NIC Cages Only-Now Closed

[tiabia0]

These cages are definately what I've been looking into. They look awesome!

What is the best thing to use for flooring?

My rabbits chew carpet so that's bad and they leave droppings wherever sometimes so I don't want poop stuck!

 

[aurora369]

You can use coroplast, peg board, linoleum... There's lots of choices.

I made a very elaborate bottom. I built a ply wood box thatfits just on the inside of the grids, I then glued lino to the entireinside of the box (bottom and all four sides) and sealed the jointswith calking.

I found some metal stripping used for dry walling that is bent to cover a corner and lined the top edge of the lino with it.

I love it, I haven't had problem yet. The buns areunable to chew the lino because it's such a flat surface (they've triedand failed miserably), they also can't get to the calking because it'sonly in the joints. Wipes up beautifully, and totally bunnysafe!

Here's a few pictures in case I totally confused you...

But, that was a rather long and elaborate process...

--Dawn

 

[JadeIcing]

I may do that for my two pigs.

 

[tiabia0]

I get it. Great idea! I'll see what I can do!

 

[aurora369]

This summer I might paint the outside of the box, but for now it works.

I came up with this idea as I was frustrated with thecoroplast. If I put in on the inside it would get chewed inno time, and if I put it on the outside it made the cage really hard toclean.

I noticed that the buns would only chew the coroplast from the topedge, so I figured if I could build something where the top edge wasprotected it would be perfect!

If I ever build another one, I'll take some step by step pictures.

--Dawn

 

[buck rogers]

I was cleaning Ella's cage last night and thought I'd take some pics of it to post.
Here it is after I put her clean flannel in,



And this is how we get in there to clean


And here it is all finished, with a little bunny inside ready for bed:bunnydance:

 

[Spring]

Oh Nice cage! I like that design . Looks roomy and homey .

Great cages everyone!

:great:

 

[JadeIcing]

Figured I would put my bonding cage here.

 

[Chris_Kewl]

Here is what the cage I made for our two dutch bunnies looks like:

It is a 3x2x2 without a ceiling. The bunnies are only 1/2 astall as one of the NIC squares and can reach the top if they are ontheir hind legs, so an open top was logical.

The bunnies love the hay feeder and it's great next to the litterbox. I taped down the litter box onto the coroplast so theycouldn't move it at all.

Because our bunnies are so small (yet they are fully grown) they neededsome assistance going up the ramp, so I devised this method.

Upstairs you will see their house, where they find time to bond andhave refuge from the outside world. There are some cardboardtubes there to play with. That is carpeting you see, so theycan stay warm and have a nice comfortable place to walk.

Here is the exit and the breakfast nook. We have an extra watering station and the bowl of pellets for the rabbits.

Well, that's my NIC condo, it took me 4 hours to make (1 of those hourswas cutting and sizing the coroplast) and it's a pretty good job to saythe least. I did learn that coroplast is the devil but itmakes cleanup so easy!

Chris

 

[BlueCamasRabbitry]

JadeIcing, Really nice bonding cage! I too haveone that is made out of NIC cubes but I don't have a picture of it andI don't have my camera right now. It had about 5 compartments when it'sall put together but right now it only has about two or three becausewe had to take it apart to build a cage for our little guy, Artie whenwe had no more room. I forget why, oh yeah cuz his baby brothers andsisters took his cage over. LOL. :bunnydance:

I am jealous of all your's cages because I always get so frustrated building mine, lol!

 

[Pipp]

here's the corner pen I whipped up for the new girls..

 

[buck rogers]

Pipp that's a really cool cage, I really like the design.

 

[Pipp]

:thanks:

It was my first try at building one. I was putting ittogether as a temp thing, figuring that when I learned how to do it,I'd make one for real. But I had it up in about 10 minutes,and it seemed to work, so ... :biggrin:



sas

 

[CheyAutRanch]

I FINALLY got my pictures online, I keptforgetting! I just quickly threw this one together, and will bemaking a second, bigger one soon (hopefully this week) for the otherbuns (who are currently outside in their hutch, but soon it will betooooo hot for that!)

I bought a neat, though not big, cage at Petsmart, you can see the woodbox that is part of the cage? So I built the NIC thing around it. Ileave the cage door open, so they have access to it if they want. Thereis a litter box in there, as well as one "outside." THere is a secondstory made from one NIC panel connected to the top of the cage... andanother NIC panel partially under the NIC shelf, and 1/2 size for easeof getting up top. Hope you can understand that and see it?

Please excuse the mess, had to move stuff out of the way for this! AndI hadn't yet attached their water bottle, I did that after I took thepics!

The door is 2 panels that meet at a corner. YOu can see the clips?Justto the left of Freckle in the bottompicture.They clip together to be closed. I didn't bothermaking a door out of the lower level of NIC panels as I can easily stepover those and into the "cage" area.

Jessi

 

[Weetwoo_89]

I love the idea. I have alot of NIC cage ideas. I jsut want to make sure they aresturdy. Have you ever had a cage collapse? I would build acage out of something else in a heartbeat if it isn't safe. I know alotof you use them and they seem to hold well. But set my fears to rest,tell me if you think your cage is holding in your bunny or if yourbunny has escaped (Or heaven forbid, collapse).
<3, RaE

 

[naturestee]

They are very stable if you build themright. I use the connectors that come with them, then use zipties to strengthen them. I've never had stability problems,even in my big pens that don't have tops. Upper levels can bestrengthened by putting dowel rods underneath for addedsupport. Someone on here has a multilevel NIC cage for a 10lb bunny, and with the dowel rods for support she hasn't had anystability problems at all even with the big bunny jumping from level tolevel.

If you're worried about a bun escaping, make sure there is a top onit. Some rabbits will jump over a pen 2 cubes high, but notmany. A few rabbits will climb.

If you make a multi-level cage, build it so that the rabbit can onlyjump down one level at a time. Look at Trixie's cage for anexample. It just makes sure that the rabbit can'taccidentally fall down to far and hurt herself.

 

[Eve]

Hi Weetwoo_89! My NIC cage is 4 levels high andis very sturdy, even when my bunnies run at top speed up and down thelevels. I just useda LOTof cable ties. I have hadthe cage for two yearsand have never hadanyproblems with it.

 

[Weetwoo_89]

Thanks for the help guys. I feelbetter already. Now if I can only convince mommy dearest that I amready for this! It will be like going on a crusade. Lots of fighting,wounding, and dying. One side will be the victor (hopefully me).
<3, RaE

 

[Chickenlittle586]

Heyeveryone. Wow you all made some pretty awesome cages! I built my firstNIC today and i feel pretty darn proud :bunnydance:. Your cages gave mesome great ideas........i just need to figure out how i want to dothem. I'll put pictures up soon once i feel i've finally finished it!



Alicia

 

[jenfur427]

Here is the NIC cage my DBF and I built. It is3x3x2. We used zip ties and the connectors. On the floors we used thestick on tiles (for easy clean up) and have rugs on top of that so Vegadoesn't slip on the tiles. It has a four square grid on the top floor,and two steps leading up to that.