Because the rabbits can’t live in the reading room indefinitely, after finishing the flooring and litterbox today, I moved them into their ‘new’ home. I’m fairly happy with the new set-up, and the rabbits really seem to love it, but there’s still some tweaking to be done.

Of course, I’m pretty sure that most rabbit owners have an obsessive desire to “tweak” and modify cages and environments to better suit our lagomorph pals. I don’t know that I’ll ever be done tweaking. But there are still some changes I would like to make, mostly regarding placement of items.

Here’s what we’ve got so far:

What I Like About It:

- it’s very open and accessable

- easy to clean (HUGE plus)

- the rabbits have a lot of room to stretch out

- there’s space for their dishes, litterbox, toys, and other things, without detracting too much from their overall living area

- there’s room for more toys

- it’s older bun friendly: low-entry litterbox, nothing too high to jump on, grass mats provide extra traction

- did I mention its easy to clean?

The only thing that I really don’t like about it is the exercise pen. I just don’t find it aesthetically pleasing, and I’m toying with the idea of using some other kind of enclosure, like wire grids. We’ll see how that pans out.

I’d also like to give the rabbits some kind of hide-away. I’m thinking Rubbermaid bin. Will post pictures when its all said and done.

I knew that I needed a floor that would work for the rabbits and for their dutiful slave, yours truly. Carpet was completely out, both because of possible soiling issues, and my fear that they might eat it. Foam mats would provide good traction, but like carpets and rugs, they’re an eating hazard. And Rex will eat just about anything.

My bedroom floor is laminate vinyl tile, which is nice, but it scratches and stains far too easily. So, faced with this dilemma, I did what any rational bunny mom would do: I went to Home Depot and ran my fingers over each and every sample of flooring they had, using my fingernails to simulate a rabbit’s claws to determine which one provided a moderate level of traction for hopping around. What I found was a textured tile of the peel-n’-stick variety:

Armstrong

Easy to install, easy to clean, and just 98¢ per square foot.

Ultimately, this tile doesn’t provide significantly more traction than the tile that’s on my floor. I’m sure if I had been willing to spend a little more time and energy (and money) I might have found a non-chewable-non-staining-easy-to-clean floor with great traction. But I didn’t, and so I stuck with the non-chewable-non-staining-easy-to-clean part. I would love to hear if others have had more success. Ultimately, we’ll have to find other, less permanent ways to increase the rabbits’ traction, such as grass mats.

In order to use the tile without permanently bonding it to my floor, I purchased a sheet of luan cut to the dimensions of the exercise pen: 4′ x 4′. The luan had to be lightly sanded and given a coat of latex-based primer to ensure maximum adhesion of the tiles. The luan cost me roughly $12, the primer was $6, and the dropcloth, roller, and other supplies were around $6. So that, along with the tiles, put me out a little over $40.

The priming was very easy to apply and dried quickly (thank you, Kilz). Laying down the tiles took maybe ten minutes, start to finish. As you can see, Stephanie had to make sure I was doing things just right.

And when it was all finished, I had to admit, it looked pretty good (note: board and tiles are very heavy, I recommend working in the area you intend the flooring to remain)