would be great for babies! and combined with a more open grid - bigger bunners. I think the little bins come with them but I could find a use for those too! I'm thinking bunny tunnels, storage, etc.

I think they will help me with the Diesel situation - so I might rebuild part of Bo's cage with them. (Maybe on the outside of his cage now)

Ugh! they are plastic, I thought they said it was all metal. They do carry the regular ones too.

 

[JadeIcing]

Are they Metal?

 

[mouse_chalk]

OMG! How scary! :shock:

Mouse would be out of those in a jiffy. Actually, with holes that size, so would Chalk, Barney and Snowy lol! :shock::shock::shock::shock:

The thing I don't understand is, they're made as storage shelves right? Mostly for college/uni students as a cheap storage solution? So why on earth would they make the holes that big? You couldn't keep anything other than books really on shelves with holes that size in.... It just doesn't make sense...

What's the name of the manufacturer that makes NIC panels in the US? I really hope that they don't end up over here as well! I might have to go and buy a couple of old boxes just in case if they do, even though they're sooo expensive over here (but you never know when that 5th bunny might come along lol ). I couldn't live with NIC grids but no way could I live with those new ones either. :?

 

[Elf Mommy]

Maybe that's why I couldn't find any! They were switching over!

 

[Boz]

mouse_chalk wrote:

OMG! How scary! :shock:

Mouse would be out of those in a jiffy. Actually, with holes that size, so would Chalk, Barney and Snowy lol! :shock::shock::shock::shock:

The thing I don't understand is, they're made as storage shelves right? Mostly for college/uni students as a cheap storage solution? So why on earth would they make the holes that big? You couldn't keep anything other than books really on shelves with holes that size in.... It just doesn't make sense...

What's the name of the manufacturer that makes NIC panels in the US? I really hope that they don't end up over here as well! I might have to go and buy a couple of old boxes just in case if they do, even though they're sooo expensive over here (but you never know when that 5th bunny might come along lol ). I couldn't live with NIC grids but no way could I live with those new ones either. :?

I think the smaller ones are for the bottom shelves where things are set on and the others are for the sides.



I think it's a way to save metal... But they just raised the price!