GrahamL
Wise Old Thumper
Well, decided i'd start a thread on this. I like to keep a history of any project i do, be it work wise or personal. Pictures and words so i can always go back and see how i did something if i need something similar at a later date.
So here goes...
Biscuit's current pen is a little shy of 6ft (long) x 2.5ft (wide) x 2ft (high) with his 4ft hutch with no door on. I've tried taken the hutch out, but he seems to get really twitchy that its not there, so its back again!
2/8/2010
I've ordered his new 8 panel 61cm x 61cm pen from Amazon (but from Canine Concepts - Good deal on it, £34.99)
3/8/2010 (Morning)
It's arrived. So excited!
I'll be building it tonight hopefully and re-organising the lounge so his area is better laid out. Will post pic's tomorrow once i've built it.
Update (Evening): cleaned the area of the living room the pen was in, hoovered the carpet, cleaned out the hutch and gave fresh veggies. By the time i'd finished, it was too late to take piccies, so i'll take some tomorrow. Just wanted Biscuit to settle in and get comfy. He seemed to get on okay, just hope the disruption doesn't mess up his litter training...he's been so good for 4 months!
I'm really impressed with this first stage, its now a 4x4ft pen rather than the old one, which i have to add, i mis-measured and it was 5x2.5x2 but with the hutch in there made it very small indeed with not enough room to hop around in. The new pen alone is so much bigger, he's been bounding around for a while but i've gone to bed now and it's quietened down so im guessing he's resting too.
Next stage is extending the open door area using my existing pen so he has free-range into the 14ft x 3ft hall way. I work from home, so he always has company during the day and this will let him have to much more space. Will post another update tomorrow...
4/8/2010
Well, after this mornings panicky moments of Biscuit not doing anything toilet related, i've finally managed to take some pictures of the pen in place, before i do anything else. Leaving him to get used to it for a couple of days and free-ranging in the living room when we are there before i extend into the hallway for during the day free-ranging!
Pics as of about half an hour ago...
Standing in the hallway that i'll be extending into..
From the other side of the room...you can see the hallway i'll be extending into...
From infront and above...
Biscuit's response this afternoon when i brought in a tiny piece of banana...
I know it's not as glamourous as lots of the homes on the forums, but it's the best i can do right now as it's rented accomodation and it's not all that big.
Will try and extend it in a few days to the hall way.
Any comments and constructive critiscism are welcome
5/8/2010
I've made a short temporary extension just into the hallway, using the old pen. It's only temporary until i can work out how to extend it better into the whole hallway (14ftx3ft - but maybe 10ft x3ft to allow me to get to the front door). I just want him to get used to not being in the pen and having a different flooring with different smells and views. Pictures below;
Again, this is only temporary until Biscuits accustomed to the flooring and smells/sounds/views etc.
Again, any ideas/comments are still welcome.
5/8/2010 Update: Afternoon
Well, that didn't go too well did it?
It just wasn't clear enough and there wasn't really enough space and the area isn't as bunny safe as i'd of hoped, the floor is just too slippy for him, so i've taken the idea of the hall way out of my mind for now.
As a semi-permanent solution, i've now simply extended his pen into our living room for during the day roaming. Pictures are below.
This does over double his daily roaming space but it wasn't what i wanted. Do you think its okay? You can see the space he has in comparison to the size of him.
I'm not really sure where to go from here, the hall way was my best hope, but dont think it's viable now.
Ideas anyone?
6/8/2010
Okay, we seem to have a fairly happy bunny!
He seemed to really enjoy having the extra space yesterday during the day to run around in, i went downstairs at about 4:30pm and he was running around like a maniac with occasional binkies and then did a flop over his cornflakes box!
I'm thinking this is a good sign!
Free-ranged all of last night from 5:30pm -> 11:00pm in the living room with the pen pieces as mentioned previously and discussed in other posts on the thread - he was very affectionate last night and spent a lot of time with us on the floor and on the sofa...without pooping or weeing - first time ever!! I was so happy!
I think i'm happy with the project now, so think it might be time to start having a little look around to find out information on bonding and to see if the space i have created is big enough for two (should really have looked at this before, shouldnt i?) before i start looking for a play mate.
6/8/2010 - Update 11:40AM
Houston, we have a problem!
Biscuit has decided that today is going to be the day when he does his best to test out how strong his back legs are...and found that he's actually alot stronger and bouncier than both and and i thought.
i heard a scuffle so rushed down stairs, and there he was, bold as brass, hopping around the hall way and kitchen...not in his pen! Picked him up and put him back in and he flopped immediately, clearly too much excercise!
I've just sat there and watched him for a few minutes and i can see how he's getting out. Next to the pen is the sofa, he's jumping up the pen and scrabbling onto the side of the hutch, onto the sofa and then down / round. I've temporarily put some cardboard boxes from the pens up the side to stop, but just watched him again as he tried to get on top of the hutch and he fell and landed sideways across his litter tray. Was so scared as he didnt move for a few seconds but he's up and bounding around again now.
What do i do?! I've given him all this extra space and now its causing me more problems. Feel a bit upset at the moment, mainly as i was scared he'd hurt himself, but partially as i feel like i've made him unhappy some how.
I can only think that removing the hutch is the next thing to do...but i dont know if thats for the best or not as he uses it to hide, eat his pellets and drink from and has since he was 8 weeks old.
RU'ers, i need your help!
9/8/2010
I hadn't bought a sheet or covered it over yet, at 7:40am on Saturday i was awoken to a loud thumping noise. Fearing that maybe someone had broken in or something, i ran down the stairs and to my surprise, there was a lovely fluffy bunny sat on top of his hutch, stamping in disgust / fear! Biscuit had managed to jump ~2.5feet and was on top of his hutch. He couldn't get down though, scaredy cat! So i picked him up and put him back in the pen.
That was it, so i bought a king sized sheet at the weekend and a packet of pegs. Very happy with myself, Biscuit thinks its a game to try and reach it, silly thing! That said, it seems to be working - no escape attempts since and i got a lay in on Sunday morning ! Woop!
Pics of it as of about an hour ago...
Next will be to remove the hutch as its doing my head in.
What can i use to give him some kind of cover, other than his pet carrier, which he hates, as he associates it with being taken to the vets! I can try it though once the hutch is out.
12/8/2010
Hopefully, final update!
Biscuit's pen is now hopefully complete! The 4x4 is covered by the sheet, the hutch has been removed and this morning, i put an additional 4x2 ft using the spare pen pieces onto the front and covered the top with remaining 2x pen pieces and the remainder of the king sized sheet.
I'm quite chuffed actually, and Biscuit appears to be too!
He's snoozing at the mo, but here is the hopefully finished article...
What do you think? Is it okay? I know its nothing special, but i'm really happy with myself
16/08/2010
Haven't posted the final outcome. After much deliberating and working out hows best to do things, this is how it stays during the day, from 8am to 5pm.
It is basically an 'L' shape.
Dimensions (not to scale, obviously!)
Thats approx 35 sq feet of space. I know its not massive, but it's the best i can do really.
It's enough he can run round like a maniac though and has plenty of toys to play with.
What do you think?
So here goes...
Biscuit's current pen is a little shy of 6ft (long) x 2.5ft (wide) x 2ft (high) with his 4ft hutch with no door on. I've tried taken the hutch out, but he seems to get really twitchy that its not there, so its back again!
2/8/2010
I've ordered his new 8 panel 61cm x 61cm pen from Amazon (but from Canine Concepts - Good deal on it, £34.99)
3/8/2010 (Morning)
It's arrived. So excited!
I'll be building it tonight hopefully and re-organising the lounge so his area is better laid out. Will post pic's tomorrow once i've built it.
Update (Evening): cleaned the area of the living room the pen was in, hoovered the carpet, cleaned out the hutch and gave fresh veggies. By the time i'd finished, it was too late to take piccies, so i'll take some tomorrow. Just wanted Biscuit to settle in and get comfy. He seemed to get on okay, just hope the disruption doesn't mess up his litter training...he's been so good for 4 months!
I'm really impressed with this first stage, its now a 4x4ft pen rather than the old one, which i have to add, i mis-measured and it was 5x2.5x2 but with the hutch in there made it very small indeed with not enough room to hop around in. The new pen alone is so much bigger, he's been bounding around for a while but i've gone to bed now and it's quietened down so im guessing he's resting too.
Next stage is extending the open door area using my existing pen so he has free-range into the 14ft x 3ft hall way. I work from home, so he always has company during the day and this will let him have to much more space. Will post another update tomorrow...
4/8/2010
Well, after this mornings panicky moments of Biscuit not doing anything toilet related, i've finally managed to take some pictures of the pen in place, before i do anything else. Leaving him to get used to it for a couple of days and free-ranging in the living room when we are there before i extend into the hallway for during the day free-ranging!
Pics as of about half an hour ago...
Standing in the hallway that i'll be extending into..
From the other side of the room...you can see the hallway i'll be extending into...
From infront and above...
Biscuit's response this afternoon when i brought in a tiny piece of banana...
I know it's not as glamourous as lots of the homes on the forums, but it's the best i can do right now as it's rented accomodation and it's not all that big.
Will try and extend it in a few days to the hall way.
Any comments and constructive critiscism are welcome
5/8/2010
I've made a short temporary extension just into the hallway, using the old pen. It's only temporary until i can work out how to extend it better into the whole hallway (14ftx3ft - but maybe 10ft x3ft to allow me to get to the front door). I just want him to get used to not being in the pen and having a different flooring with different smells and views. Pictures below;
Again, this is only temporary until Biscuits accustomed to the flooring and smells/sounds/views etc.
Again, any ideas/comments are still welcome.
5/8/2010 Update: Afternoon
Well, that didn't go too well did it?
It just wasn't clear enough and there wasn't really enough space and the area isn't as bunny safe as i'd of hoped, the floor is just too slippy for him, so i've taken the idea of the hall way out of my mind for now.
As a semi-permanent solution, i've now simply extended his pen into our living room for during the day roaming. Pictures are below.
This does over double his daily roaming space but it wasn't what i wanted. Do you think its okay? You can see the space he has in comparison to the size of him.
I'm not really sure where to go from here, the hall way was my best hope, but dont think it's viable now.
Ideas anyone?
6/8/2010
Okay, we seem to have a fairly happy bunny!
He seemed to really enjoy having the extra space yesterday during the day to run around in, i went downstairs at about 4:30pm and he was running around like a maniac with occasional binkies and then did a flop over his cornflakes box!
I'm thinking this is a good sign!
Free-ranged all of last night from 5:30pm -> 11:00pm in the living room with the pen pieces as mentioned previously and discussed in other posts on the thread - he was very affectionate last night and spent a lot of time with us on the floor and on the sofa...without pooping or weeing - first time ever!! I was so happy!
I think i'm happy with the project now, so think it might be time to start having a little look around to find out information on bonding and to see if the space i have created is big enough for two (should really have looked at this before, shouldnt i?) before i start looking for a play mate.
6/8/2010 - Update 11:40AM
Houston, we have a problem!
Biscuit has decided that today is going to be the day when he does his best to test out how strong his back legs are...and found that he's actually alot stronger and bouncier than both and and i thought.
i heard a scuffle so rushed down stairs, and there he was, bold as brass, hopping around the hall way and kitchen...not in his pen! Picked him up and put him back in and he flopped immediately, clearly too much excercise!
I've just sat there and watched him for a few minutes and i can see how he's getting out. Next to the pen is the sofa, he's jumping up the pen and scrabbling onto the side of the hutch, onto the sofa and then down / round. I've temporarily put some cardboard boxes from the pens up the side to stop, but just watched him again as he tried to get on top of the hutch and he fell and landed sideways across his litter tray. Was so scared as he didnt move for a few seconds but he's up and bounding around again now.
What do i do?! I've given him all this extra space and now its causing me more problems. Feel a bit upset at the moment, mainly as i was scared he'd hurt himself, but partially as i feel like i've made him unhappy some how.
I can only think that removing the hutch is the next thing to do...but i dont know if thats for the best or not as he uses it to hide, eat his pellets and drink from and has since he was 8 weeks old.
RU'ers, i need your help!
9/8/2010
I hadn't bought a sheet or covered it over yet, at 7:40am on Saturday i was awoken to a loud thumping noise. Fearing that maybe someone had broken in or something, i ran down the stairs and to my surprise, there was a lovely fluffy bunny sat on top of his hutch, stamping in disgust / fear! Biscuit had managed to jump ~2.5feet and was on top of his hutch. He couldn't get down though, scaredy cat! So i picked him up and put him back in the pen.
That was it, so i bought a king sized sheet at the weekend and a packet of pegs. Very happy with myself, Biscuit thinks its a game to try and reach it, silly thing! That said, it seems to be working - no escape attempts since and i got a lay in on Sunday morning ! Woop!
Pics of it as of about an hour ago...
Next will be to remove the hutch as its doing my head in.
What can i use to give him some kind of cover, other than his pet carrier, which he hates, as he associates it with being taken to the vets! I can try it though once the hutch is out.
12/8/2010
Hopefully, final update!
Biscuit's pen is now hopefully complete! The 4x4 is covered by the sheet, the hutch has been removed and this morning, i put an additional 4x2 ft using the spare pen pieces onto the front and covered the top with remaining 2x pen pieces and the remainder of the king sized sheet.
I'm quite chuffed actually, and Biscuit appears to be too!
He's snoozing at the mo, but here is the hopefully finished article...
What do you think? Is it okay? I know its nothing special, but i'm really happy with myself
16/08/2010
Haven't posted the final outcome. After much deliberating and working out hows best to do things, this is how it stays during the day, from 8am to 5pm.
It is basically an 'L' shape.
Dimensions (not to scale, obviously!)
Thats approx 35 sq feet of space. I know its not massive, but it's the best i can do really.
It's enough he can run round like a maniac though and has plenty of toys to play with.
What do you think?
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