Many people, regardless of age, want to take care of someone. But if everything is clear with adults, then for children the care is most often expressed in the desire to have a pet. Traditionally, kids ask for cats or dogs, but not all parents agree to this.
An excellent option for a pet will be an ornamental rabbit, whose handsome and unpretentious care can bribe on time. And in order to significantly save on the acquisition of everything necessary for keeping the animal at home, we offer you detailed instructions for creating a cage for a rabbit with your own hands.
General requirements for cages for ornamental rabbits
It does not matter whether you will buy a finished cage in a store or are you going to show your talents as a jack of all trades and collect a home for your rabbit with your own hands. In any case, you should be aware of the requirements that are put forward in both cases. 
So, the requirements for rabbit houses are as follows:
- One of the main rules is that the floor in the cell should not be slatted. Decorative rabbits have no pads on their paws, so pets will easily fall through the bars and get into the bottom tray, which serves as a toilet. To ensure comfort in the case of a slatted floor, you will need to cover a rug or lay boards to make moving the rabbit around the cage comfortable. But it is better to immediately choose a cage with the correct gender.
- When creating a cell or buying it, you need to pay attention to the material from which it is made. An important parameter of the cage is its strength, because rabbits gnaw on everything and can easily bite plastic rods.
- All surfaces in the rabbit's home should be environmentally friendly. So, it is unacceptable to cover the cage with lacquer or paint, because these are chemicals that can provoke poisoning from pets who love to chew on something very much.
- Be sure to use bedding to prevent the development of inflammatory processes on the hind legs of rabbits, which are more sensitive to hard surfaces. As a softener for the floor can act: sawdust or shavings torn into small pieces of paper or a rug. If you use sawdust, the cage must necessarily be equipped with weights along the side walls in order to prevent the substrate from raining.
Important! Newspapers cannot be used as bedding, since lead, which is a toxic substance, is added to the ink, and even a small dose of this chemical element is enough to cause irreparable consequences. Even for bedding is not recommended to use carpet, also containing harmful substances.
What is better to do
Let us dwell on those materials that are preferable to use when creating a cell with your own hands, and consider their positive and possible negative sides. 
Floor
Best for flooring suitable sheet of ordinary plywood or chipboard. If you want to make your pet's home as environmentally friendly as possible, then you should use a solid board (not glued, as the adhesive material is often toxic).
The wrong floor in the cage is one of the causes of poddermatitis in rabbits, that is why learn how to make the right floor for rabbits.
Metal nets or rods as a floor covering, as already mentioned, cannot be used - your pet simply cannot move along them. It is recommended to put a layer of sawdust over the wooden floor, which will be an excellent natural and environmentally friendly substrate for bedding.
So, there are several options for building materials that are suitable for cell flooring: wooden board, plywood, chipboard or OSB, plexiglass, plastic.
Solid wooden board has several advantages. over other materials, namely:
- durability and wear resistance;
- environmental Safety;
- non-slip coating;
- nice appearance (which is important when the cell is in your house).
Of the shortcomings of the board can be identified:
- the need for additional machining to remove nicks, burrs and other irregularities;
- in the absence of lacquering (and this cannot be done to ensure the safety of rabbits), the tree will still be traumatic, because driving a splinter on such a floor is easier than ever.
The rest of the wooden solid board will be an excellent natural material for the floor in the cell.Did you know? Decorative rabbits are not as simple as they seem. The growth rate of teeth in these pets is able to hit anyone - for a year, the front incisors grow 10 cm (and sometimes even more). Therefore, rabbits are constantly in need of solid food and special sharpener toys that help them maintain their teeth in a normal condition and normal size.
Chipboard or OSB will be alternative materials for flooring. They have about the same positive aspects, except for environmental safety, because in the composition of these building materials there are chemical adhesives, which moves chipboard and OSB to second place.
Plexiglas is also a very interesting and relatively inexpensive material. But its slippery coating will be poorly combined with the legs of fluffy animals, and therefore it is better not to use such material for the cage floor. It may be suitable for walls or ceilings, but not for floors.
Check out the breeds of ornamental rabbits.
Plastic has excellent characteristics in use, but it can not be attributed to environmentally friendly material, as it is the whole product of chemical processing. Although in the care of plastic there is no equal - it is very easy to clean it, and you will not have to remove the burrs from the tender legs of the rabbits.
Walls
If we talk about the material that is best suited for walls, the best solution would be wooden bars. They will serve as a good, durable and reliable frame. And from the inside they can be closed with a metal grid, which is sold in hardware stores. Such a grid will perform a restraining function so that the pet cannot walk freely around the apartment, and also provide ventilation, which is also very important for small fur animals. 
Another option for the walls will be Plexiglas, which we have already talked about before, but you will have to drill a lot of ventilation holes in it, and this will add extra work. Therefore, in choosing the optimal, safe and durable material for the walls, we recommend environmentally friendly solid wooden bars to which the metal mesh is attached.
Learn how to properly feed and feed ornamental rabbits.
How to make a cage with your own hands
Now let's look at all the intricacies of assembling a cage for decorative rabbits with your own hands.
Dimensions
The first thing to start with is to understand for yourself what size of cage you would like to make, because it is not at all necessary to be limited to a miniature space where the pet will be cramped and uninteresting. The house for your pet should meet all the demands of these small but agile clumps of wool. Dimensions of at least 1 m in length and about 45-60 cm in width are considered standard. But in such dimensions the rabbit will be cramped, and consequently, it will have to leave its cage every 3-4 hours to walk around the apartment and warm up. 
In any case, be guided by those sizes that you agree to allocate for your pet, as well as your own imagination. The house does not have to be large in size on the floor. It can be vertical and consist of several "floors" for entertainment and movement of the rabbit.
Tools and materials
For successful installation of a cage for a decorative rabbit at home, you need to prepare the necessary materials and tools. So, among the necessary tools you can include:
- hammer;
- nails;
- saw;
- self-tapping screws;
- scissors for cutting metal.
Learn more about feeding an ornamental rabbit: what you can feed and what not.
And from the building materials should be prepared:
- sheets of plywood, chipboard or other material of your choice;
- wooden bars;
- metal mesh;
- door hinges;
- soft flooring.
Step-by-step instruction
Construction of a cage for an ornamental rabbit includes 8 main steps:
- The first step is to create a drawing, according to which you will assemble the cage. You can also use the finished drawing.
- Now it is necessary to engage in the floor, on the basis of which the whole house will be built later. To make the floor, take a sheet of plywood, OSV or particleboard (or board size) and cut out a rectangle of the desired size from it. The main requirement for the floor is strength and stability so that it can withstand the weight of the animal and does not become the culprit of the fall and injury of your pet.
- The next stage is equipping the floor with a sheet of tin, thanks to which it will be much more convenient to clean the cage. A sheet of tin 0.2 mm thick cut to the size of the floor.
- Next, proceed to the assembly and installation of the walls of the house. Three of them can be made deaf from the same material that was chosen for the floor. It is impossible to make all four walls deaf, since the house must have lighting and ventilation.
- Assemble the front wall from wooden slats with a section of 2 × 2 or 1.5 × 1.5 cm. Insert a metal grid between the bars. It can be made with your own hands from the wire. In the lower part of such a wall, provide a side made of cardboard or material from which the floor is made. The side will prevent the eruption of the floor substrate.
- Connect the walls with each other, after which the entire structure is attached to the floor with self-tapping screws.
- The front or side wall must have an opening door. It is collected from wooden bars, the space between which is filled with the same metal grid. Such a door is hung on metal hinges with screws.
- For the organization of the second tier should be attached to the walls on the screws sheet of plywood of such size that it was 15-20 cm shorter than one of the sides. This is necessary so that the rabbit can freely move from tier to tier. There should lead a ladder, which is also easy to make from the rails and flooring material: with an interval of 5 cm, use a hammer to tamper wooden slats on a rectangle of plywood, chipboard or other material.
Important! Correctly choose the length of the screws, according to the thickness of the selected tree. Screws should not protrude beyond the wood, so as not to inflict wounds on the animal. If you make a mistake with the length of the screw, use the file to grind off the sharp edge.
How to equip the cage for the rabbit inside
But only one cage you can not provide your pet proper comfort. He also needs to provide various attributes: a water bowl, a feeding trough and a secluded spot where he can hide or sleep. Having a secluded place is very important for a pet, especially in the first months of his life in a new place, because he will need to get used to a new place and new unfamiliar creatures next to him.
As for the feeders and drinkers, they must be made of heavy material. Another option would be to attach the dishes to the floor. Such precautions are needed because the rabbits are very playful and active creatures, and therefore they can overturn or throw objects during the game. 
As a floor substrate is best to use wood chips or sawdust. Any dense material (tin, cardboard, mat, etc.) should be laid on top of the main floor. This will allow you to clean up after a long time in a more convenient form.
Did you know? When the rabbit fits her time, she begins to build a nest for her children. Do not be surprised if your little animal is actively tearing its wool in the chest or abdomen. So manifests maternal instinct - With its down, the female lines the nest so that the babies are warm and cozy.
Of course, do not forget about toys. It can be both purchased and homemade items. For example, you can buy a ball woven from branches or straw, which will not only be a good toy to drive, toss or roll on the floor, but also an excellent sharpener for your teeth. You can make a toy with your own hands if you have time and desire.
Additional equipment of the cage with a kind of nest from a cardboard box will be needed if you are breeding rabbits. The box should be slightly larger than the rabbit itself. 
How to disinfect the cells of rabbits at home
The issue of disinfection is one of the most important, because your pet must live in a clean and safe environment. Therefore, the procedure of disinfection and general cleaning in the rabbit cage should be routine for you.
Learn how to choose a bunny when shopping.
Before disinfecting itself, attention should be paid to the overall cleanliness of the house. You need to clear the long-eared cage from accumulated litter, dirt, dust, litter debris or other debris. All surfaces in the cage must be perfectly cleaned prior to the disinfection procedure.
To do a spring-cleaning in the rabbit's dwelling, you will need some auxiliary equipment:
- brush (suitable old tooth);
- broom;
- scapula or scraper for cleaning waste;
- a bucket, box or other container for collecting garbage;
- tank for spraying substances;
- the drug itself.
Among the most popular and effective disinfectants can be identified:
- "Glutex";
- 5% iodine solution on alcohol;
- Virkon;
- "Ecocide C".
- treatment with lime;
- burning with fire;
- hot lye cleaning;
- washing with a solution of "Whiteness".
We advise you to read about how to water the rabbits with water, what grass you can feed and which cannot, and also find out what to feed the rabbits in winter.
The question of living together a man and a rabbit is solved very simply by equipping a special cage for a pet. In order not to spend a lot of money on the house from the store, you can easily equip yourself not the worst housing for a rabbit, taking into account the advice given in this article. With the help of step-by-step instructions for creating a cage for decorative rabbits at home, you can quickly and without problems make a quite comfortable house for your pet.
