Dinner with Hoodat

[skysthelimit]

Rabbits love the wood shelves. It's instinctive to them to get up higher so they can watch for predators. They actually serve several purposes. The rabbits get exercise jumping on and off them, it gives their feet a break from the wire and with breeding does it gives mama a place to hide when the kits get to be too pesky. A foot wide shelf also (in effect) extends the floor space by that much without taking up valuable rack space. The wood shelves are the reason I make my cages 2 feet high. That way I can put the shelves at 1 foot high and it's hard for young kits to jump that high although a doe has no trouble. You can put shelves in 18 inch high cages but I find the minimum headroom a mature rabbit needs is 10 inches from the shelf to the cage top. That only leaves the shelves 8 inches high and even a small kit can jump that high so mama can't use it to get away from them when it's weaning time. The 1X2s at the sides look as though they should be under the shelf but the shelf boards are screwed to the bottom. That way you have sides to keep any bunny berries from falling at the sides of the cage when you have to scrape them.

Can you take pictures of the sides so I can see how they are attached?

 

[hoodat]

Putting in the shelves is very simple. Just cut your shelf board the width of the cage.
You can use 1X2 1X3 or 1X4s for the sides. I don't use a side in the back because in my setup any bunny berries that fall through the wire there end up on my poop chute. If your setup is different you might want to put a side along the back to keep them from falling through there. I use screws rater than nails because with a heavy rabbit jumping up and down nails could work loose. Remember, your side board is on top, not on the bottom.

The shelf is held in place by screwing a cleat to the side with the cage wire sandwiched between.

This is one end of the finished shelf.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

You could also attach it without the lumber on the outside by using a large washer and screw.

 

[skysthelimit]

Thanks. My cages on one side are against the wall, hanging on the wall like a picture actually. But the stacker are not flush with the wall, unfortunately, the stackers are only 16 inches tall. As I retrofit the cages, and replace the others with more stackers I will start putting a few of these in. I love them.

 

[hoodat]

You could also attach it without the lumber on the outside by using a large washer and screw.

That would make for a tighter fit if you wanted the cage against the wall or another cage.