1. Less Expenisve and Easy Do-It-Yourself Options
make sure to pay CLOSE attention to the parts list instructions and use the how-to guide or you'll end up doing everything over again. Keep scrolling down to see photos of what previous adopters have built for their bunnies and also for photos of our FOSTER CAGES - which are the largest foster cages of any rescue!

----a. Our Step-by-Step Guide

Leith Petwerks -- the premier house rabbit accomodations, if money is no object, go for it!

Pen Setups (BinkyBunny.com) -- by the way Binkybunny.com is a really cool site so just check it all out!

KW Cages cages for the budget conscious, not luxurious, practical, not that aesthetic but a generous sized cage nonetheless. Click on Cages, then you'll see House Cages. The one on the bottom right is the ONLY acceptable one. If you can't afford that, consider the Cube Cages!

DOG CRATE

A large dog crate works just fine and you can easily add a shelf for a 2nd level but these tend to be expensive and it's just much less expensive to build a cube cage! There are two bunnies in here (medium sized Dutches). Also, it tends to be noisy when they're hopping around in these cages because of the plastic tray clanging on the metal bottom. Certain brands of these crates allow for two Cube grids to fit perfectly to make a shelf for perching (yes rabbits love to perch).

THE DOG HOUSE

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LESS EXPENSIVE AND EASY DO-IT-YOURSELF OPTIONS

All the models linked below were built by adopters for the rabbits they adopted from us. However, a couple of them are ones we built for our foster rabbits.

The Splasher Model: a Holland lop/Netherlands dwarf model

Minas Tirith: a foster tower

Buckyham Palace: Bucky's new palace

Las Vegas: a double foster condo

Lionhead Lair: condo for hippie dwarves

More Dwarf Houses

The Cider House: a Netherlands dwarf model

Mountain View Model: dwarf mix model

Waikiki Beach: foster setup for mom & litter

Drue's Townhome: townhome for a mini-lop & a dwarf

Starship Voyager: Star's luxury star cruiser

Even more photos

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THE SPLASHER MODEL

This was made for Splasher, Holland lop, and Colette, Netherland dwarf. A carpeting store manager just gave them the indoor/outdoor carpeting remnants!

THE MINAS TIRITH MODEL

This is one of our foster cage models, this one is a triple tower. It is 7' long or 6 grids and 2.5' high or 2 grids.

See how the green coroplast (corrugated plastic) can be folded into pans for the bottom? And they're washable and also catch the debris and keep it in. Strider here, is a 12lb bunny. Look how small he looks!

Above you can see all 3 levels.

This is Bucky on the bottom level of the triple foster tower. He is a really big mini-lop but has room to stand up on his hind legs on tippy toe and stretch out, absolutely critical to prevent hind leg atrophy. This foster tower is 7' long (or 6 grids) and 28" wide and tall (or two grids). The 4'x8' coroplast sheets are perfect for this size to fold into big, deep pans.

BUCKYHAM PALACE This is the palace Bucky's new mom made for him. Yay for Bucky! Note: you don't really need all those cable-ties but for sure, this house is earthquake proof.

LAS VEGAS

This is Tasha, Lucky and Octavia's model, similar to The Minas Tirith which Bucky lives in, it is only two levels. Octavia lives on the bottom (big black rabbit), and Tasha (silver marten) and Lucky (Netherlands Dwarf) live on the top level.

Lucky (white with hotot markings) can run up and down his luxurious 7' long habitat, not a cage, it's a habitat, it's a hotel! And like Bucky, above, Lucky can stand up on tippy toe and stretch out those powerful spring-loaded hind legs. He's looking over at another foster habitat just like his where Graham and Pepper occupy the bottom level and Strawberry somehow secured the entire top level all to herself.

Below: Octavia is a big 8lb. girl who enjoys her privacy and her new luxury garden-level habitat. Note: we still have to put supports for the level above, see how it sags? So we'll update the photo later.

LIONHEAD LAIR

This double decker is two cages on top of each other housing little dwarves (lionheads). You can see them sitting on their platform in each cage.

MORE DWARF HOUSES
Yet another dwarf sized cage.

THE CIDER HOUSE

This is Cider's house which he rules supreme.

He's a Netherlands Dwarf.

MOUNTAIN VIEW MODEL

This is Murphy and Matilda's pad. Murphy is an oversized dwarf seen to the right and Matilda is a black dwarf seen in the green pan on the left.

THE WAIKIKI BEACH MODEL
This is a great setup for raising litters of foster babies who are messy and to get them started on litter box training. These are 8 week old mini-lops, the pool is 5' wide and the ex-pen fits perfectly around it. It's also great for dwarves. They can run around in circles really fast if there is litter or carpeting on the floor for traction. You can only get the baby pools in spring and summer. Summer 2008 they were about $11 at Walmart. The dog pen is about $60-70.

DRUE'S TOWNHOME

This is Drue's new home which is split into two cages right now while he waits for his wife-to-be to get spayed and flush her hormones. You can see that you can be really creative with this type of setup. (Note: it is NOT safe to store plastic bags on top off the cage as you see here, bunnies WILL chew it and could ingest it and get an intestinal blockage)

STARSHIP VOYAGER

This is Star's luxury space cruiser, complete with 'observation deck.' Star is a great, big 10lb rabbit and this is wonderfully spacious habitat for her and she deserves it!

II. HOW TO GUIDE: OUR STEP-BY-STEP ASSEMBLY GUIDE. It's still under construction but this is a good start.

III. PARTS LIST:CUBE SHELVING from Bed, Bath & Beyond ($14.99 - go to store to buy, shipping is cost prohibitive, only available in grey). WalMart isn't currently carrying these grids. Target now is selling them (they have multi-color, black, pink, and purple, multi-color is least expensive) BUT be sure you get the ones with the small holes. Check this link for a comparison of the grid holes. The large hole ones are UNSAFE.

HEAVY DUTY cable ties (also called zip ties) rated at least 80lbs!!!!!! (you will need a LOT - hundreds - so cheapest to order online - some brands are not as good quality as others). Any lower weight rating is not strong enough, these will be 8" long but you just clip off the excess. If you are concerned about the resulting sharp edges, you can round them off with a Dremel, or just point them outwards away from the interior. I got my cable ties (also called zip ties) here.

DOWEL RODS (no wider than 1-1/4", depending on size of rabbit should be at LEAST 1" in diameter!!!) from Home Depot or Lowe's or a mom-and-pop lumber store (if there's any left) or 2x2's (can be hard to find sometimes) for shelf support that will fit through the grid holes but be strong enough to hold up the shelves, be sure to cable-tie the dowels to the shelves for extra support.Depending on the length of your cage, you may want to use T-shaped support for extra support over the usual parallel support - that is, having support rods lengthwise and widthwise as opposed to just lengthwise. THE POINT IS IT HAS TO SUPPORT THE SHELF ABOVE IT. If you can bend the dowel, it is not strong enough.

COROPLAST for flooring, white is the cheapest, get from a sign store, tell them you're not making a sign or they'll mark it up since they want to make your sign for you. Some rabbits will chew the coroplast unless you provide more fun chew toys. They like the noise it makes when they rip it, so give them something noisier to rip, like newspapers or a phone book.

Or use indoor/outdoor carpeting, like the Splasher Model above, but it's not that great because their fur sticks to it, use whatever you like, you can use linoleum remnants (they chew on this), cardboard with towels (they might pee on that).

Or use BERBER carpeting, if it's the washable kind. It's more costly than all the above but it's the longest lasting and least likely to be destroyed.My personal favorite is the coroplast because you can fold it into a deep pan which can be washed and disinfected with bleach and it also keeps the hay and dust bunnies from escaping (see Strider above in the green-bottomed cage). But I will be adding berber area rugs for lounging and enrichment.

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EVEN MORE PHOTOS with links to other sites about cube cages.

BUNNINGHAM PALACENotice the grass mats used for flooring - edible!

FUZZY TERMITES LARGE CONDO