Like most first-time rabbit owners, when I got my rabbits seven years ago, I also bought a large rabbit cage. Sized to house at least six rabbits, my gigantic cage housed my two medium-sized rabbits perfectly. Until I realized they had little room to play and nowhere to exercise properly.
Three weeks later, I gave up the idea of using a rabbit cage and made my two house bunnies their very own rabbit pen. Seven years later, I wouldn’t use anything else and truly believe a rabbit pen is the best home for your pet house bunny. After all, while some things can be expensive when it comes to owning rabbits, building a pen for them is not.
Rabbit pens can be made to any size – For my first rabbit pen, I bought a ready-made one at a local market, which I erected outside their cage. it worked for a while but still seemed to be too small to allow them enough exercise. That’s when I went out and bought several packages of do-it-yourself wire storage cube systems and used them to build my own rabbit pen.
Sure, you can also use them to build a cool rabbit cage, but a pen is still far better as you can create them to any size.
My two medium-sized rabbits still have the same rabbit pen they had when I first got them. I’ve just added onto it as they grew bigger, so it’s now eight feet long and more than three feet wide. It has a two-story enclosed cage on each end of the pen, also made out of storage cubes, which allows them to sit high enough that they get a great view of what’s going on around them as well as to hide if they want to.
Rabbit pens are easy to clean – Rabbit pens are much easier to clean than a typical rabbit cage as everything is out in the open. Mine gets cleaned every day and it’s just a case of wiping down the tile floor with a solution of water and white vinegar (a safe disinfectant for rabbits), wiping down the children’s chairs that I put in it for my bunnies to sit on, changing the litter boxes and cleaning the food and water bowls.
Cleaning the entire pen takes me less than 10 minutes, but it comes out so clean it rarely ever smells.
Plus, if the pen itself gets dirty, it’s incredibly easy to take it apart, wash it in the bath and then just clip it all back together. Twenty minutes and it looks as good as new.
Design possibilities are endless – Another reason why a rabbit pen is better than a rabbit cage is that you can create with it just about anything you want. That’s because it’s just a blank square or rectangle that you can then fill with boxes, chairs, bunny toys, tunnels, things to climb on or climb over. In fact, every rabbit pen can be created to suit exactly what your bunny likes to do and can be changed around in just minutes as soon as he gets bored.
Rabbit pens are easy to access – Unlike a cage, where the owner has to half crawl in to clean or to be able to move things around, a rabbit pen allows easy access. Just lean over the top and bend in, and you can clean poop off the floor, organize toys or even pick up your bunnies for a quick cuddle.
Rabbit pens can be covered or open – It’s up to you, and your rabbits, whether you have an open pen or one that’s closed. If you live in a house or apartment with other animals like a dog or a cat, it’s probably best to have a covered pen.
My rabbits, however, are the only creatures that live in my apartment with me, so they have an open pen as there’s no danger of them being preyed on. It’s also high enough that there’s no way they can jump over it and escape.
Rabbit pens can be added onto – As your rabbits grow, or even if you buy other rabbits, you can add onto a rabbit pen much easier than you can onto a cage. When mine were fully grown, I bought another pack of storage cubes and added an extra three feet onto the end of the pen, giving me more room to add more boxes and chairs, and my bunnies more places to play.
If you don’t particularly want your house rabbits to have free access to your house, having a rabbit pen for them is the next best option. A pen allows them to have plenty of room to play, and allows you to add lots of fun things for them to play with.
