Rabbit Web Discussion Board

The cage is very pleasing on the eyes. you see less cage mesh and more of the rabbit. I find white or brightly coloured NIC cubes really stick out in a room.

The cage is very light, sturdy and cannot rust. It can be very easily carried outside or into the bathtub to be rinsed off if needed. Also, it could be brought outside as an outdoor pen. You will have to put more welded wire mesh on the bottom to prevent rabbit from digging under the cage to escape.

I used 2x4\" glvanized welded wire mesh. Most adults (maybe not dwarfs) should not be able to get their heads caught in it.

3/4\" aluminum tubing from Home Depot, Rona, Canadian Tire or other building centers or hardware stores.

2\" corner brackets with small screws attach the tubes together into rectangles to form the frame.

The mesh is attached to these frames with plastic ties.

The lid sits on top and is hinged with pieces of wire.

The door is made of the mesh and locks with a spring and hook.

Litter box is Rubbermaid container ($4) and has 1/2\" screen bottom which sits up 2\" from the bottom. The litter is underneath to catch the droppings and urine which pass through easily. No more rabbit lounging in the droppings. Kitty litter can be used since the rabbit has no way of getting to it and eating it. This way a good clumping litter can be used to scoop up the urine clumps and the litter scoop will also pick up all the droppings while leaving the litter. This way the litter will last quite a while without having to be changed. Use a dremel type tool with a cutting blade to cut the side out or use a narrow saw blade such as a hacksaw blade. Sand the edge to take out sharp burrs.

Please let me know if you need more info. or pics.

Matt B.

It looks very neat and tidy. Does this cage not have a bottom? Does your rabbit dig the floor beneath? It looks like you have a lovely wooden floor that my rabbit would enjoy scratching!

The rubbermaid container is an inexpensive altrernative to the pet supply boxes they sell for $10. But, does the litter box attach at all to the cage to keep it from getting moved around? How did you attach the screen inside?

No, I don\'t have a bottom to the cage. Sam doesn\'t really run around much in the cage so there doesn\'t seem to be much scratching of the floor. I am thinking of putting something down though like maybe just a piece of coroplast.

the litter box is very cheap. $4 for the box and the mesh screen was about $5 for a 10 ft. roll I think.
You can use the mesh to make more boxes for use around the house.

The box can easily be attached to the cage with perhaps a piece of wire but Sam never moves it around.

The wire mesh bottom in the box has the edges turned down 3\" so it simply rests on these edges which raises it up 3\". It fits very tight so Sam can\'t pull it out but he never seems to try anyways. It could easily be attached more securely if one needed to. I could come up with a way to do this if someone needed it to be more securely attached if cat litter is being used and you don\'t want the rabbit to eat it, which could kill it.

Matt

I like your idea. I think I have seen something like that at (http://www.bunnyrabbit.com), for people who would rather buy one. Thanks for showing us how to make one. Do you have to do anything to encourage your rabbit to use it?

My rabbit had no problems with this cage. I bought him as an adult and he went right in and made himself at home in it.

I suppose my cage is different from most other similar ones in that it uses an aluminum frame which stiffens it and allows you to have a full sized top lid.The bottom is completely open which would allow you to sit it inside a large pan made from coroplast or to sit it on a rug or plastic mat. It can then be simply lifted up out of the way to clean the floor.
You could also put wheels on the corners to make it easier to move around. The frame allows this as opposed to wire cages which are framelss.
You could raise it up at each bottom corner using say, 3\" long pieces of aluminum tubing and fit a tray underneath which can then be slid out for cleaning.

I just received a rabbit from another, and have never had one before. It came with a cage filled with wood chip bedding. Is this a healthy accomadation for a rabbit?

\"I just received a rabbit from another, and have never had one before. It came with a cage filled with wood chip bedding. Is this a healthy accomadation for a rabbit?\"

Do a search on bedding and you\'ll find that pine and cedar chips are bad for rabbits as they harm their lungs.
Aspen seems to be OK.
You can probably litter train your rabbit to use a litter box in the cage and one or two place in your home if you let him out. With using a litter box you do not have to put the bedding material in the whole cage, only the box. The rabbit will urinate (hopefully all the time) in the box and poop there most of the time too. Rabbits tend to poop a little bit on the cage floor and leave a few in a couple of corners of the house but they\'re dry and easily vacuumed with a cordless hand vacuum or swept up.
Do a search on litter training--tons of stuff.
Many folks here use bedding called Woody Pet. Go to http://www.woodypet.com to see if it\'s sold near you. It\'s not widely available.
A lot of us use CareFresh and Yesterday\'s News. Both available in PetSmart and other pet shops. Bedding can be fairly expensive but you don\'t go through it that fast when the rabbit uses a litter box.
With my wire bottom litter box I can use almost anything, even just newspaper lined on the bottom.