Customer Reviews

Luna 82 Blue / Silver Hutch

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I implore all rabbit owners NOT to buy this cage. Don't be fooled by the high price; in this case, it does not indicate good quality. My rabbit was almost killed this morning, when she stuck her head out of a little door (that should have had a latch to keep it closed), and the tray, which was rigged with a bungee cord for reinforcement, fell out from beneath her. The door clamped closed on her neck, and she was suspended, choking. Thank God my mom heard the commotion and was able to save her before she went into shock or was suffocated.

I have heard horror stories about cages from this company, even those that are of a completely different design than mine. My rabbit survived; another small animal might not be so fortunate. There are so many safe cages out there for less money; continue your search and stay away from this brand.

Amazon shipped this amazingly fast (had it the next day even with the free shipping) BUT - the base was cracked badly in several spots and one of the clips was missing. I emailed Amazon and they shipped me another one at no charge. Meanwhile using packing tape, hubby fixed the broken tray and we decided to skip the house since it was missing a bracket. Hubby spent ages getting it together properly and even then the base popped out one morning leaving a very bewildered rabbit on the floor along with a lot of mess. Thanks to a bungee cord, it was back in place.

Then came the new one. Nothing cracked, thankfully, but it was the dickens to put together. Pieces kept sliding apart because its so poorly made - especially for the price. Finally, with great difficulty, he screwed on some metal brackets to keep the thing from detaching. We have a bungee cord across the base underneath again. OTH, Nickel the bunny loves his new hutch and there's much less mess than with the outdoor hutch we were using at first.

Now to the point of this whole thing.... If I'd known what I know now would I have bought it? NO. Cage is nice, but the quality makes it way overpriced.

We have 2 large guineas that needed more space so we opted for the Luna 82 by Marchioro. Though it is marketed for rabbits it works great for our cavies but I would forewarn any cavie owners out there to make sure that yours are large enough that they cannot escape through the wire mesh before purchasing this product. I would argue against those that state that this product is made poorly. The frame and wire mesh are heavy duty and assemble tightly to provide a sound framework for the rest of the product. The peripheral items, e.g. water and feed dispenser, hay rack, etc. are pretty cheaply made but most of us already have a good version of these items on hand and so merely substitute these in their place. I personally believe that the negative comments re: craftmanship are more a result of improper assembly which I lay to blame squarely on Marchioro. There are no step-by-step instructions; merely a series of poor-quality photographs that leave you guessing about most of the assembly. I finally resolved myself to put it together based on my experience of having put together hundreds of like items from the past. If put together properly (which I finally managed to do) everything fits tightly and operates smoothly. Nothing is loose or flimsy and neither did I require a bungie cord to hold anything together. Marchioro....take a word of advice, improve your assembly instructions and photographs so that consumers can put your product together correctly and I think you'll find most consumer's negative remarks will take care of themselves.

I have a lionhead rabbit that is semi- free range in the house. I put her in a pen at night or when we are gone and cannot supervise her.

Points about this cage:

PROS:
- The size is spacious. Shamwow has space on the bottom level and the loft where she usually sleeps.
- The pull out litter trays are easy to clean.
- The raised cage makes it much easier for me to clean and tend to the rabbit.
- The easy opening top lid makes Shamwow retrieval easy.
- The cubby hole box seems to be Shamwow's favorite thing in the world, though she uses it as her bathroom and leisure zone.
- The hay box is a nice touch.

CONS:
- The water bottle is craptastic. It loads from a lid at the top and does not securely fasten onto the cage, so basically I have stopped using it after big water spills on the floor. And it leaks.
- The food dispenser is OK but could be more efficient if the bowl went further into the cage to accommodate Shamwow's fat little adorable head. But it works. (I put in a small second food bowl for her.)

Assembly:
I put this together myself and I am notoriously horrible at putting things together, but I did so in about a half an hour with no troubles.

Safety Issues Mentioned By Other Posters:
- I have not found any dangers myself. But when Shamwow comes out of the BunHut it is me lifting her out so all doors remain locked except the big top lid, but keeping what other posters said in mind, I will reinforce any doors that could hurt the mighty furball.

Overall, I am very satisfied with this Bun Hut (as we call it- Shamwow eschews the word "cage") and feel it is a vast improvement over the previous ones I have owned (I have had bunnies for ten years).

DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT BUY ANY PRODUCT FROM THE COMPANY MARCHIORO!!!!!! Marchioro's products are so so very cheap!! Please believe me!!!! Here is my story, my daughter just turned 12 and she had a birthday party and with the money she earned from her birthday party she wanted to buy her rabbit a bigger cage. We both looked online for almost a month and we finally found one, the Luna 82 from amazon. when we found this product it said "Free super saver Shipping till May 27, 2010" it was May 25, 2010 so we bought it May 26, 2010. We were in a rush to buy it because we did not have to pay shipping! Now it says "Free super Saver Shipping" i am so angry we could have taken our time to look at the horrible reviews!! We finally got it and the first thing I noticed was that the little stair thing for the rabbit to climb on was broken. The second thing i noticed was that it did not come with directions!! only pictures of how to assemble the product and it was in black and white!! I did not understand very well but my daughter was able to figure it out. When i put it all together i put the metal bars on back words and blue paint was chipping off!! Finally after 2 or 3 hours it was finally set up and it was very very wobbly!!! When i put water in the water bottle it started leaking and my daughters rabbit could not figure out how to drink out of it!!!! Then it fell and made a big mess so i decided to buy a new water bottle. The thing for the hay did not even work!!! I put hay in it and it all fell out through the bottom!!! That made the mess even worse!!! my daughters rabbit's poop falls out from the bottom also!! Now for the balcony thing, My daughters rabbit loves to hop so one day he hoped in to his balcony and he fell right to the floor!!! What would have happened if we were not there? He would have chewed up all the wire and have gotten electrocuted and have died!! After he fell out my daughter noticed the balcony cracked and had broke!!!! My daughter started crying because she spent so much money to make her rabbit happy!!!! since there's a hole were the balcony is supposed to go he kept sticking his little head out and was about to jump, so then i got two clips to keep the door thing closed because I saw a review that a bunny almost died because he stuck his head out and the spring almost chocked him:( PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT OR YOU WILL HAVE BAD LUCK WITH IT!!!!! ITS THE CHEAPEST MOST WORST PRODUCT I HAVE EVER BOUGHT IN MY LIFE!!! I hope this was very informative to you!! There was nothing good about this product!!!

As some of the people warned there are problems with assembly. I have put together numerous things over the years, so I thought some bad directions wouldn't hurt me. They didn't but two of the crossbars were defective. I called the company here in the US. They said they would ship out the parts. I waited and waited, no parts. I called and found out there were backed up and everyone who had worked in the parts department was recently fired. So, they are grabbing more parts to send me. They have to open up a new box and select individual parts to send me, but they have to wait until their next shipment. So I have to wait another 1-2 weeks. It has been almost two months with a partially constructed cage, I guess I'll wait another 2 weeks.

This is a VERY CHEAPLY made product. I mean CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!!!!! I purchased 4 of these cages and paid the full price and shipping. While assembling, the screws kept stripping out the support "lip" bars. There is ZERO Pre-drilled hole to help the screws along. So I had to contact the manufacturer and get replacement bars on all 4 cages. This took a couple of weeks to arrive. Once they arrived, the EXACT same thing happened. (I even tried to pre-drill the holes to keep them from stripping. Did not work) So, I had to contact the manufacturer again and get replacement bars again. They were not as willing as before to send the replacements. Another 2 weeks pass by. And they stripped again. Now over a month has passed by. My husband help by securing the screws to the lip bars to hold better. However, this is still not that secure. There is "NOTHING" for the screw to grab and pull tightly! NOTHING! It's a VERY VERY Thin piece of cheap plastic that the screws goes through. It's NOT a solid piece of rubber or metal inside the bar for the screw to completely attach and tighten the cage. It's hollow! The weight of the bunny moving around in the cage, causes the bar to slowly turn downward. Thus the pan keeps falling down and the bunny is free to hop about. I had to attach cords around the bottom of the pan to keep the pan from continuously falling down. With 4 bunnies constantly running around and 4 cages to constantly reassemble, it is Frustrating!!!! Especially when these cages are NOT cheap in price! These cages are supposed to be the Top Of The Line. THEY are NOT NOT NOT! The cheap cages, in the retail stores, are better built than these.

On top of everything else, ALL 4 pans were cracked/broken. I had to use packing tape to hold them together. The manufacturer sent a total of 7 replacements. From the 1st shipment, 2 of the 4 pans were cracked and 1 was completely broken along the side. Packing tape would not work. I had to ship the broken pans back to receive replacements pans. HORRIBLE experience.
Not to mention that 2 of the 4 nesting boxes were broken/cracked. By this time, I had to send photographs of the broken pieces to receive replacements. And threaten to stop my Amex payment on the cages to receive the 2 replacement nesting boxes.
DO NOT PURCHASE!!!!! PLEASE Purchase something else and save your money, time and frustration! NONE of the lip bars are secure. They all turn with slight pressure.
PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE!

Update - July 26, 2010. The tray, that was supported by bunjee cords, cracked and broke apart at one end of the cage. The tray was hanging open on one end of the cage. My English Angora, Thumper, was killed this morning by dogs when the cage failed and she got out. What a piece of garbage. I'm calling the company TODAY!

AGAIN, please do not buy.

I bought this cage from another site and I had to return it. The directions are non existant and in Italian. The screws that are provided do not work, and there was no way to get them into the legs. I sent the unit back to the company when I saw the little opening for my rabbits to go into their nesting box. I knew they would never be able to get through the opening. Don't buy this cage.

This is an excellent home for my rabbit. I purchased another cage/hutch initially which was a complete disaster....it had 3 major design flaws. This cage/hutch however has none that I can see. It is sturdy and designed with attention to details that rabbits and rabbit owners will appreciate. My bunny (iHop) loves his new home. He has explored every square inch, and I can detect his approval. I read some reviews that warned of the dangers associated with the nesting box, and I considered simply not using it, but iHop LOVES the nesting box, so I put a bungee around the top-to-bottom, and I bungeed it around the sides and fastened it with the bungee to the cage itself. No way, no how with those bungees will I have any problems with the nesting box. (I do have to admit, that it was a bit flimsy before I added the bungees....and I didn't want to take any chances.) But so what if you have to add a couple of bungee cords. It is worth it. I am delighted with this rabbit cage, and so is iHop.

6+ Stars IMHO!!!

Wow! All the angry reviews here AMAZE me. I have owned three of these for around 8 years. They were a snap to assemble (20 minutes TOPS - America must be FULL of "mechanical midgets"). The accessories that come with the cage ARE nothing more than an after thought/junk. But the cage is THE reason for the price. The basic frame is very sturdy and solid enough to support MY weight once assembled (220 lbs!). The side grates are all nice powder coated steel. Nice access from the side OR top and the wheels make it very nice to move around. But the main *PLUS* of this cage is the base.

The bottom/base is a nice, large, deep, plastic tub (the "main tub"). A second grey plastic "living surface" drops into the large (blue) main tub and suspends bunny about 3 inches above the bottom of the main tub. Two blue "slide out" trays slide into the bottom of the main tub. The grey living surface has square holes in it that allow debris to fall into the slide out trays below. This makes for a *VERY* clean, hygenic environment for bunny (the entire "tub assembly" also slides out the left side for easy removal and cleaning). Now bunny is SO EASY to care for! Simply slide out the two small trays and "fling" them out on the lawn (bunny berries make GR8 natural fertilizer). Every 3 months or so, slide the entire assembly out the side and hose it off out front.

The rabbit hutch/nest box (that hangs off of the side) that comes with this cage is flimsy because it snaps together without any connecting hardware. My large bunny hopped into it and the bottom fell out; first time (because the sides were wobbly/lose and didn't hold the bottom in place). <lol> So I spent a little time, drilled a few holes and installed about $5 in hardware (6-32 nuts, bolts and washers) to hold the sides together first. The "repaired" hutch is then plenty sturdy for smaller breed bunnys (6 lbs or less).

It IS easy enough to remove the hutch; and the cage is 100% functional without it. The hole in the side grate for the hutch has a small door you can close and it comes with two nice plastic slide latches to hold it shut (they have to be installed by YOU during assembly and the "mechanically challenged" may not figure this out). I only use the side hutch for a nesting box for mother bunny. So I normally remove the hutch, close the side door and snap the latches.

I recently bred George (8 yrs old) and Acorn (3 yrs old); so Acorn (my Chocolate Doe) is nearly finished raising 3 lovely little kits. She nested and kindled in the plastic side hutch on her cage (I installed it once she started trying to "nest"). She even raised her young in there (by now they ALL spend 75% of their time out and about in the cage proper). Once they are weaned and have "moved out" I will once again remove the hutch, close the grate door and latch it shut.

As for the food dispenser, water bottle and plastic shelf that came with it? Pull them out and THROW them away (*I* did)! They can't have added more than $5 to the overall cost anyway. <lol> The hole where the food dispenser mounts also has a door that latches shut if it isn't used. The hay tray that comes with it is "OK" and I have used mine for the entire 8 years. To complete this cage you will need to add your own accessories. I added some after-market items:

1. Corner style litter box complete with metal grate (to keep bunny elevated above droppings and urine - bungle foot is NOT a good time!).

2. Ceramic food/treat crocks (one small one large). Cermic doesn't stain and is easy to keep clean and sanitary.

3. A GOOD quality water bottle (I found one that holds 48 ozs and can be filled from the top without removing the bottle). Bunny should **NEVER** run out of water (or hay)!

Long story short; this is the BEST cage I have ever seen (and I have tried DOZENS). I bought one for my girlfriend (7 years ago) and her kids fondly refer to it as their "Cadillac cage". I'm getting ready to buy another two for the babies (one for the boy, the other for the girls) here very soon, so I will update with a new, video review once I have recevied them.