Different types of wire cages - show your pics?

Okay, I'm realizing I'm not the only one not figuring the differense in wire cages
I like to understand things and learn things - I also learn a lot with pictures.

So - can you show different types of wire cages? Post pictures and write wht the pictures show, please be very clear with the name of the type of cage (why not put it in bold above the photo?)

How does a good floor look v.s. a bad? Baby savers, show pictures! Different type of doors or everything else that may differ.

Please also tell the pros and cons with the type of cage as you see them, and what to look for or avoid in the purchase of that type of cage. Expect me to be the most stupid person on earth when you write, there's no such thing as being too clear when explaining.

I admit - to me all wire cages just look like a bunch of metal threads put together. Please educate me!

OH! I can get new pics of mine. But before I do, I'll blab a bit about my favorite cage style, the quonset.
I bend the floor wire 2-4in up, thus creating baby saver sides without the freakish price rolls with it cost. Top wire just bends over, easy peasy. Toss on some sides, cut a door hole, done. Very little wire bending and all that, less clips.
Real easy to make yourself, my more square cages were a pain to deal with.
Only pic I have currently.

Wow, what a great idea CnB! I never thought of that. What kind and gauge of wire do you use? We weighed the idea of making our own but decided the cost difference was so little as to make it not worthour while. But this seems pretty darned easy and might do really well for grow out pens.

Zab,

I use cages that are 36" wide by 30" deep by 18" high. Here is a pic of my main Rabbit Barn.



Here is a close up of one of the cage fronts for a buck cage, 30" x 30".



The doors are large, the floor is 14g (very thick) double dipped, galvanized after weld, 1/2" by 1" wire. The cages have 3-4" of this same wire running up the walls and the rest of the walls and ceiling are 1" by 2" wire, same type. I put two resting pads in each cage, and change them out frequently. Any clinging poops are easily brushed loose to fall on the ground and I scrub the pee corners out periodically to get rid of any calcium scale build up.

ChickiesnBunnies":184cj3hx said:

OH! I can get new pics of mine. But before I do, I'll blab a bit about my favorite cage style, the quonset.
I bend the floor wire 2-4in up, thus creating baby saver sides without the freakish price rolls with it cost. Top wire just bends over, easy peasy. Toss on some sides, cut a door hole, done. Very little wire bending and all that, less clips.
Real easy to make yourself, my more square cages were a pain to deal with.
Only pic I have currently.

Click to expand...

I was just looking at instructions to make quonset cages! Do you make individual holes or are your's multi-holed? What is the wire that you use? (1x1??)

My store only has 16g, I see no rust after a year+ anywhere. They are doing fine. 14 would be nice if I had the cash and it was available locally. But as of now, I see no need for me to attempt to have thicker wire.

OAF, that must be factory flat panels, no? It's so darn straight and perfect, too perfect!

__________ Wed Jan 16, 2013 3:32 pm __________

Frecs":1fwufbgt said:

ChickiesnBunnies":1fwufbgt said:

OH! I can get new pics of mine. But before I do, I'll blab a bit about my favorite cage style, the quonset.
I bend the floor wire 2-4in up, thus creating baby saver sides without the freakish price rolls with it cost. Top wire just bends over, easy peasy. Toss on some sides, cut a door hole, done. Very little wire bending and all that, less clips.
Real easy to make yourself, my more square cages were a pain to deal with.
Only pic I have currently.

Click to expand...

I was just looking at instructions to make quonset cages! Do you make individual holes or are your's multi-holed? What is the wire that you use? (1x1??)

Click to expand...

The top wire is 1x2in. I made them as one long 6 hole cage, but then split them. Adding side wall wire can be tricky to a curved cage. I'm now making them individual holes, much easier.

Those are 2x4ft.

ChickiesnBunnies":18ju1zc8 said:

OAF, that must be factory flat panels, no? It's so darn straight and perfect, too perfect!

Click to expand...

There is a guy here locally who makes them......he has all the commercial equipment so they turn out really nice.<br /><br />__________ Wed Jan 16, 2013 3:01 pm __________<br /><br />These are the first cages we built ourselves, they are slant front.

Here are mine, before we hung them up (they are supported by wood boards on top of sawhorses in the pictures, but now they are hung up):

The doe cages are 24" x 36" x 18" high, and are 14 gauge wire (I'd have gone 30" deep like OAF, but I can barely reach the far corner of these!). The tops and sides are 1" x 2", and the floors are 1" x 1/2". The floor wire is installed with the 1/2" spacing up, to better distribute the weight of the rabbit.

I did have 16 gauge floors, but they sagged badly. Apparently, it might not have been the case if I had J-clipped the living daylights out of them. The instructions said to put the clips every 6 inches. We put them every 4 - 5. MSD put them every 2, and has had no issues.

When we took the old floors out, we cut them up into 4" strips, and clipped those around the bottoms of the doe cages, for baby-saver wire. It's a bit clunky, but it works!

Here, you see Yuki the Californian pretending to be a NZW:



Squeak (a mutt) at right, and Fluffy (NZW) with her best friend, Nibbles (a dwarf):



Thumper (minilop, our original buck, and now a retired meatloaf) at right, and his son Pinto, our current buck, at left:



Sorry for all the bugs... it was lovebug season. Lovebugs are the scourge of the earth.

I'll try to find some better pictures.

These aren't set up yet. The idividual dimensions are 30" x 36" x 18" it sits on a 2" channel iron stand, overall dimensions are 5' wide and 15' long with 14 gauge wire and sheet metal dividers. Additional features are an automatic watering system and box feeders that take up no floor space. The doors are 12" x 12" and open up to the roof, very nice in case I forget to hook the latch. This is the only pic I have of this one. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... 960%2C1280

Thank you for pictures and everything!

I think I miss the names of the type of cage in most.. those ''regular'' square box-types, what are they called? What would I write in google to find that particular type and not the slant fronted or..quonset?
Are the more types than hanging cages and..not hanging? *lol* Stacking options and names on that? (I'm going to use this thread as a dictionary )

Thanks for writing out sizes and measures with buns in them - it really helps me visualize a cage when I read other posts without bunnies.

Metal stacker on the left. I'm not sure if the square ones are called anything other than cages, square/rectangle is the standard cage type. Sorry about the mess, I was painting the barn this day, as you can see from the paint cans. I also have several plastic bottom ones.

Here is a picture of my hanging cages, just standard cages 30"x36"x18".
One nice thing about this system is the chickens underneatch turn the bedding over, scratch through droppings and eat larvae, etc. and it saves space to house them together. Like others have said it can make for a cleaner space as everything drops through.

Peter, my Silver Fox Buck.


Even though I like this system, I am considering changing over to a colony setup in the spring. if I do that I will seperate the chickens and the rabbits by putting a wall to divide the hoophouse into 2 halves. I think it'd be a lot easier keeping the rabbits cool in the summer and I like watching rabbits when they are "free" they act, well like rabbits.
I may still keep the buck in a hanging cage.?

As far as what to call the rectangular cages... you could probably just search "wire rabbit cage", lol... I don't think they have a name, maybe standard? :shrug: