New Hutch! Phwoar!

[pinksalamander]

Well, i was planning on getting another hamster,but seeing as my Mum doesn't like them she made a bargain that shewould buy any hutch for Will i wanted if i didn't get a hamster. So iagreed to the bargain and we went out looking for a modest but spacioushutch. We ended up with a £130 hutch that is bigger than me. (Wellalmost) Its probably about 5 feet high (two storey) and is about asdeep as two me's and the width of me with my arms stretched out. Ithink its 48" in width. Its called "Thistle Hall". Pets at Home'sbiggest hutch apart from a huge £250 4 level breeding cage.. its big,trust me.

Lady in the store says she thinks will is probably a frnech lop misedwith something (what i thought too) so he'll probably get almost a bigas my little cat and she says the hutch is suitable for two, so as soonas he is fixed he WILL be getting a girl. Only £40 to save!

I'm so happy... i am still going to make my hutch in my woodwork classbecause maybe i can get a mini rabbit or some wee piggies for it. Alsoits a project i'll enjoy and i've already spent so much timeconvincing...

BUNNIES! :happybunny:

P.S it came free with a "bunny starter kit" with bowls/water bottlesetc AND 30 days free pet insurance which i think is great! Lets hope ifWill gets ill, its within the next 30 days!

 

[Bunnys_rule63]

That's great you found a hutch! my girls summerhutch is thepets at homethistle hall too.The only problem with it is I don't think it's really suitable for themin the winter because the wood is too thin so water can get in and thebed area isn't really big enough.:? Other than that's it's a nicespacious hutch though.

 

[pinksalamander]

Yep, thats it. Oh well, i will put a blanketover it and then some taupalin (sp?) like i sued to do with my bunnies.The area it will be in is usually out of the rain because on eitherside are houses so unless the rain is driving in very diagonally itshould be OK.

 

[Bunnys_rule63]

That sounds like a good idea.I'vehad to buy a 'hutch hugger' for mine because the rain kept seepingthrough the wood!:shock:It works really well though, it evenhas a clear waterproof sheet that you can roll down over the front whenit's raining and the 'hutch snuggle' can be bought to insulate it inthe winter. They can both be bought at pets at home but here's whatthey look like:

http://www.scratchandnewtonshop.com/

 

[pinksalamander]

I've seen them. The lady in Pets at Homeactually said to me (rather quietly) "DON'T get a hutchhugger/snuggle". She said the £30 odd you pay is a rip off when a pieceof taupalin (sp again?) and a blanket held down somehow with somebungees will work JUST as well.

 

[Bunnys_rule63]

Yeah I know I just use an old blanket and apeice of tarpualin to insulate my bunnies winter hutch but it didn'treally work for this hutch, the rain still got in!:foreheadsmack:Ithink it's where it's placed though as the trees in the backround tendto drip onto the hutch, I'm sure by placing your hutch in a shelteredspot and covering it over it will stay nice and dry.Whatdoes Will think of his new hutch?

 

[pinksalamander]

Nothing yet, as it isn't built It says "20minutes to build" but i know for a fact the run made by the samecompany that took "10 minutes to build" took about 30! So my Mumrefuses to let me attempt to build it till she gets back from coffeewith her friend. I need to clear the area of garden junk/old pots/bricks and a spade anyway before it can be put there!

 

[Bunnys_rule63]

I know, I tried to build mine on my own andnearly broke it!:embarrassed:Tell us what Will thinks whenhe's all moved in!:sunshine:

 

[pinksalamander]

I've *almost* finished cleaning up the gardenarea for it. It might not fit because there is a drain there and idon't think the legs are long enough. If this is the case i'll put eachleg ontop of a brick to raise it up a bit more.

 

[pinksalamander]

OK its done! Built! Wow! That took a while! I'll get pictures in the morning (because its 9 o'clock here and pitch black).

I've realised i need to get him SO MANY mores toys. Poor thing, he'sprobably very bored right now because i had to have a quick hunt andcame up with a bunch of hamster toys and some bog roll tubes I'mshort on cash at the moment but as soon as i have some i'll be on eBaybuying some nice things. In the meantime, has anyone got and ideas ofthings i could put in that i have lying around the house? I'm sure ihave an old phonebook around but anything else?

 

[Pet_Bunny]

pinksalamander wrote:

OK its done! Built! Wow! That took a while! I'll getpictures in the morning (because its 9 o'clock here and pitch black).

It's 2 in the afternoon for us. I'm goingto a wedding tonight. PoorPebbles has to stayhome. Maybe I'll pick someflowers off the Brides Bouquet forPebbles. :shock:

I give Pebbles thetoilet papertubes to play with. Shealso likes cardboard boxes,that she can climb overor hide under.

Rainbows!

 

[Haley]

Yay for Will's new Hutch!!!

That thing is awesome. Very big and roomy!

For toys, the toilet paper rolls work great...If you've ever seenNaturestee's blog, she took a bunch of them and hung them from ashelfso they make a little curtain...I did this for Tumnusand he loves it! Also, the shelter where Ivolunteer takes cereal boxes and opens both ends, then stuffs it withhay. Its very entertaining for the buns! I also buy baby keys for themto toss (these are very cheap).

Hope Will loves his new home

 

[pinksalamander]

He's very happy I went out there to put thephonebook in and realised it was rather chilly (clear sky). So istarted adding tons and tons of hay to the bedroom area, but then iremembered we had bought the kitten this really gorgeous warm cat bed.Its lovely, kinda bluey-green with little fish all over it. I put it inthe bedroom (its just big enough to fit without blocking thedoor-hole). He looks so cute in it! I hope he doesn't chew it all up!

I will hunt around the house for as much cardboard i can and make somekinda playground thing. I'll just string some toilet roll tubes andstuff together and see if he likes it

 

[Jess_sully]

That looks like a great hutch, and I have toadmit that that is coming from a person who generally dislikes hutches(indoor OR outdoor ones), so maybe that really means something. As forcheap/homemade toys- I'm not sure if you have a Wal-Mart wherever youare (not in the US), but in the infant section they haveabunch of rattles and keys and things for $1.00 each. Phonebooks,cardboard, paper bags, cardboard boxes with shredded paper in them fordigging, those chunky legos, bottle caps, popsicle sticks, and thosebig, lightweight outdoor children's play-balls are all big hits thatmay be laying around your house

 

[Bunnys_rule63]

For homemade toys try filling a large cat sizedlitter tray or another large boxup with soil and putting itinWill's run to dig in, it's my girls favourite toy! Diggingin it is great exercise for them, they certainly enjoy itandit's free!

 

[pinksalamander]

No Jess we don't have Walmart But i do loveit. When i went to Idaho i spent so much time there and bought all mystuff for school. I'll go to some of the pound shops and see what theyahve. Mothercare is the only baby store in my town and its kindaexpensive!

 

[aeposten]

That hutch is amazing! I bet Will will have a great time in it.

-Amy

 

[pinksalamander]

The picture of the hutch above makes it looksignificantly smaller than it does in my garden, i think its all thatopen space around it Infact, when i tried to take a picture of minei couldn't get far away enough to take a full picture. That's how bigit is! So i took a few pics as far away as i could and one down thesteps so you can see how big it is in realtion to my patio!

As far away as i could get:

From the top steps:

Mummy i love my new hutch!:

I've come up with a great plan too... because i'm making this hutch formy product design (hopefully, still havn't got the go ahead!) we havethis pretty useless gap down the back fo the house. Its really long andgoes the whoel span of our house but there is a rockery right there soyou can only really walk down it and turn around and come back. We usedto sue it for junk but last night when building the hutch we cleared itall out so now there is only some weird.. carry-wheely thing:?and Will's old hutch. The plan i came up with is to build asort of square "high-rise" Rabbit Castle to go here that i can attach arun on the front for a small dwarfy wabbit, maybe a little bunny whocan't be rehomed because he doesn't get along with other bunnies orsomething (i think there is only space for one rabbit comfortably ).I hope this will work!

P.S it smells GORGEOUS!

 

[Jess_sully]

The hutch looks great. I'm sorry that you don'thave a Wal-Mart near you I buy lots of cat, dog, and baby toys forbunnies there! You could try something like a dollar store. Do youhave anything like Target or K-Mart there? Those are useful, too.Regular baby stores will sell toys for a lot, you're right. I wouldn'teven bother with that unless it's a last resort.

I'm a bit worried about the smell, though... because the phenols arereally bad for bunnies. Hopefully it'll go away soon! (Although I'msure it smells wonderful to us humans). Oh, and here's a tip for you:if the floors are wood (and they look like they are to me) they'llabsorb urine and bacteria and be really hard to clean. You could buysome lineoleum for really cheap and cover the floors so they are easyto wipe down and clean, and they'll stay odor-free. Or, as a lastresort, some of that stuff that goes on cuboards to seal them, it'ssort of like adhesive wax paper? That would work well, too, althoughyou can't just hose it off like you could with the lineoleum, you couldwipe it down easily.

 

[pinksalamander]

Yeah i thought about that. We have some linoleumsomewhere.. i'm going to paint the inside of the hutch white (i didthis with my last one, the rescues idea) it opens them up SO MUCH andit looks alot nicer! We don't have K-Mart or anything. Shops like thathere are places like Wilkinsons but there are none near me (i live inthe kinda "rich" part of the UK, although there are people around a farlot richer than me!). We have a highstreet shop called Poundstretcherthat i got all my trellises to make Will's run from so i will try therefor some stuff.

P.S yes i'm worried about the smell too. It says its made of animalfriendly wood and treated with special wood stain to reduce.. soemthing(i forget). I suppose they can make suggestions but they can'tblatently LIE on the packaging eh?