How To Build A Bunny Cage

hey everyone welcome back to the homestead i am nadine today we're going to be hanging out in the garage working on some additional bunny cages for our rabbitry so let's head over there and get started alrighty guys we are out in the garage we are working on bunny cages today i wanted to go over some tools and materials before we get started so the cages i am building are a two sided cage the whole cage itself measures 72 by 30 by 17 and a half i think is what my last one i cut at um and then i just split it in half to have two cages next to each other so i'm technically building two cages in one which is really really handy so some tools that you're going to need are one a measuring tape some wire cutters and then for assembly um you could use hog rings which run out of hands here guys so hog rings oh my goodness are basically these and this little tool um crimps it shut in a circle so i used these for my last cages they didn't get a super tight um connection between the cage panel so i wanted to try these instead this time these are cage clips i got them on amazon i'll leave a link um in the comments below for you guys but they're just these little i do believe they're called j clips because they look like a j and i'm trying to see and then you just use this little tool here that i got with them and you slide them in with the curved side on the thicker side here if you can get it in there and then you just and then you just squeeze it closed to clip or to to clamp it so that's what i'm going to be using for my assembly today um and i'll let you know if it works a little bit better than the hog rings that i tried on my last build and then for the cage bottoms i am using [Music] this 30 by 10 foot cage wire the openings are half inch by one inch so they're a little it's a little bit nicer on the rabbit's feet but it still allows um their feces and other debris to fall through the bottom of the cage and help keep it clean so this is what i'm using for the cajun or the cage bottoms um i am using one roll per cage because the cage itself is six feet yeah six feet long um so one of these does one floor of a cage and then for the front back sides and roof of the cage i am using hardware cloth in the half inch by half inch cage openings this will prevent any predators from being able to get in it will also keep babies from rolling out the sides um and it was a little bit cheaper than cage wire although i am finding that the cage wire would probably provide a little bit more sturdiness in your cage walls but it's working out just fine so far if i need to update it in the future i'll let you guys know but for right now this is working just fine for my sides front back and roof and then this one came in 36 inches high by 25 feet long i did have to trim this down but i'll show you how i cut it for the um the roof front back and the sides so that is my supply list those are the tools that i'm going to be using so let's go ahead and get started i have two cages that i want to get done tonight so let's go ahead and get everything cut and then i'll show you how to put it all together oh one last thing i got these off of amazon they're by all things bunny and these are if you guys can they're so big it's kind of hard to tell what they are um these are i do believe they're called like cage door guards but basically what these are is when i cut the door opening into the cage itself the wire is really rough and so you put this over the wire edge and it creates a safe um doorway so you're not getting cut to ribbons when you're reaching to take care of your bunny so that's the other thing that i'll be using today let's get started [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] so i have two bottom pieces here those are the half inch by one inch cage wire these are two uh roof pieces they do need trimmed a little bit there's they're about six inches too wide so they would overhang the roof or the floor panels so we're going to trim this up a little bit but those two are cut out and then what it didn't record was these side pieces that i cut and what i did with these was um i took basically they're the same size as the roof pieces but i cut it in half lengthwise so it would be 17 and a half inches in this way and 17 and a half inches from the other side and you're going to skip a section this like a one inch section in the middle so you'll have a 17 and a half inch side piece which is what these are here so all i have left are the two end pieces and the divider piece but it is six o'clock it's starting to get dark so i need to go put the animals away i need to get my kids some dinner and get them off to bed so i am going to wrap it up here for the night but i will be back tomorrow to finish this up so stay tuned guys morning everybody it is day two of getting these bunny cages done so let's get into the garage and get this project wrapped up [Music] so [Music] alrighty so all of the pieces are now cut and trimmed down to size so this one that i just finished is a roof piece along with that piece there they're now trimmed so they're the same width as the floor pieces one minute one minute these are the front and back panels and these are the two end and middle dividers so ahead with the fun part and get these all put together so i'm going to be using these cage clips put the cages together they look like this and when you use the tool this is the tool that came with it you put this inside the tool like this like this it's kind of crooked but when you squeeze it shut it crimps around the wire like that and so once it's together it'll look like this holding your cages together the last cages that i put together i didn't have these and i didn't have time to order them so i used i used this instead and this is um these are considered hog rings and they come kind of like staples do and you just insert them into this tool here and when you squeeze them shut there it is when you squeeze and shut it forms this ring and it holds the cages together but i didn't like that it didn't it doesn't get any smaller than that with this tool so i'd have to go around and squeeze each one of them with pliers to get a really tight connection between the wire panels of the cage it worked well but i think i'm going to have to go back through and re-enough so they have a tighter connection like like this it's a little bit smaller than the hog wire so come on but we'll see i'm not too worried about it this winter but maybe come spring i'll go back through and adjust everything let me get you guys set up on my tripod and we'll start putting these together so how i do it is i start with the floor panel i put the the floor panel down and then i fold the side panels in and connect the sides and attach the middle divider and then connect all of the sides together on the corners so you'll see it in the video how i put it together but i kind of wanted to explain it a little bit before i go ahead and get it together so hopefully that made sense let's go ahead and get to it [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] now [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay so the cage is all put together now the roof is secure all the sides front back and bottom are done i definitely recommend using the cage clips for assembly over the hog rings it gets a much tighter connection and i have less of this warped wire in between now i did every i put one every five spaces just because i wanted to make sure with having larger bunnies that it's nice and tight and it turned out a lot better this time than with my first cage builds using the hogwa or hog rings so i definitely recommend the cage clips so i'm gonna go ahead and take this around back and then i will show you um how i cut the openings for the door and the feeders alrighty guys we are back in the rabbitry i've got these two cages completely assembled now we just need to cut the doors cut the spot for the gravity feeder as well as for the hay feeder so let's go ahead and do that alrighty so my doors are 13 by 13 square so i'm just going to cut out um 13 inches by 13 inches um here here here and here and then we'll move on to the uh gravity feeder so i count six squares over so one two three four five six and six squares up one two three four five six and that is where i start my door and then these are half inch squares so i'm going to count over until i get to 13 inches uh alrighty once your door is cut open you're going to want to put a door guard on it and that's these little plastic pieces that clip over top of the wire so you don't rip your skin open so i just line it up here like this and take my wire cutters and i cut it right where it's going to slip on just like so and then i'll measure the top one the same way oh get it on there nice and snug keep your leftover pizzas and i'll show you why i'm gonna get one more you need two per cage so now we're going to do the sides and again just measure it up real good eyeball it and snip and slide it on [Music] this side snip it and slide it on cut that one a little bit short but that's okay like i said save your little cut off pieces because you're going to want to use those later all right so next we're going to put on the gravity feeder i like to use these ones i found them at contractor supply we're going to cut a hole here for the gravity feeder because you want this part to go inside the cage and this side to be attached on the outside of the cage alrighty once your hole is cut this should slide right in like so clip over the wire like so and then i like to [Music] take a little bit of leftover wire and i secure the bottom of this to the actual cage itself and that way they can't push it out or cause it to fall off the side of the cage is secure so i'm going to go ahead and do that now and your feeder is securely attached to the side of your cage all right you guys so we're gonna go ahead and cut the door for this cage here i'm using this half inch by one inch cage wire and we're going to cut it 14 by 14 so it's half an inch bigger than this opening [Music] [Music] alrighty so now that we have the door cut out we are going to attach it to the cage again i'm using these uh cage clips and the cage clip pliers and i'm going to use about five one at the top the bottom the middle and then in between so it's good and secure and then you just want to make sure because you're getting your wire from a roll you want to make sure that your door is as straight as you can get it so you might need to bend it back into shape a little bit so we're just going to line it up so it's about half an inch all the way around and secure it with the cage clips so we've got one at the top one at the bottom and then and now we're just going to put the door latches on so these are the door latches that i got i got these off of amazon i can leave a link down below for you guys and i just attached them on the opposite side so whoops [Music] there's one clip and two clips and these will just work like so and so we've got a completely finished door and we are ready for some rabbits so that is how i've made all of these cages i hope that this video has been really helpful for you if there's anything that you're unsure about any questions that you have go ahead and leave them in the comments below i'm sure i've missed something along the way and i'd be more than happy to answer your questions for you i'm super excited and happy with how these cages have turned out i definitely prefer these cage clips for assembly versus the hog rings they definitely get a tighter more secure connection between the two wire panels which i really really like and if it makes the cage feel a lot more sturdy so come next season when i need to clean the old or the first cages that i built i'm going to go ahead and reassemble them using the cage clips so that they're a sturdier build because they are definitely not as sturdy as i would like them to be so i definitely recommend the cage clips i will leave links below for the cage clips for the um the door latches and i think that's it as far as oh and the uh the cage guards i will leave links below for those um so if you guys are looking for them you can find them easily yourselves i did find the gravity feeders that's these at my local tractor supply um yeah and that's about it oh for the watering system i'm going to be doing another video on how we put our watering system together and i will leave links for all of the products that we used in that video um so be looking forward to that in the near future because we need to hook up the watering system to these cages over here right now we just have some watering bowls set up for them but they are going to be linked into the main watering system i think that about covers it guys thank you guys so much for watching my videos if you like my content go ahead and click the like button on your way out and the subscribe button so that you are notified when new videos are up thank you guys so much for watching and remember to grow where you're planted

Channel: Farm Girl In Progress

Views: 16,998

Keywords: farm girl, farm girl in progress, gardening, raised garden beds, orchard, organic garden, grow your own food, chickens, turkeys, ducks, bunnies, backyard flock, raising animals, farm animals, farm fresh eggs, home grown, DIY, DIY farm projects, DIY projects, farm life, farm kids, farm dog, farm cats, coops, runs, hutches, homestead, farm, grow, grow where you're planted, growing together

Id: I-rpyXNee3s

Length: 33min 9sec (1989 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 11 2021