Cage Questions - Bass equipment?

[rawfeeder]

After much research and saving of funds, I'm finally ready for the next (and exciting) step towards getting my meat rabbit project off the ground!!

Due to my own poor DIY skills, I have been thinking that getting ready made cages may be the best option. Does anyone have any experience with BASS equipment cages? ..would anyone recommend them?

Well this is what I have been considering...

For a set of three stackable 30 X 30 metal based cages it would cost $254.65 (before shipping). This price includes water bottles.

There is an option for plastic bases, but these cost more. For a set of three 30 X 30 cages with plastic bases it would be $283.90 plus shipping ...Does anyone know why the plastic bases are more expensive? Are there more benefits to these over the metal ones?

What do y'all think of the prices? How would it compare (on average) to build my own.

I have also considered buying used wire dog crates and converting them, but not sure how well that would work out.

Any and all imput is much appriciated!!

 

[Nubster]

Price wise, I start building my first hutch today. It's going to have three cages each 36"x24". I spent about $70 on all the lumber and wire today. Only thing I have left is roofing which will just be a sheet of 1/2 plywood with shingle. Total cost should be around $100 and a few evenings of my time.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

well i'm still a newbie but i'll toss in my 2cents i suppose
i bought a pair of dutch rabbits with each of them in a cage. first of all the cages are old and getting rusty and the floors are sagging.
a pic: gallery/image.php?album_id=84&image_id=617

their cages were in that part of the barn because it was very cold and i felt at the time that was the warmest and safest part of the barn. plus they were my first rabbits. and i hadnt had things ready to hang them up yet.

i pulled out those trays the first time.... never again!!! i cleaned the cages and hung em up that day! personally i'm not sure you could pay me to use pans. all my cages are hanging. i have a 3 sections hutch too but am working on more cages so i dont have to use it.

just my two cents... but if you dont mind cleaning pans or need to put more rabbits in a smaller area then those would be good.

good luck

 

[rawfeeder]

Thank you for the imput guys!! I'm wanting to stay pretty small scale, so cleaning pans wouldn't be a huge issue... but you defiantly just gave me more to think about...

I also already have parts of a wire dog crate, so maybe I will just have to suck it up and learn to build them myself.

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

its really not that hard. if you dont use hand tools often then you will get sore hands but mine werent that bad at all. but make sure you have nice sharp wire cutters! i use tin snips now because they cut much easier. your wrists will thank you.
if you decide to use j clips then dont get the ones or the pliers from tractor supply. get em from a local feed supply or order them online etc. just looking at them i could tell they wouldnt have lasted. didnt even look like they would have worked... :/
i bought my clips and pliers at a feed co-op. they were better made and cheaper then TSC.

 

[curlysue]

The plastic trays last much longer.

 

[Rustina]

Try comparing Bass prices and quality to Klubertanz as well i have used them in the past and prefer them to Bass cages.

 

[Frecs]

I recently set up my first meat rabbits. Here's what I did:

I purchased four cages (30x30) from Bass. I actually wish I had purchased 24x36 instead because it is hard to reach the back of the cage. I considered the option to buy wire and build my own but found that that route would have been more expensive. Son built a shed that is 4x16 set into the corner of a privacy fence so they have protection from two sides. Roof is corrugated PVC panels. Rabbits are hung by chain. Please note: a four month old Silver Fox can still make the cage rock and roll when simply hopping around it's cage. Son is going to be adding wood bracing underneath to stop the movement. We are setting up the ground underneath them as worm composting (vermicomposting) with 1"x8" boards around the base of the shed. We will have invested about $350 on the set up with room in the shed to add additional cages. I still need canvas 'curtains' for the front and one side.

This has been a learning experience for us and now that Mother has been bitten by the rabbit bug, we know more about how to design the shed for her breeders when we get ready. One of the things I learned real fast is that rabbits pee ALOT. I'm so glad I went with bottomless cages hung! Now I see why people say the amount of urine is the biggest challenge to having worm beds underneath. I would not want to have to empty trays even for a few cages.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

The cages from Bass use a 16g floor. I would see about getting the ones with 14g. I would also recommend looking at Klubertanz. Standard cages are really not that hard to build. The metal trays are heavier than plastic and will eventually rust. I chose not to go with trays and I am much happier. There are several members here from Canada and I am sure they will pitch in on this subject. There may be a more local source for you to get your cages from. I got my first supplies to build my cages from Klubertanz. Since then, I have found a local source to build them for me for the same, if not cheaper, and I don't have to spend the time building them. Just some thoughts....

 

[avdpas77]

I would agree with what OAF says. I don't live all that far from Bass, but I prefer Klubertanz for both wire and cages. You really want 14 gauge floors, and "galvanized after welding" wire is much much better, and worth the cost. If you are just starting, I would start small, and buy a couple of cages. You can then see how they are constructed, and modify anything you want, building you own in the future. Stay away from wood touching the cages anywhere if you wish to keep them sanitary and have them last any length of time.

I don't much care for pans, because one needs to empty them daily and it is a lot of work. On larger cages, it is easy to spill urine out of pans, when you pull them out. Still, pans allow people to raise rabbits in garages and places where letting the waste fall is not reasonable.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

I would buy pre-cut cages also. I purchased mine from BASS, and have had them for a year now. All 24 cages are now full, but starting with 4 rabbits (one of which, a buck died for no apparent reason a couple of months after I got him), it took a while to fill those cages, and they haven't had the constant stress of full grown rabbits for more than a few months in most cases. The floor wire on BASS cages is 16 gauge as opposed to 14 gauge, and over time they will start to sag which is no good for the rabbit's feet. I would look at the Klubertanz cages instead, and get the heavier 14 gauge floor wire.

I would also suggest hanging your cages and making slanted dropping boards if you want more than one tier of cages. Rabbits produce a lot of waste, and as others have mentioned cleaning pans is a huge chore. Rabbits tend to choose a corner to potty in, and their droppings will quickly rise above the floor wire if not dumped frequently. If you are feeding hay (which is highly recommended) the issue is even worse.

I was limited on linear space, so I have two tiers of cages- the top are for does and are 24" x 30" and if you have a reluctant doe, it is very hard to reach them- at times I have been head and shoulders inside the cage to get one out, and it is a tight squeeze even for me (5-4" and 115 pounds when soaking wet). The bottom tier is for bucks and young "prospects" that I may want to keep for my breeding program, and those cages are 24" x 24" to allow for the droppings from the cages above to fall behind them. I second Frec's recommendation to get 24" deep cages and add more length. Just make sure that the cages are not too long for the size of the door or you will not be able to reach the rabbits.

My rabbits are doing fine in the cage sizes I have, but I would much prefer that the cages were larger, particularly for the does. I recently made four growout cages, 2 measuring 4' wide by 30" deep, and 2 that are 3-1/2' by 3' deep. These have slanted fronts and doors that span nearly the entire length so reaching the rabbits is not an issue. You can see the growout cages here: yet-more-growout-cages-t6922.html

Currently they have several different litters in them separated by sex, but I hope to make enough of them to move the does and kits into them as the kits are leaving the nest.

Please note: a four month old Silver Fox can still make the cage rock and roll when simply hopping around it's cage. Son is going to be adding wood bracing underneath to stop the movement.

My cages are wedged into my rabbit barn so tightly that this is not an issue for me- however, rather than supporting them from underneath, I would run a length of cable or pipe just under the roof of the cages so there is no cleanliness issue. Or if you look at my link to the growout cages, they are attached to the fence behind them with S hooks, and I used metal stakes as legs to support the front and minimize bounce. The stakes are not pounded into the ground, they are simply resting on the surface, and are wired to the front of the cage.

I hope some of this rambling monologue is helpful- good luck on your venture!

**I see that both OAF and avdpas have posted while I have been typing away, so my apologies for duplicate advice!

 

[Frecs]

Stay away from wood touching the cages anywhere if you wish to keep them sanitary and have them last any length of time.

I had hoped to avoid having wood touch wire by hanging the cages but I find that my heavy Silver Foxes still rock and roll. Any recommendations for how to stop the movement without using wood bracing underneath? I have the chains going out at ~130degree angle from the cage corners (creating a Y) which works with the younger not-so-heavy rabbits but the older ones it just doesn't stop the movement.

My cages are wedged into my rabbit barn so tightly that this is not an issue for me- however, rather than supporting them from underneath, I would run a length of cable or pipe just under the roof of the cages so there is no cleanliness issue. Or if you look at my link to the growout cages, they are attached to the fence behind them with S hooks, and I used metal stakes as legs to support the front and minimize bounce. The stakes are not pounded into the ground, they are simply resting on the surface, and are wired to the front of the cage.

I'm not sure how threading cable under the cage tops will help. I was thinking that chain attaching to one or more corners of the bottoms of the cages similar to the way the tops are done would work but chain and the dodads to attach them are not cheap. argh...

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Frecs, are the sides of your cages touching? I would think that a long span of cages might swing a little bit, but not as much as a single cage.

 

[Frecs]

Frecs, are the sides of your cages touching? I would think that a long span of cages might swing a little bit, but not as much as a single cage.

No, they don't touch at all. At first, we had the chain at a 90degree angle and they swayed like hammocks so we repositioned them so that they created tension between opposing chains (ie. left front creating opposing tension to the right rear) which cut down on the sway but not the bounce the two four-month olds create (the other two are 3 months old and not yet heavy enough to create the bounce).

 

[avdpas77]

I recently set up my first meat rabbits. Here's what I did:

I purchased four cages (30x30) from Bass. I actually wish I had purchased 24x36 instead because it is hard to reach the back of the cage. I considered the option to buy wire and build my own but found that that route would have been more expensive. Son built a shed that is 4x16 set into the corner of a privacy fence so they have protection from two sides. Roof is corrugated PVC panels. Rabbits are hung by chain. Please note: a four month old Silver Fox can still make the cage rock and roll when simply hopping around it's cage. Son is going to be adding wood bracing underneath to stop the movement. We are setting up the ground underneath them as worm composting (vermicomposting) with 1"x8" boards around the base of the shed. We will have invested about $350 on the set up with room in the shed to add additional cages. I still need canvas 'curtains' for the front and one side.

When one hangs cages, they usually hand the chains/wire straight down. The secret is to not have the supports straight down, but at an angle. From the end this might look like a "W" with the inside missing. This not only keeps the cages from swinging, but it "stretches" the top of the cage apart, which keeps the cage wire tighter and the cage stronger. You want to do this both ways, front to back, and side to side, although front to back is more important. In other words one wants the supports to hang obliquely. I like to hang with wire instead of chain, because I found chain didn't always hit the right link. Wire is continuously adjustable.

Because I remove my cages once each year and refurbish them, I found it easier to stop using hanging supports on the back. My cages are against a shed wall. I put up cheap shelf brackets (10" I think") against the back wall at the height I wanted the top of the cage.
the brackets stick through the wire about 2" and keep the cages about 8" from the wall. Then I level buy supporting the front of the cages with wire (chains). This keeps the cages from moving at all, and one can take them down in a couple of minutes. I will try to find a picture that show it.

One can't see the support wires in front, but if you look closely you can see the brackets. It may not look it, but the back of the cage is hanging only on the outer two inches of a 10" bracket, so the back of the cage is 8" form the wall.

 

[Frecs]

When one hangs cages, they usually hand the chains/wire straight down. The secret is to not have the supports straight down, but at an angle.

Yep, at first we had them "straight" --- not straight down from the ceiling but straight (creating a 90degree angle) from the corners. This was not a good idea. So, we changed it so that the chains go straight in the direction the corner point is pointing in (creates a Y between the cage corner and the chain). This cut the movement down considerably but does not prevent some bounce when the larger buns hop around their cage.

 

[OneAcreFarm]

When one hangs cages, they usually hand the chains/wire straight down. The secret is to not have the supports straight down, but at an angle.

Yep, at first we had them "straight" --- not straight down from the ceiling but straight (creating a 90degree angle) from the corners. This was not a good idea. So, we changed it so that the chains go straight in the direction the corner point is pointing in (creates a Y between the cage corner and the chain). This cut the movement down considerably but does not prevent some bounce when the larger buns hop around their cage.

I found I had to "anchor" mine to the walls in some way. I used an eye bolt and a piece of wire at one end and another in the middle of the side that was nearest the wall.