urine guards?

[dark.lapin]

I learned the hard way that if you use a solid bottom cage the rabbit tend to cause the wood chips and hay to fall out. What do you use for urine guards? I am thinking of just adding so water treated left over wood to outside of cage. How big are your urine gaurds? I raise flemish giant and I pefer solid floors for my flemish...Also what do you use for wire cages? I willl be raising a diffrent breed with just plain ol wire cages . What do you use as urine gaurd for just wire cages?

 

[ladysown]

there are pros and cons to urine guards.

they can increase the chance of rabbits getting hutch burn.

they can keep rabbits from peeing over the edges of the cage.

They don't stop the determined sprayer.

A determined to explore rabbit can get stuck under them (been there in that I rescued a screaming stuck youngster). Then laughed at it (as I calmed it down checked it over for damage) and then removed it to a different cage...required moving a fair number of bunnies. Now only calm kits/adults go into that cage.

 

[akane]

Wood makes poor cage material. It soaks up urine and smells horribly within a year. If it's inside the cage or against the wire it can get chewed unless you provide a lot of other chewing material. I use metal or plastic cage pans with or without a wire floor and wire or plastic urine guards. You can make some out of choroplast. The same material used to make signs. Just call a sign shop and ask for scraps. People make entire cage bottoms out of the stuff but it is at risk of being chewed by some. I decided it was worth it to just order metal urine guards off klubertanz.com for the wire cages. I do have one 3x6' plywood solid bottom cage I use in the house. I was originally looking for something sturdier than choroplast for guinea pigs. The wood is coated in marine polyurethane so it cleans just like plastic. The sides are held in place by corner braces and then sealed with nontoxic aquarium silicone. The guinea pigs didn't need any more than that but I've since put a wire frame around it for at first chickens and now the rabbits. It's lasted me years but the polyurethane was a bit expensive.

 

[dark.lapin]

Wood makes poor cage material. It soaks up urine and smells horribly within a year. If it's inside the cage or against the wire it can get chewed unless you provide a lot of other chewing material. I use metal or plastic cage pans with or without a wire floor and wire or plastic urine guards. You can make some out of choroplast. The same material used to make signs. Just call a sign shop and ask for scraps. People make entire cage bottoms out of the stuff but it is at risk of being chewed by some. I decided it was worth it to just order metal urine guards off klubertanz.com for the wire cages. I do have one 3x6' plywood solid bottom cage I use in the house. I was originally looking for something sturdier than choroplast for guinea pigs. The wood is coated in marine polyurethane so it cleans just like plastic. The sides are held in place by corner braces and then sealed with nontoxic aquarium silicone. The guinea pigs didn't need any more than that but I've since put a wire frame around it for at first chickens and now the rabbits. It's lasted me years but the polyurethane was a bit expensive.

What is polyurethane? I use wood sealent that keeps water from soaking in cage.How do you keep wood from smelling?

 

[Pickles]

Personally, I always felt that a wire-bottomed cage with a drop pan underneath is best. You can place a buuny resting board on one side of the cage so the bun can rest from the wire. But having a wire floor keeps urine and droppings away from the bun and thats very important when trying to maintain their overall health & body cleanliness. With my bun, I put wood chips in Pie's drop-pan so it helps soak up his urine & stuff and helps keep odors down, but he is in a wire-bottom metal cage.
If you want to use a wood cage be very careful what you treat the wood with. Wood sealants are toxic if they are consumed by the bun.

 

[akane]

Marine polyurethane is nontoxic once dried. Generally sold for boats but you can find it in many hardware stores. Saltwater aquarists use it to seal up plywood when building growout tanks for corals.

 

[dark.lapin]

Personally, I always felt that a wire-bottomed cage with a drop pan underneath is best. You can place a buuny resting board on one side of the cage so the bun can rest from the wire. But having a wire floor keeps urine and droppings away from the bun and thats very important when trying to maintain their overall health & body cleanliness. With my bun, I put wood chips in Pie's drop-pan so it helps soak up his urine & stuff and helps keep odors down, but he is in a wire-bottom metal cage.
If you want to use a wood cage be very careful what you treat the wood with. Wood sealants are toxic if they are consumed by the bun.

From my experence with using a solid bottom cage I might switch to that...I am thinking of making the cage half wood and half wire...I am still getting stains on cage even though I put water sealant on bottom of cage...might just experment with that on my next cage to see if its better..

Marine polyurethane is nontoxic once dried. Generally sold for boats but you can find it in many hardware stores. Saltwater aquarists use it to seal up plywood when building growout tanks for corals.

thanks for letting me know bout this....might use this instead depending on weather or not wood sealant dosen't work as good..