The crate was their home until I could afford to get something better.
But because the bunnies were going to be outside during the day and inside at night, the crate wasn’t too bad for the short time.
RapidMesh 91 x 56 x 63cm Two Door Pet Carrier
To accommodate their night time sleeping arrangements, I bought a pet crate. The crate was quite good. It has a side door with two latches, and an end door with two latches. It comes folded in a cardboard box, and is easy to assemble (less than 1 minute). The floor is a large black plastic tray that is easy to clean. The tray can be removed through a little slit in the base, once you remove the clip.
Litter Training
They are easy to litter train and most of the time if their mother was litter trained, they will learn it from her. You can train them to use a litter box by making sure their litter box only has hay in it, bunnies eat hay when they poop. It forces them to find that one place to feel comfortable with. They can also learn to be litter trained by other rabbits, so if you’re intending to bond rabbits together, have them in pens next to each other and they will teach each other.
If you want your bunnies to be free-roaming (running around inside all day), you will have to spend the time to litter train them because they have a larger space to call home. But even if they are free-roaming, you can pop them into a crate and they train themselves within a week. That way you can then remove their litter tray and put it anywhere around the house and they should find it (you may have to show them where you put it first).
Buttons and Cotton came litter trained, but I didn’t realise that until later.
I didn’t know to ask when I picked them up.
The only problem with that crate is that the sides of the plastic tray aren’t quite tall enough (about 1.5cm tall). So when a bunny flicks food or litter around the cage, it can mess up the room because it goes over the sides.
To combat that, I cut up the crate cardboard box and used the large box-sides as a platform to put the crate on.
I also had some spare black plastic that I laid on the cardboard so when Buttons sprayed the room, the plastic caught it. I made sure that the plastic was much larger than the crate, easily by about 30-40cm extra on each side, that way I could use clothes pegs to make corners to collect any flying debris.
Be aware that bunnies will nibble everything, including the plastic. They most likely won’t swallow it and will leave it in their crate. If they do swallow it, they can get clogged up and won’t be able to poop. That means it is a trip to the vet, or a terrible case of GI status that cannot be fixed easily.
Don’t put the plastic in places that rabbits can get to, especially during the night when you can’t keep an eye on their behaviour.