Indoor Housing

[xkellyx]

So, you may have seen my thread in the rabbit chat.

Im looking/ researching into rabbits as i'd love to get two indoor rabbits. I have a double bedroom which ideally i would like to half or make 3/4 for the rabbits, as it is my dressing room I will need a bit of the space for myself lol. If i go with the dog crate and pen option of housing, what are the ideal size pens and cages to you? Any links would be fab

Also, I have wooden skirting boards, how would I bun-proof these? I am in a rented property so don't really want a bill of replacing the skirting boards :lol:

And finally, if I make 3/4 of the room into housing for the buns, any ideas how I could partion it off?

 

[Aly&Poppy<3]

((Big edit ))

To protect skirting you can get these things called c&c cubes which would work fine I think You can get more for that price but I can't find them

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RABBIT-BU...et_Supplies_Small_Animals&hash=item3a7caa5583

But mine didn't and don't bother with chewing the skirting.

I used to have Poppy in a dog crate and pen but now she has free range of the bedroom with just a base for her litter tray as it took up so much room

Edit - This is it, just the middle area though, she has the whole room it's soooo much easier to clean and move around. Same with Leo who has his own room

Older pic -

Leo's room

So you don't need a crate or anything really

 

[Elena]

Have you looked at this? http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?304613-Indoor-Housing

There is lots of info and photos in there of people's setups. Is it only the dressing room part that you don't want them having access to? Could you put up a baby gate there and let them have the rest of the room?

My three have access to three upstairs rooms and they don't tend to nibble the skirting. Obviously it depends on the bunnies but I have more trouble with Nutmeg chewing on the wooden chair that's in there than the skirting! I have seen a very clever idea for protecting skirting, it was little shapes that stuck on to the skirting and created a kind of fence. I'll see if I can find the link.

Personally I found dog crates and pens real murder for cleaning. Everything got stuck in the gaps of the dog crate and the pen panels tend to move a lot and bunnies tend to chew on those types of things. I've seen Mini chewing on a dog crate when there was a door open the other end, they just want the obstacle moved. I've had all sorts of things and now they don't have any enclosure, just a meshed baby gate at the tops of the stairs and that's it. It's much easier as I just hoover or sweep.

ETA: This is what I meant...

 

[esupi]

If you can give them half the room, do they really need a dog crate? I'd probably just partition off that half of the room using NIC cubes or a puppy pen, and let them have the whole lot all the time - is there a reason they'd also need to be shut in a crate? The more open it is, the easier it will be to clean.

Skirting - my two have had the odd nibble, mostly when they were younger (pre-spay). You can always just sand/fill/paint over it though if it's just the odd nibble here and there. I guess if they really decide to destroy it then you might need to block it off somehow but I'd probably wait and see if it's going to be a problem before going to the trouble.

 

[xkellyx]

Thank you for the link Aly&Poppy.. just realised you're on a hamster forum im on

That pen is sooo cheap! I thought i'd be spending about £80 for a pen!

Elena- I have looked at the housing section, but wasn't sure on what sizes people were using. The room is 12ftx9ft so if I was to put up a baby gate it would have to be at the door, as the room is too wide to put a baby gate in the middle. I can't really put one at the door as I have a dog who has roam of the whole house and im sure she would be fine with them but I don't want to risk it. My wardrobe is a built in single door wardrobe, so pretty much a cupboard with a rail and shelves lol and then just a double bedroom. If i manage to partion 3/4 of the room off, what would be the best thing to have as a substitute of a dog crate? I wish I could let them have the whole room, but theres also a wooden set of drawers which has been painted so I wouldn't want them chewing that.

 

[Elena]

You can get pens which are made out of panels, the panels are designed to go at a particular angle but you can cable tie them together instead. Or there are mesh panels which I've used them in the past for a temporary small pen when bonding bunnies but I found are difficult to make up a big pen with.

Or could you put a protective pen around your chest of drawers? Would you be willing to post a photo? Sometimes it helps.

 

[Aly&Poppy<3]

Ahh I was going to ask when you said you had a 1m long hamster cage :lol:

I have 3 of those puppy pens

One small and 2 tall, never spent over £30 on any of them though

If you don't want a dog crate then I think an indoor cage 1m + would be best with the puppy pen attached and then plenty of time out of that or what Elena said, sometimes it's better to protect the things you have rather than contain the bunnies so they get full use of the space and you have in tact furniture

 

[xkellyx]

Those skirting things look really good!

I think im going to get a crate thing and open up to block off half the room- how you have done yours aly&poppy. I'm going to block off just enough room for my set of drawers, and they can have the rest of the room- so they'll have about 9ft x 9ft- will that be sufficient room for them? I will probably leave the skirting boards and see if they do anything to them- like you've all suggested. There aren't any wires that side of the room either which is good

esupi- I wasn't going to shut them in a cage :? I asked about the cage as I've seen a lot of people use the crates as a 'bed' type thing, but it was going to be left open all the time. I just wasn't sure what they would sleep in/on. But im guessing if I got a dog/cat bed like aly&poppy have, that would a good resting place for them?

 

[xkellyx]

I'll go take a picture of the room now, but it is nothing like how it will be when the bunnies are in.. ie at the minute its a storage room, but i'll post the picture in a few minutes and explain it with the picture lol.

Thanks guys

 

[Elena]

9x9 is 81 sq ft which is super :thumb: That's about the size of my bedroom which Mini and Mischa had for a few years until he died.

 

[xkellyx]

How can I upload a picture off my phone? Or do I need to do it through photobucket?

 

[Elena]

Yeah you need to upload to Photobucket first and then use the IMG code

 

[xkellyx]

wow, they took ages to upload..

This is the room from outside, so you can see where the door is to enter the room, and then the cream wall going all the way down to the bathroom, will be the length of there space, so I should be able to block off enough room for just the set of drawers, if I block off from just behind this door..

excuse the mess in the next 2 photos.. the room is being prepared for decorating lol. If i move the set of drawers to the left a bit more so that I can still open the wardrobe (door on the far left) then everything after the set of drawers will be blocked off the bunnies?

Again, please excuse the mess! But they will have all of that area.

 

[Elena]

I can see what you mean now I was envisaging a bed and furniture and all sorts

I think I would run a panel wall all the way round the door, drawers and tumble so that you can use them easily still and then that would be a fab space for bunnies :thumb:

Something like this... http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trixie-6243...7W/ref=sr_1_14?ie=UTF8&qid=1363617641&sr=8-14 This is what I have and I've used it for all sorts of things and I find it really useful. It has loops that you push a stake through but these don't allow a straight line but instead you can use cable ties. I've used it for bonding many times and also I use it every year outside (with constant supervision as obviously it's not secure enough). You'd probably have to fix it to the wall or furniture somehow so they wouldn't move it.

 

[xkellyx]

I forgot to say the green set of drawers won't be in there nor will the tumble dryer. Or if I kept the set of drawers I'd put them behind the door or even at a 90 degree angle of the other drawers so they'd basically back onto the pen. It sounds weird as I know its pretty much the same thing but I don't like the thought of them in a barred pen whereas if I can just block half the room off somehow I'd feel like they were in the room not in a pen? Not that, that makes sense lol

 

[Elena]

I forgot to say the green set of drawers won't be in there nor will the tumble dryer. Or if I kept the set of drawers I'd put them behind the door or even at a 90 degree angle of the other drawers so they'd basically back onto the pen. It sounds weird as I know its pretty much the same thing but I don't like the thought of them in a barred pen whereas if I can just block half the room off somehow I'd feel like they were in the room not in a pen? Not that, that makes sense lol

You'd be using less panels that way too. They do a smaller pen as well but I'm not sure if it's shorter or not and they might jump it!

 

[xkellyx]

Is 3ft ideally the minimum height of a panel? Think I might need to get a small set of steps to get my small self in the pen, I'm only 5ft myself haha! Can you see in the last picture right at the back of the room there is a window ledge an radiator under it, will this need to be covered or will they be ok with it?

 

[Elena]

Is 3ft ideally the minimum height of a panel? Think I might need to get a small set of steps to get my small self in the pen, I'm only 5ft myself haha! Can you see in the last picture right at the back of the room there is a window ledge an radiator under it, will this need to be covered or will they be ok with it?

I wouldn't want to go any lower than that just in case they jumped it! If you made it so it was able to come away from the wall you could just move it when you need to get in.

They might jump on the window ledge, one of mine has attempted it before because something was underneath that he used as a step up. I would avoid putting anything under there that they can jump from and see how it went.

 

[Kermit]

You could turn the drawers so that they face you as you come in the room, using them to part section off the room, then just put a puppy pen / panels from there to the other wall. So you have the front section to get ready in. If that makes sense!

I have never had buns biting my skirtings, I just have mine in their own room with just the cables for my PC hidden.

Oh, and my two don't bother about the radiatior either, I just have it on a low heat.