Building a cage

[PaGal]

In a few weeks we will be getting a flemish giant baby. My husband will be building a cage. It will be at least 48 X 30. It will have three levels. We are planning on building it entirely out of metal.

Now here is where some of your ideas might help, we want the floor to be solid (no grating), material that will not be easily destroyed by moisture (such as a leaky water bottle), we would like the flooring to continue up the sides of the cage for approximately four inches and the most important safe for bunnies.

We have been throwing ideas around but you may have some we have not thought of. He was thinking of placing pond liner over the solid floor to give cushion and it could be shaped to fit but I would worry the bunny could chew it or dig it easily.

Thanks for any ideas.

 

[Nela]

I have found tile to be awesome. With proper glue, you can just stick the tiles on and fill the gaps with silicone. All you'd need to add is something for traction and cushioning but you can put in a straw mat or even some loose straw, shredded newspaper, blanket, etc.

 

[LakeCondo]

Or use tile with more traction, even cement patio stones & pavers. Honey sometimes uses a taller paver as a pillow. So much for cushioning, lol.

 

[caustin4]

I built a cage for my English lop for night time. It's made out of metal. The sides have holes that are 1"x2" and it's pretty thick wire. I also made the bottom out of thick wire which is 1/2"x1". For the majority of the cage there is a thin piece of ply wood covered with carpet. There is a section I left as the wire for a litter box so her droppings and urine can go right through to a pan I made out of sheet metal. My bunny has splay leg and before this cage she couldn't climb into a litter box and she ended up with urine burn on her legs because true way her legs are thus the only way she could urinate.

I found that leaving the wire on the bottom and putting something solid over it helped make the cage more secure and easy to clean/sterilize if needed. I've had leaky water bottle problems and all I had to do was let the carpet dry during the day, nothing else was ruined or soaked.

Tile would also work well to set on top, I never thought of that!

 

[yannikin]

I used Chloroplast. It's sturdy, cheap and easy to replace. Face it, unless you have a perfectly litter trained rabbit, she's bound to have accidents. Do you want to fuss with permanently glued tiles or drilled down matts?

 

[LakeCondo]

to each his/her own

 

[yannikin]

I'm sure your cage is awesome. I'm just lazy and cheap :shock:

 

[PaGal]

I am thinking we'll go with the tile. We have some nice stuff left over from renovating a bathroom. It will save us money and it is not very slick. We also have some matching 4" X 4" tile that we can put around the side, perhaps attached to some thin wood. If we grout, leaks will not be a problem and spills won't harm the tile.

I have thought of the coroplast though. Years ago I built a guinea pig cage out of nic cubes and a coroplast bottom with four inch high side. The cage turned out very nice. With a bunny though I would be worried about him chewing. I want the cage to be as safe and comfortable as possible.

 

[Nela]

Either can work. The tile is permanent and you can hose it down. I used tile in my guinea pig cage (because I hadn't thought of tiling my bunny hutches before putting them in them!) and just love it. I take everything out, use a sponge to wipe it down if it's fresh or a scraper for the urine if it dried and I'm all done.They can't chew it, and I don't have to buy materials to replace it. Any future hutch of minewill definitely be tiled to get the hutch to last and for it to be better for the girls. However, I will be using chloroplast to protect the shed walls from urine when we rebuild. The more materials you know and keep in mind, the easier it is to get creative and make it work for you. Like yesterday, I just remembered vinyl flooring (not tile) for my indoor bunny.