The Dog Palace Isn't Just For Dogs!

Sure, you've seen photos of dogs in our doghouses before. You've heard tell of cat colonies huddling inside the CRB to stay warm. But have you seen a photo of a goat using our Dog Palace? Have you heard about Pekin ducks living in the CRB? What about rabbits? A potbelly pig? Roosters? Tortoises? Monkeys?

Jude, a Dutch rabbit, in a modified CRB.

The dog palace was designed for dogs, of course, but you don't have to use it to house dogs. We've had photos emailed to us of a goat peering out of a dog palace, and there are plenty of comments in our reviews on various websites that list several other species who comfortably stay in our houses, sometimes with modifications.

On Wayfair, a customer who bought the CRB said that they used it to house their potbelly pig! Another reviewer on Wayfair cited using the Dog Palace as a duck house. One Chewy reviewer of the Dog Palace cites it as "purrfect" for their cat colony, and a customer on Sam's Club said the cats took the house from the dogs! (This appears to be a repeat occurrence, judging by the comments sections.)

There is also a conservatory that buys our houses to keep their monkeys safe and warm in their enclosures, and other reviews have mentioned roosters and tortoises staying in ASL Solutions houses.

Hey, a Dutch rabbit, outside a modified Dog Palace.

One person who modified their ASL Solutions houses is Abriana Iwanski, who was willing to talk with us for an interview. Iwanski's family used to have a fluffle of Dutch rabbits: two adults, Hey and Jude; and four kits (fun fact, baby bunnies are actually called kittens).

Her rabbits, who were believed to have been the same sex, had their babies unexpectedly. The rabbits already had a hutch, but with the advent of four surprise bunnies, an expansion was necessary. The insulated dog houses she already had were the perfect solution for the bunnies to still live outside, but also stay warm in the coming winter, especially with the newborns.

Jude and a human!

Iwanski's family converted their CRB and Dog Palace by taking the doors off and replacing them with doors that had to be manually opened and closed by humans, so the rabbits would stay safe and warm at night and could be let out in the mornings to hop around outside in their chicken-wire enclosure. They also laid cinderblocks in front of each house for the rabbits to use to get in and out of the houses safely.

An inside look at a modified Dog Palace.

They also installed hay feeders on the backs of the new doors as well, a feature they'd had in their previous hutch that the rabbits seemed to enjoy. The hutch was a fair ways off the ground, and Iwanski explained that rabbits often feel safer closer to the ground, so that was another plus for the Dog Palace and the CRB  it's closer to where they would be nesting in the wild than a hutch a few feet in the air.

The CRB is kitted out with a litter bin, a water dish, and plenty of blankets.

Iwanski said that the drains in the bottom of the houses make cleanup so much easier than in the hutches the rabbits were housed in previously, as though they were litter-trained, sometimes a little fecal matter got outside their litter box anyhow (true for many pets, some might argue).

Jude likes the hay feeder on the new door.

Do you have an ASL Solutions house that you use for animals other than dogs? Let us know in the comments below! And feel free to send us pictures, we love to see how people get creative with our houses.

Photo credit: Abriana M. Iwanski

Written by Skye Isabella Rose Iwanski