Buying Cages?

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Teddy2511

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Hey Everyone,
I am looking at buying some cage banks for my rabbitry-in-the-making, and I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for the best ways to build/buy such cages?

I'd like to have two cage banks with 4 cages in each, or 4 cage banks with two cages per bank. My plan is 24x36 and 30x36 size cages.

So what do you think? Build or buy; and either way where do suggest purchasing from?
 
Are they going to be big rabbits or little ones? I have a meat breed, close to 10 pounds each. Our adult cages are 30" deep x 36" wide. The cages for the mommas are 24" deep x 5' wide. If you can afford it, a little bigger for the adult cages would be nice!

(My rabbits are thrilled to get out on the lawn in an exercise run that is 4' x 6', but that only happens in the spring and summer.)

Klubertanz has great cages, and you can get banks. I would recommend them. The wire should be galvanized after welding. Babysaver sides for the cages your does will be in when they have litters. (We just went ahead and got babysaver sides for all our cages.)
 
After a lot of research, we decided to just buy cages. To get the same quality, ie 14 gauge GAW wire, it would have cost us pretty close to as much for the materials and then the labor would be added as well. We went with klubertanz, and have been very pleased. We're raising Silver Foxes, which get to 10 to 12 pounds, and got 6 cages that are 24 x 36. Three have the baby saver wire, and 3 don't. We're starting with just a trio, so each adult will have a separate cage and we'll have 3 grow out cages. The 6 cages, a pair of J clip pliers, 12 qt sized water bottles, 6 J feeders with tops and 2 cleaning brushes plus shipping came to about $425. The quality of everything is excellent; I see it lasting for years.
 
I have an idea for you Teddy,
that might save you a few @@@ in the long run.
Water bottles will often crack in the colder weather.
You might want to purchase Sipper tubes with caps,
these can be used on one or two liter Soda Bottles.
The two liters are excellent for Does with Kits.
You can fashion bottle holders out of waste cage wire.
Just a suggestion, I hope it helps.
Ottersatin. :eek:ldtimer:
 
That does sound like a good idea otterstain, thanks! I think I'll have to add that to the ever-growing list of thing I want to try in my rabbitry... :)

Right now I have Hollands, but my plan is to hopefully add Silver foxes once my rabbitry is set up and running more cost efficiently, lol.
For the Hollands I would use dividers and split the cages in half, but then with the silver fox rabbits I can just remove the divider and use the whole cage. Would 30x36 be an okay size for a mama with kits?

And do any of you have any experience with buying used cage banks? Would this be a wise idea and where would you look?
 
As long as they're in good condition, it's a great way to stretch your cage dollars. I bought a 10 hole cage bank with stand, feeders and auto water system for $200 off kijiji. Craigslist is probably your best bet down there.
 
We went with 24 deep, because I have a hard time reaching that extra 6 inches..I'm...erm...uh...vertically challenged, shall we say? LOL There should be plenty of room in the 24 x 36 for a mama and litter till the litter is weaned. I will be putting in a hanging pot like MSD does to let mama have some space off the floor, though. I figure to wean at about 4 or 5 weeks so they should only just be starting to get crowded; at that point, the kits will move to their own cage. We do have an extra we used as a QT cage, so if we need more room, it'll do in a pinch. Our rabbitry area is on the east side of the house and about 8 feet wide and 25 feet long, so we're putting ours all on one level. If in the future we need more cages, we can put another row on the fence side. I'm sure we will, since rabbitosis acquireosis tends to run rampant ;) We looked at stacking, but felt the upper ones would be too high and the lower ones too low to reach comfortably. Plus, with just the one level, we don't have to do anything special about poop patrol...it can just fall to the ground where we'll scoop it into the wheelbarrow and then to the garden or compost pile. DH is making stands out of re-bar to set the cages on...2 cages per stand. We have one stand done and he's working on the other now. After that, we just need to get the roof on and the dirt back there tamped down and it'll be pretty much complete...can't wait! Hopefully will have pix within the next couple weeks.

I did, and still do, check Craig's List daily. What I was finding locally wasn't terribly impressive. Most of the cages/hutches available were, imo, over priced for what they were, most all of them had some wood components, and nobody had an idea of what gauge the wire was. I shied away from wood because it's so absorbant...I worry about disease lurking in it and it's so difficult to clean/sanitize. Sometimes I read posts, here and elsewhere, where folks have managed to find someone who's getting out of rabbits and has a lot of good equipment they're willing to sell very reasonably, but of course, that doesn't happen every day. You might check your local feed store(s); if they have a bulletin board, they may have something posted, or you could post and if anyone has anything they could get a hold of you. If there's a rabbit show in your area, I'd urge you to attend...there are always folks there selling things, and even if you don't buy it's a great place to make contacts.

When we went to a show in our area, the cages were already on order, so we didn't seriously look at what they were selling there, though the prices seemed about comparable...even with the shipping. Our main reason for going was to see the rabbits :) I hadn't been able to find a local source for SF's but there were 2 breeders at the show, so that's where we got our breeding stock.
 
Okay, thanks everyone!

I think I'll start looking at some feed stores ads in particular... I've never really paid them much attention before, but maybe I'll find something!
 
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