Having loved and raised rabbits for many decades now it was time once again to add/replace some of the cages here... Not being happy with the creation of the carpenters who i had purchased cages from in the past i decided to design one that had the knowlege of rabbit habbits built in!
the above is the top part of the frame for the cage i designed and made (its upside down)...
the basic schematics are shown here:
Cage lenth is 8 foot with a solid divider at 48". this seperates the cage into two seperate living areas. each 48 " area has at the outside end a 12" area that has a partial divider leading to the main area (36" area) via a large "mouse hole". the 12" w has wood walls and a wood door this area is for the mothers to have their babies (nest area). The 36" w area has a fan gal welded wire front (1x2) with a wire door complete with edge guards. water bottles and food hoppers hang on the wire area, as do the hay racks and cage cards. My cage is 30" deep and 24" H inside. the legs put the cage 24" up off the ground.
that is the frame (upside down) on saw horses... the floor is framed seperatley. after frame is complete i added 1/3" plywood roof, back, and end caps and the solid divider between the 2 seperate living areas, and also the partial dividers that seperate wire fronted main area from nesting areas.1" x 1/2" 14 guage galfan wire is used ontop of flooring frame. plastic floor supports added with stay ties. stand is made much like a table, cage sits ontop of stand.
notice the roof is level instead of sloped. I did this so i can put wire cages stacked ontop of this cage for the kits once they are weaned & seperated from each other and their moms. Moms then go into their regular "dry" cages and the cages are then sanitized and occupied by the next bred does.
Here is my finished cage.
3 bucks on left, 3 does on right.
mom is in a cage by herself for now while i build more cages!
(so many bunnies born this spring and summer!)
btw, if you think i saved money by building this myself forget it! it took me weeks and hours and hours and tons of $ in hardware, wood and wire expenses... now i know why the cage making carpenters make such basic wrongly designed cages...doing it right takes lots of time and lots of money!
please dont ask if i can make one for you! i think this is the kind of project where ill need time to recover and forget how much work it was before i think ill build another...
ill stick with the 100% welded wire cage making for a while.
lol....
