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Indoor pen for baby mini lops

tjc

New Kit
Hi there - I’ve got a couple of baby mini lop buns (currently 9weeks old). They have a large house in the lounge and eventually they’re going to free range in the lounge, but initially I want to pen off part of the room while they are toilet-training etc. I was going to get a dog pen like a lot of other people, but I’m worried that the buns might be able to either squeeze through the gaps between the bars and escape or get stuck. Does anyone have any experience of pens/runs that are suitable for baby buns? Or can you suggest what sort of maximum sized gap between the bars I should be looking for?
Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Teresa
 
Sadly rabbits have died by getting their heads caught in puppy panels.
If you go ahead with this plan you need to use a galvanized wire mesh on the inside (rabbit side) of the puppy panels. The wire mesh can be cable tied to the puppy panel.
The other thing to bear in mind, the minimum recommended size for the indoor rabbit pen is 64' square feet. You will need two puppy pens joined together to achieve this.
We use the wire meshed double puppy pen for our buns, with the addition of a no door dog crate that has a shelf fitted to give an additional level.
Richard

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Some use C&C cages. Please check the sex of your babies regularly ie weekly due to baby Rabbits being difficult to sex accurately.
 
Puppy panels are very useful for sectoning off part of a room (and to protect anything that may get chewed). If the bar gaps are too wide, you can temporarily use some wire mesh (such as cheap, small hole chicken wire) on the inside of the run, although I don't think I've ever needed to. Dog crates, baby gates and wire runs can have wider gaps which may cause problems with tiny buns (I've got that problem at the moment) - so check those if you use them, but puppy panels seem to have smaller gaps. Make sure they can't get their heads stuck, whatever you use.

They will be able to jump over 2' high panels - so either get 3' tall panels or be prepared to put on a 'roof' eg peg on a sheet or some fine garden mesh to deter them from getting out - and keep obstacles away from the perimeter that they could use to climb on. Monitor them closely to make sure the setup is safe.
 
We have a Billy bo easy pen. Its a concertina style, so you can choose what shape to make it into, rather than a rigid square or rectangle.

The bar gaps are 4cm wide and I have Netherland Dwarves, which are teeny. They have never tried to squeeze through those gaps, and the metal is really strong. I can't bend it! However if you want to get extra safe, please attach mesh as others have suggested. If I had baby buns again, I probably would!

We are lucky that ours never jumped the pen, its only 61cm tall!!!! I know they can jump that high, because I've witnessed them clearing the sofa and landing on the top! I think it just depends on the buns though, they definitely do taller pens.

We only use our pen now for herding the buns into the pet carrier [emoji1787][emoji1787][emoji1787].

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