Okay so here's my little mini guide on the physical setting up of the cage cam.
Step 1.
You need to go out and buy a webcam, you don't need anything fancy and I suggest that you don't exceed a budget of $20.
My little cam is one I've had for close on 7 years now, but i could just have easily bought a new one.
Try to get one with a detachable base and a body that looks like it's easy to secure. So something like mine in the picture below is your best bet.
As you can see it's nothing fancy, but it is easily secured to the cage walls.
Step 2.
Find a place in your cage where your bunny can not get at the cam, one of the lessons I have learnt is that if a bunny can get to something in their cage they will investigate it. I'm lucky in the fact that lucy isn't a big chewer and that there are toys spread throughout her cage.
Try to find somewhere up high that will have a good view of the entirety of your cage, so as to give you the best view of your bunnies.
Mine is up in the middle of the cage as seen below.
Step 3.
Secure your cam to the INSIDE of the cage by running the cable through the bars from inside. Secure it using stickytape or rubber bands. I used sticky tape because it was the closest thing on hand and I can undo it and redo it quickly. The more securely you fix the camera on the less likely exploring noses will bump it in the wrong direction.
Make sure you adjust the angle so that you can see the whole cage, i suggest plugging the cam in and making sure the angle is right before you secure it.
As you can see in this picture mine is taped in securely and the cable is away from gnawing teeth.
You now have a functioning rabbit camera, we'll go in to uploading it to a website and live feeds later.
To head off a few questions at the start, here are some basic things you should know.
(Q) What sort of cage is best for this? Is my cage good for this?
(A) Any cage is good for this as long as you have a place to run the cable out from, everything else can be worked out along the way. I found my cage (pictured below) to be the best suited for this, however NIC cages are most probably better.
(Q) My computer is nowhere near my cage! HELP!
(A) You can get extension leads for USB cables, they should be cheap but if you go over a certain distance you need to buy a little device to amplify the signal halfway.
(Q) My rabbit is a big chewer what can I do?
(A) Smearing the side/face of the camera with a foul tasting chemical works great, there are many out there on the market, I used them to stop Lucy from chewing on wood. They are odorless and will not affect your camera.
So have fun setting up your cams, if you have any questions don't be afraid to post them here, when i update this post again I'll put how to stream your cam to a website.
A reminder from Lucy, as you watch her...
She watches you!
