How to Decorate Your Rabbit Hutch or Cage for the Holidays!

Did you ever wonder why so much time and effort is put into decorating a Birthday Cake? The minute the candles are blown out, the cake is sliced up and eaten. The hapiness that the decorated cake brings when it is first seen is worth the effort! Why not decorate your rabbit hutch or cage and bring a little happiness for the holidays!

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• At least 2 small animal beddings of contrasting colors
• Cookie Cutters
• Tin Foil
• Items to create shapes or words
• Rabbit Dropping Pan
• Imagination

1. Rabbit Hutches and Cages are "necessary evils" when you have an indoor pet rabbit. Rabbits should be considered as "indoor pets", and thankfully, the housing options for rabbits are becoming more "home-friendly". As most rabbit owners know, there is the dreaded "dropping pan" under the hutch or cage. This pan helps keep the floor under the cage from ultimately becoming the bunny's potty. I suggest that with a little time and imagination, the dropping pan can become something to show others and brag about, instead of hiding from guests and loved ones!
2. Assuming that the rabbit hutch or cage is in your home, think of the dropping pan as a 30in. by 36in. canvas. This concept works best for rabbits that are litter trained, as the pan will stay cleaner and thus more decorated, for a longer period of time. Rabbit litter training can be very simple, and our web store offers free tips on litter training, which can be found in my bio at the end of the article.
3. Take the dropping pan out, empty it and clean it as you would normally. We suggest using recycled paper litter, or one of the natural small animal litters that are widely available. Small animal litter manufacturers are now making their products available in different colors, which gives this idea for holiday decorating an opportunity to be more creative.
4. Lets assume that you want to decorate your hutch for Christmas. The logical colors would be red and green litters. An easy plan for holiday decorating would be to go to a dollar store, garage sale or even your unused kitchen items drawer and select several cookie cutters, shaped like Christmas shapes. Furthermore, assume you get a Christmas Tree shape, a Bell shape and an Ornament shape.
5. Begin by deciding what layout your decorations should appear in. It is easier if you have the "open top" style of cookie cutter. Put the cookie cutter in the pan where you want it to go. Fill the cookie cutter to an appropriate level with your first colored litter, then pack the contrasting color litter around the outside area of the cutter. If you wish to reuse the same shape, carefully remove it and lay it in the next spot and repeat the fill, both inside and outside. If you are using each shape only once, lay out all the shapes and fill the entire pan, both inside the cutters and outside, before carefully removing them.
6. Once the cookie cutters are removed, you can slide your masterpiece back under the bunny's cage or hutch. If you do not wish to get cookie cutters, you could form your holiday shapes out of folded tin foil strips, folded so they are sturdy enough but and bent into shape. This is a good method for more imaginative shapes including letters. As long as the bunny can not get to the tin foil below his cage, you could simply leave the tin foil in place to help keep your design fresh.
7. Now, some people might ask "why should I decorate my hutch for the holidays?" Well, there are as many answers as there are people. Remember the Birthday Cake in the beginning of the article. In reality, the cake is made for eating, not as a decoration. It is the "wow factor" that matters. The candle-blower gets the "wow" - the family and guests get the "wow" - then they eat!
8. Now, some people might ask "why should I decorate my hutch for the holidays?" Well, there are as many answers as there are people. Remember the Birthday Cake in the beginning of the article. In reality, the cake is made for eating, not as a decoration. It is the "wow factor" that matters. The candle-blower gets the "wow" - the family and guests get the "wow" - then they eat!
9. Now, some people might ask "why should I decorate my hutch for the holidays?" Well, there are as many answers as there are people. Remember the Birthday Cake in the beginning of the article. In reality, the cake is made for eating, not as a decoration. It is the "wow factor" that matters. The candle-blower gets the "wow" - the family and guests get the "wow" - then they eat!
10. "Wow Factors" can be best when they come from unsuspecting sources. How much "wow" would a child get on Christmas morning, when they find that Santa brought them a pet bunny - and the pan has Christmas shapes in it, or even the words "Merry Christmas Billy" in the litter? Colorful Easter Eggs would be a natural as a design to spruce your hutch up for Easter. How about a big Heart on Valentines Day or even Firecrackers Exploding on the Fourth of July!
11. The list is only limited by your imagination. Consider a "Happy Birthday Stephanie" when it's your child's birthday, or "Happy Birthday Bugs" when it's your Bunny's birthday. "Welcome To Our Home" would be great for a first time guest to see, or how about a big "A +" each time your child gets a good grade. Decorating your hutch or cage as a regular event adds a little zip to an otherwise mundane fixture in your home. Many shapes and words lend themselves to this project, so always be on the look out for ideas. Simply keep the litter scoop handy, and with a little clean up and a couple of touch ups, you work of art should look good for a few days, and certainly long enough to celebrate a holiday or special event. You have to clean the pan and change the bedding on a regular basis anyway. Why not express yourself and have some fun!