So I'm a big dork, but

[dancerjodi]

I've been pondering what to do about a few issues we have with our den. One, we can't fit as many people in there as we'd like to. A large chunk of the room is taken up by our bunny cage.

Two, our bunny house smells. Our last one in Framingham had a similar problem - they would pee by accident outside of their litter box (spray over the edge) and the wood would get soaked. The smell would never go away. We replaced the wood floor a few times, but we couldn't do that every time it happened (it was a 4x6 foot sheet of plywood - awkward and pricy to replace all the time). When Brian built our bunny condo here we tried something different - the floors are plywood BUT its covered by carpet that's backed by rubber (it was a runner you'd use in an office building or something). Of course, they peed on it. The wood underneath is probably OK (i.e. that's why we got that kind of carpet) but now the carpet is smelly. Its going to be a pain to replace it too.

So I was thinking on the way home in the car - what if we sucked up the cost and bought one of those fancy bunny condos? We looked at this before, but you can't find them retail (and most rabbit cages have a wire bottom and/or are pretty small - that's the reason why I wouldn't go with a multi-level ferret cage). If we took out the bun house that's there we could move the couch back a few feet. We could put a purchased bun condo on the large wall that doesn't have anything against it now (assuming pushing the couch back would allow the space for this). Then we'd have more room in front of the couch for peeps, and we'd have a cage with a plastic bottom that would be easy to clean if they had an accident.

I start googling - drool http://www.leithpetwerks.com/ . I think one of the 2 level condos would serve our needs. We could also finally pet-proof the room and let them run around in it when we are around to supervise (utilizing the dutch door as we plannned to - closing the bottom to keep out the cat but having the top open to still be social if one of us was elsewhere in the house. These condos are expensive though - they also need to be shipped (and the thing weighs around 70 lbs). I'm wondering, for our noses (and my allergies) and for our movie night sake, should we just suck it up?

I need to discuss with Brian of course, but it gives something to research at least!

Comments

[tygerwillow.livejournal.com]

remember caveycages? you can use similar materials to make a cheap cage for the bunnies. though you'll want to make a shelf out of wood or something to support the bottom it if it will be on the wall.

i've ordered piggie food from leith petwerks before, they're nice.

Cavy stuff

[dancer.livejournal.com]

Since rabbits eat wood, having plastic sides or those kind of mat floors wouldn't really be good (we checked this out before, but much of those materials aren't really bunny friendly.

We're going to do some shopping around and see what's out there (again). Thanks for the info though :)

Re: Cavy stuff

[tygerwillow.livejournal.com]

hrmm. my piggies chew on wood but not coroplast. supposidly coroplast is too hard for guinea pig's tastes. i don't know about rabbits though. if you want i can give you a scrap piece of coroplast so you can see if they'll chew on it.

*points up*

[fieryredhead.livejournal.com]

I was just going to suggest talking to Tammy about this cause she's the woman woul would know!

The plastic stuff (can't remember the name but its on the cavycages site) was awesome and so easy to clean and you can cut it to your needs. I had a two level cage too. :)

[julishka.livejournal.com]

the boston pet show is this weekend. maybe you could browse stuff in person? (i've no idea of their bunny exhibitors)
http://www.osbornejenks.com/boston_pet.html

more info here:
http://www.showevent.com/shows/show_details.php?category=3&show_id=28

wrt the caveycages that tyg3r mentioned above, costco has large packs of the grid shelves and the packs have more panels than the target or walmart/kmart packages.

Grid shelves

[dancer.livejournal.com]

They are coated with rubber - not good for buns who chew everything :)

Re: Grid shelves

[julishka.livejournal.com]

ah well.

good luck on the bunny safe condo search!

[fidgetmonster.livejournal.com]

have you tried cleaning the carpet? there are some cleaning products specifically for pet odors, urine, feces, etc. i think the good one is called nature's miracle? they're all in the same section at pet stores. there might even be some you just spray on, making odor neutralisation easier. i'd give this option a try before going through the cost of replacing the carpet. this of course, may not work on bare plywood, because the liquid will soak in. but that disadvantage might also work to your advantage. i don't know how much bunnies pee, but if it's soaked through to the rubber, you may need to wipe underneath the carpet too for this to really work.

how do you litter train a bunny??

bunnies

[dancer.livejournal.com]

"have you tried cleaning the carpet?"

It only works with a carpet cleaner (and ours is broken - we've yet to return it). MOst of those products don't work too much with urine (believe me I know, havign a cat that likes to pee on things) :)

"how do you litter train a bunny??"

Ours just trained themselves a lot like cats. They only pee in the box . . . they'll leave little pellet poops all over the place (marking territory) but those are easy to clean and don't smell. Now rabbits that aren't fixed on the other hand - they spray all over like cats (and that's a smell that never comes out).

[jhimm.livejournal.com]

ask aiden
about the cages we had.
they're stackable,
so you can go up as many stories as you want
(we just had two)
and they had plastic bottoms
and came with "pee shields" for the wooden sides.