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My buns are coming inside - setup advice

Ok so my 2 nethies are going to be house bunnies. Is this pen ok for them both?

http://www.justcages.co.uk/products/doggie-solutions-puppy-pens

I have a pen which is the same size, however it cannot be made into different shapes and the octagonal shape is too big to stay in my room permenantly.

I was hoping to use lino to protect my carpet and have towels/fleeces over the top as Marley wont hop on smooth floors :roll:

Should this set up work ok? Or will i need a dog crate attached? I could always attach one at a later date if necessary.

Any advice/ideas would be much apreciated as i dont want my room to look like a hutch! :lol:

ETA: They will free range when im home :)
 
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I used one of those when I had indoor buns. I did attach it to a dog crate though and they had free range time too. I think on its own its probably a bit small.

I had lino to protect the carpets and it worked fine
 
Sorry :wave:

Yes, how much free range time they will have depends on how easy my room is to bunny proof.

They will free range whenever im at home though :) and hopefully all day if my room is safe enough.

I used one of those when I had indoor buns. I did attach it to a dog crate though and they had free range time too. I think on its own its probably a bit small.

I had lino to protect the carpets and it worked fine

Can i ask why you no longer have indoor buns? not being nosy, just wondering if its due to a particular aspect that i should be considering.
 
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Sorry :wave:

Yes, how much free range time they will have depends on how easy my room is to bunny proof.

They will free range whenever im at home though :) and hopefully all day if my room is safe enough.

Personally I think it will be fine as long as they get plenty of free range time. You may have to wait for someone with more information than me :lol:
 
Sorry :wave:

Yes, how much free range time they will have depends on how easy my room is to bunny proof.

They will free range whenever im at home though :) and hopefully all day if my room is safe enough.



Can i ask why you no longer have indoor buns? not being nosy, just wondering if its due to a particular aspect that i should be considering.
I moved house and dont have the space anymore. I was originally fostering so it was great for keeping fosters away form my own buns. Albert had to come and live in when he got sore feet and was a destructive little horror!! Fudge on the other hand was an angel inside, he never chewed anything and went back to his room to use his litter tray

Are your buns having a whole room to themselves? If so you could put the around the edge of the room to protect your walls. You might need to put cardboard between the pen and the walls to make sure sneaky teeth dont get near your skirting boards!

A lot of people use the nic cubes which are fairly cheap and easy to make into a pen. There are lots of fab pics of indoor set ups in housing and in photos which will inspire you
 
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I moved house and dont have the space anymore. I was originally fostering so it was great for keeping fosters away form my own buns. Albert had to come and live in when he got sore feet and was a destructive little horror!! Fudge on the other hand was an angel inside, he never chewed anything and went back to his room to use his litter tray

Are your buns having a whole room to themselves? If so you could put the around the edge of the room to protect your walls. You might need to put cardboard between the pen and the walls to make sure sneaky teeth dont get near your skirting boards!

A lot of people use the nic cubes which are fairly cheap and easy to make into a pen. There are lots of fab pics of indoor set ups in housing and in photos which will inspire you

thanks webbkath :wave:
ill have a look.
 
We have the same sized pen for our nethies but we use it opened out against walls, so the overall space is about double. Some of their floor space is taken up by storage, but I'd say overall they still have about 50 % more floor space than the pen alone. I know if you work on the same guidelines as for hutches then mine still don't theoretically have enough space and I'm currently working on extending upwards for them.

They do seem ok as they are, but I wouldn't want to see them in anything smaller. I'm no expert though! Sorry - that's not a very definitive answer!
 
We have the same sized pen for our nethies but we use it opened out against walls, so the overall space is about double. Some of their floor space is taken up by storage, but I'd say overall they still have about 50 % more floor space than the pen alone. I know if you work on the same guidelines as for hutches then mine still don't theoretically have enough space and I'm currently working on extending upwards for them.

They do seem ok as they are, but I wouldn't want to see them in anything smaller. I'm no expert though! Sorry - that's not a very definitive answer!

Ive just had my tape measure out and i see what you mean, but i could buy 2 extra panels and it would double its width and still fit in the space i made for them :)

Just had another thought, instead of lino or tarp, what do you think about rubber matting? Marley will be able to hop a lot better then, but i guess their hair will stick to it when they moult :lol:
 
Aargh - so sorry! Please ignore what I said about the size - we do have the same size pen, but I just noticed this morning that we only used 5 panels against the walls and have taken the other three out! So in total it's probably about the same size as the whole thing would be.

Duh - I'm such a ditz. Sorry.:oops:
 
On its own I would suggest it is too small. Especially as nethies can be very active (I have one and she is bonkers!!). I would see if you could bun proof your room, and then instead of the pen buy a dog crate that could act as their home base. That would probably be the easiest set up.

I have my buns in my room. We have used NIC grids to block off the area under my bed (so they can't get underneath). Pen panels/NIC grids are great for blocking off areas you don't particularly want them to go. My two have a 6ftx2.5ft NIC cage as their home base. The only reason it is so big, is that the cage is 3 levels high and the upper two levels are home to 2 guinea pigs, and 3 guinea pigs. If I didn't have the pigs, and just had the buns I would use a dog crate instead as it is smaller and doesn't take up so much space in my room!!

As for flooring. Are your two toilet trained? Mine are, so we haven't actually covered the carpet. Inside their cage though, we have used plus bathroom mats with a rubber backing. These have worked brilliantly.
 
Aargh - so sorry! Please ignore what I said about the size - we do have the same size pen, but I just noticed this morning that we only used 5 panels against the walls and have taken the other three out! So in total it's probably about the same size as the whole thing would be.

Duh - I'm such a ditz. Sorry.:oops:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

:x You just cost me an extra £20!!! ;)

:lol: It doesnt matter anyway. The extra 2 panels will make the space 6x4 if i choose to put them in, and if i dont then they will still come in handy if i need to seperate them for whatever reason.

Im so excited. Im going to have to move all of my bedroom furniture around, i hope theres enough space for me to live hapily now! :lol: As everyone else has had their room decorated, ive ended up with all of their bits of junky furnuture. Ive somehow managed to put it all to good use, but my room looks like a 2nd hand furniture shop :( :lol:

Ive got it all planned out in my head, and everything has got its space apart from the coffee table and three bedside tables (YES THREE!! :lol:)

I will probably give the buns the coffee table as a shelf, ill use one bedside table but then theres another 2 with nowhere to go! :?

Sorry im babling now, it would be so much easier if i had some help!
 
On its own I would suggest it is too small. Especially as nethies can be very active (I have one and she is bonkers!!). I would see if you could bun proof your room, and then instead of the pen buy a dog crate that could act as their home base. That would probably be the easiest set up.I have my buns in my room. We have used NIC grids to block off the area under my bed (so they can't get underneath). Pen panels/NIC grids are great for blocking off areas you don't particularly want them to go. My two have a 6ftx2.5ft NIC cage as their home base. The only reason it is so big, is that the cage is 3 levels high and the upper two levels are home to 2 guinea pigs, and 3 guinea pigs. If I didn't have the pigs, and just had the buns I would use a dog crate instead as it is smaller and doesn't take up so much space in my room!!

As for flooring. Are your two toilet trained? Mine are, so we haven't actually covered the carpet. Inside their cage though, we have used plus bathroom mats with a rubber backing. These have worked brilliantly.

im currently litter training them properly, although their reasonably good anyway.

I cant allow them to free range when im not in the house. We have dogs and leaving the buns in a dog crate if im doing a 9-5 day at college isnt suitable. My senior dog is excellent with the buns, however the puppy, obviously cant be trusted.

The dogs dont go upstairs but its for the buns own safety that they are penned during the day.

Im lucky my parents are letting me have them in, its taken me 2 years! I cant push the boundries too much, besides. What ive worked out is fine now ive made the alterations. Ive changed the pen im buying, although its the same size but higher sides and ive bought an extra 2 panels.
 
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I agree. A dog crate would only be suitable if they were free ranging 24/7. But as they can't - the set up you have decided on with the extra two panels is much better size wise. Its amazing what an extra 2 panels can do!!
 
Good luck to them and you! :wave:

Sounds like you are preparing for the change very thoroughly. My rabbit nephew was indoors last winter and wrecked havoc, but his owners didn't do much to bunny proof the room he was in. They also kept forgetting to shut doors so he wrecked havoc in other rooms too.
 
6 x 4 will be fine. we have 6.5 x 4.5 total and with storage in there too probably works out similar. Sorry for the confusion! Sounds like your buns are going to have a fab setup.

Your room sounds like my mum's entire house - she currently has 3 dining tables and 3 sets of nesting tables, 'cos she can't decide which ones to keep! lol.
 
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