My wife was not happy with the rabbit in the laundry room and my daughter wanted me to make a nice cage for her (Nesttle is the name) and wanted the rabbit in here closet. We worked on my wife and finally talked her into it (she wanted the rabbit out of the house - in the garage or the yard - did not see a bright future for the rabbit under those conditions - hot, neglected, etc.). Thus, the new Rabbit Mansion began to be planned. My daughter searched for months on the internet and would bookmark this page and that showing me things she liked. I made mental notes and finally, got to sketching up some ideas.

She had seen cages which had ramps and multi-levels (still small in my opinion), nice "houses" for privacy and sleeping comfort, large cages (not as big as this one), opens this way, had a water something or other on this one, had "waste" bin on that one, etc. Well ... I drew up several ideas and finally came up with the house you see on this page.

This model has it all! Ramps up and down to a two story rabbit condo. Upstairs is a stylish, fully covered living quarters with a viewing window right into my daughters room. Downstairs there is a comode (plastic bin is resting on cut out in the bottom floor). It's easy to clean, easy to access and has more room than a rabbit really needs.

There is a front door on the bottom left (very large for easy in and out). Another door accesses the "waste bin" for very easy removal and cleaning. The tops of both sides of the cage are hinged to access inside. All floors come off and the entire unit can be taken out and periodically cleaned.

There were a few other restrictions which determined the design. My daughter's closet door is only 18 inches wide, thus the width of this cage is 17.5 inches. We wanted it the entire length of the back of her closet - about 6 foot. Well, if I made it as one piece I would not have been able to turn the cage sideways once I got it in the closet, thus, the cage is made in totally separate halves which hook together. The bin for waste was pre-purchased and thus determined the floor area and cutout size on that feature as well as the size and position of the hinged door to clean that part easily. The house size was determined by the rabbit size - just right for comfort. The ramps were positioned within the concept to allow a managable angle to allow a rabbit to go up and down them. You could not have such ramps on a smaller cage - you need a big one.

The ramps. They are a continuing story. At first I just made them of pine (wide enough for the rabbit) and left them as is. I thought she may have problems going up and down but would not know until she moved in. Sure enough, when the rabbit would go down the ramp from upstairs - she slid quite out of control and flew of the "middle" floor between ramps. No harm but not good. We took the ramps out back and I pounded them with a hammer on the upper surfaces to give it a irregular surface. We put them back and it was better, bu the rabbit was still sliding a bit. I took the ramps back out in the garage again and used a chisle on them to further roughen things up. Now, everyting is fine.

Another problem with rabbit cages is they contain rabbits. Rabbits chew. I expected this and sure enough, some favorite chewing spots appeared in a couple of months. Took some left over scraps of the wire and tacked them over the favorite spots (see photos below). I expect I will have to do this a few times a year when the cage gets an all out cleaning. It's pretty easy. I would provide you with your scraps and you could maintain the cage, or, if you live in my area, bring it over and I'll help you out.