# Help! escape artist strikes again!



## Imbrium (Oct 11, 2012)

So there I was, walking back to my room with a cheese sammich thinking everything was as it should be... when suddenly Nala came out from between the couch and the playpen, hopping along like she owned the house!!

I can't for the life of me figure out how she could get out - the walls of the pen consist of the condo, two 4' high playpens and a couple stretches of "filler" made from NIC grids (three grids high). I was SURE their area was escape proof with the new 4' tall pens!... but oh, how wrong I was.

I tried to lure her in with raisins, but she wasn't having it. she ran under the piano and ran me in circles, then went between the pen/condo and the built-in entertainment center where she knows I can't fit, then into the kitchen, then back between the pen and the built-in, then way back over by the couch, then back under the piano and then she paused just long enough while sitting on the carrier for me to nab her. worst part is halfway through the chase, I realized that my sammich had fallen on the floor!

excuse the obvious clutter... I live alone and never have people over and my house reflects that >.<

here's pics going around the entire pen in the exact condition it was in when she escaped:

the door to the pen, which I *always* double-check to make sure all three latches are hooked shut:



















































(nothing on the TV tray was disturbed, and the camera had been sitting upright on it until I started snapping pics, so there's no way she could've gotten on that)

fwiw, the upper floors of the condo are closed off right now. also, there's no way she got out under something because even I can't lift the pen more than like a quarter inch off the floor... and every place where things are ziptied together are secured with multiple ties the whole vertical length of the connection.

anyone have a clue how she got out??


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## I_heart_Fraggles (Oct 11, 2012)

It could be the smallest thing she is squeezing threw. I remember for the longest time I could not figure out how my 60 pound standard poodle was getting into the basement after I put her outside. I put her out one day and hid in the basement....I watched her squeeze threw a 10 by 10 inch square window that had been missing its glass....Again she was 60 pounds and 29 inches tall... A giant for a standard poodle! They get threw the smallest things.


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## Imbrium (Oct 11, 2012)

I know she can get her head through the gap between the bars of the playpen, but *barely* and she definitely can't get the rest of her body through (luckily her head can't get stuck since the gap's too tall for her ears to get caught like when she got stuck in a NIC grid as a baby). I checked that thoroughly 'cause I was a bit concerned at first when the pens arrived and I realized how big the spacing was.


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## Imbrium (Oct 11, 2012)

argh! this is gonna drive me nuts until I figure it out!


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## MiserySmith (Oct 11, 2012)

Could she have jumped on that blue box thing to escape? That would be my guess, unless she's learned how to actually climb.


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## agnesthelion (Oct 11, 2012)

Is she climbing out?? Yikes, thatnwould be quite the jump from the top though.......


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## Imbrium (Oct 11, 2012)

blue box thing isn't more than a foot and a half tall, tops... playpen it's up against is four feet tall. I got the four foot tall one specifically so they could have boxes and stuff up against the sides and NOT escape.

if she did go over something, it's a 42-48'' drop back down to the floor, depending on if it was a NIC grid section or a playpen section. even if she learned to climb the grids, I can't imagine she'd climb well enough to make it all the way up three of them, let alone want to jump over and down.

this pen was supposed to be escape-proof, darn it! this is her third escape since I got her. first time, she got over a 1-grid high playpen at 9 weeks, then tried to get back in by going THROUGH the freaking grid (I had watched long enough to be convinced she couldn't jump it, too), which is how she got her head stuck in it. second time, the ware plastic tunnel was up against a 24'' portion of the playpen and she climbed on it and jumped out. this time... I'm just stumped.


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## qtipthebun (Oct 11, 2012)

My guess: she hops on top of something and springs over the top. Q can make the 2 foot hop up to my chair in her sleep, and I've seen her binky as high as a doorknob, so they can jump pretty high. I just don't know what she'd be hopping on to hop over....
I'm thinking live bunny cam!


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## Imbrium (Oct 11, 2012)

I've been tempted for ages to put a bunny cam in there! I need some sort of alarm system that tells me when a bunny breaches the perimeter, too... god only knows how long she'd been out - it had been at least 3h since I'd been out of my bedroom.

thing is, less than a week ago, they had 24'' and 29'' playpens around the enclosure and weren't able to jump those and nothing she can stand on that was remotely close to the sides other than the TV tray that was covered in undisturbed clutter is anywhere close to 2' tall, which would still leave another 2' to clear and a 4' drop...


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## LakeCondo (Oct 11, 2012)

I think she's a climber & goes up from horizontal bar to bar. If so, putting cardboard etc around the lower part of the pen should stop it.


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## MiniLopHop (Oct 11, 2012)

I think she's going under. Gary is a pro at lifting up his fence just enough to squeeze his head under, then he can push the rest of his body under, and it falls shut behind him! I had to catch him in the act before I could figure it out. He lets himself back in the same way.


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## ldoerr (Oct 11, 2012)

You would be supprised at how and what a rabbit can get out of. She could be climbing or she could be jumping out.


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## whitelop (Oct 11, 2012)

Are you sure she can't get her whole body through the gaps in the fencing? 
Are rabbits like cats, where they cat fit their bodies through as long as their whiskers fit? Because their whiskers are as wide as their bodies. 

So maybe she CAN get through and she just doesn't do it while you're around. 

But I think we're all missing the big picture here, you dropped your cheese sammich! That is just heartbreaking in itself. Me personally, I would have eaten my sammich and watched her be out of the pen, and I would have pondered her escape route over the sammich. 
Sorry y'all, I didn't get a lot of sleep. So I'm feeling kind of crazy today.


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## Bunnylova4eva (Oct 11, 2012)

If it was Ripley getting out, I could guarantee you he'd be jumping over from the blue bin the 5th picture...then again RIpley is known for being a SUPER high jumper anyway. He does it like its nothing-Ripley just looks at me like "No Biggie, what your problem hooman?!"


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## TCB579 (Oct 11, 2012)

Bebe could jump or climb out of any pen without a roof. I watched her jump up and catch on to the NIC pen she was in then climb over the top, and that pen was three grids high at the time. I gave up on keeping her in a pen after that.


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## HolyHandGrenade (Oct 11, 2012)

She's probably hop-climbing up the playpen like Orlena mentioned, just getting her feets in the horizontals long enough to push up and over. I've seen a video of a little bitty bunny getting out of an enclosure like that, but can't find it right now. Either install cardboard a foot or two tall (from the floor up) (on the outside maybe so she doesn't tear it off?) or install a "lip" (partial roof) around the perimeter so even if she does climb up, she'll bump into it and won't be able to go over or get around it. Good luck!


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## Nancy McClelland (Oct 11, 2012)

Bambi can make a 30 inch jump no problem and she's a mini Rex. Ted, Stewart, and Mr. B could all climb their way out. Saw Ted go over a 60 inch barricade with that same spacing. Peter, a full size Chin colored boy could make over a 36 inch jump. With a box or higher starting point the sky, or my stereo wires were the limit.


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## hokankai (Oct 11, 2012)

I doubt she's squeezing through, even though I chased a hare and it escaped through one of the squares in our chainlink fence...but if that were the case the cage pen would be pushed in one direction where she attempted to squeeze through.

My guess is the blue box and hopping over. Rabbits can spring incredibly high if they have the motivation!


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## Imbrium (Oct 13, 2012)

she hasn't gotten out again, so I haven't had the chance to catch her in the act. she definitely didn't go under because *I* can't even lift up the pens more than a fraction of an inch at best... they're very heavy, especially since there's a lot of panels connected together.

I've seen her try to go through the openings on numerous occasions - she gets most of her head through and then can't go any further.

if she gets out again, I'm gonna try using grids to make a lip around the inside of the top of the pens so that if she is climbing, she won't be able to get over the top (though I spend a LOT of time in there with them and have never seen her try to climb).


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## Imbrium (Oct 13, 2012)

she escaped again last night... I'd been hanging out in their cage for a while (took a nap in there, too ), then decided to go to the kitchen for a snack. < 2 mins later, I go back to the living room side of the pen and see Nala over by the kitchen side... on the wrong side of the pen! I was even more baffled, as she would've had to get out near that area b/c she didn't have time to go too far and there was NOTHING there for her to stand on. I also thought she couldn't have climbed because wouldn't I have heard the clanking of the pen shifting and heard a 3 lb bunny plop to the floor from 4 feet up??

either I wasn't listening hard enough or the TV was on and masked the sound because a few hours later, I caught her in the act of a failed escape attempt! she was on the playpen part (not the NIC grid makeshift fencing), about 3/4 of the way up right beside the condo. maybe using the condo to assist in the climb? I didn't get the best view since she fell back into the pen as I walked into the room and the overhead light wasn't on.

HOW THE HECK DOES SUCH A TINY BUNNY SCALE A FOUR FOOT TALL PEN??

here's the pen, I have the 48'' tall one - https://secure.petco.com/Shop/Product.aspx?SKU=31330

I could really use some ideas for preventing her from making it over the top of that. I was hoping she was climbing the NIC grid portion, which would be easier to deal with because there's not as much of it... but nope, straight over the 4' tall stuff, which means it would take a lot of grids to build a lip all the way around and it would get in the way of the doors for me to get in and out.

I'm not entirely opposed to trying to fashion a lid, but then I'd like a way to make it about 5 1/2 feet in the middle of the cage so that I can stand up fully... not sure what I'd do about lighting if I had a lid, though, unless maybe it was mesh?

I don't have a whole lot in the way of tools or know-how, but I do live a few blocks from Home Depot and have learned my way around the place from building stuff for bunnies and hammies so I'm open to any ideas!

oh, and it'd be nice if I could still watch TV from the pen, lol. one of the three-grid-high NIC grid stretches of the fence is set up like that specifically because the playpen was so high it blocked part of the TV while the 42'' NIC fencing does not.


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## agnesthelion (Oct 13, 2012)

I wondered if she was climbing! What a little rascal! I think it's mildly entertaining that she waited while you were gone for just 2 minutes to get out.

Hmmm, let's see. Is there something you could wrap around the bars so she couldn't climb? I'm trying to think of something for a lid but that's an awfully big area.......maybe something that you could put just on the top so it makes like an extra lip so she can't go over........lemme brainstorm a bit, nothing is coming to mind......


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## Imbrium (Oct 13, 2012)

on the plus side, at least I'm no longer being outsmarted by a baby bunny, heh. much better than having no idea how she was getting out!


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## JBun (Oct 13, 2012)

I think a few others have suggested something like this. You could take some cardboard or posterboard and ziptie or tape it to the fencing, part way up, so that in her climb she'll hit the smooth board and won't be able to climb past it. Maybe put it somewhere in the middle. High enough that it's not getting chewed on, but not so high that she could get injured when she has to give up and drop back down to the ground. Not that she hasn't already dropped down several times already 

But first, you just have to get a picture of her climbing. I would love to see this little tiny bun climbing that big pen fencing.


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## Imbrium (Oct 13, 2012)

I'd love a pic too, lol. she won't do it when I'm around, though. when I caught her, she thought I was in the bathroom and I snuck up on her... even if the camera had been in my hands and turned on, I wouldn't have been able to get the shot before she fell >.>

halfway up is a great idea! I was worried about her chewing it up or ripping it apart, but if it's not at floor level, she won't. I'm pretty tired now, so I'll probably sleep in the pen again and do it first thing when I wake up... don't wanna ruin perfectly good play boxes, so I guess I'll get some poster board from the store. good thing I've still got tons of zipties 

I'm so thankful she hasn't managed to hurt herself from the drop back down after climbing to the top!


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## Imbrium (Oct 14, 2012)

waiting on the rain to stop so I can go for my morning walk, then shower and go shopping to pick up poster board. I found a piece of foam board in the back bedroom, though, and zip-tied it to the wall of the pen right beside the condo where I'd caught her climbing yesterday and so far she hasn't escaped today (I swear I heard her trying and then slipping off the foam board, lol). 

yet again, the scratch awl came in handy - funny how useful a tool can be when I didn't even know it existed until a month or two ago, lol. I keep finding things I want to punch holes in


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## agnesthelion (Oct 14, 2012)

I think the poster board will work and it won't break the bank either. Post pics and let us know how it works!


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## Imbrium (Oct 14, 2012)

yeah, last I checked that stuff is dirt cheap. here's what I've done so far (the problem corner that I caught her climbing in):


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## agnesthelion (Oct 14, 2012)

That HAS to work! Unless you have a super hero houdini bunny, i dont see how she could climb past that.


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## Imbrium (Oct 14, 2012)

shhh, don't tempt her to prove you wrong! that's what happened to me and my original assertion that the pens were escape proof!


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## ldoerr (Oct 14, 2012)

I agree that Awls are VERY handy. We have had them for years. They can even punch holes in sheet metal (trust me I have done it). I use mine at least 1x per week. The one that I use is at the very least 10-20 years old and still works wonders. (It was my grandpas before he died).


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