I recently decided I needed to get a new carrier for Mickey; getting him out of the one I have is often difficult because of the narrow side opening, and it's looking pretty worn after many years of rabbits gnawing and scratching on it. I do much of my pet supply shopping at the Drs. Foster & Smith website, so I went there and found the Large Travel Home shown here. It seemed to have everything I wanted: a large top opening, a cage-like style so Mickey could see what was going on and I could see what he was doing without much effort, and a reasonable price.
The carrier came on Friday--and I could tell already there were going to be problems. While the carrier itself was the perfect size for Mickey, the so-called "extra-large opening" was definitely not. The carrier walls fit together via hooks-into-openings, but the design of the hooks prevented them from latching into the openings properly. The plastic base that the metal walls were supposed to fit into didn't appear to have much there to keep the walls from popping out apart from some very tiny notches in the base. The carrier handle didn't have anything to keep it attached to the cage other than the two holes it was placed in, and it was barely fitting in those.
I was not happy, but at the same time, I did not want to deal with the cost and time involved with sending it back, so I decided to see it I could make it work. I pulled the hooks out a little with pliers so that they fit into their slots properly. I took a pair of wire cutters and widened the opening at the top enough so that the door still worked properly, but there was more space for Mickey to get in and out, then covered the cut areas with duct tape to prevent the possibility of him getting scratched. Once I'd fit the walls together, they popped into the base so tightly that it didn't seem possible that they could separate even if I wanted them to, but I tested it anyway just to be sure. Lastly, I used the pliers to squeeze the handle ends in at an angle so they fit properly and didn't pop out. I gave it a test run with Mickey yesterday when I took him out of the cage to groom him and everything worked just fine.
Today, I brought him to the vet's for a checkup and to be knocked out for a proper tooth filing. I put Mickey in the new carrier, drove to the vet's, took him out of the car, walked into the vet's office, began to lift the carrier to put it on the counter...
...and the bottom--and Mickey--fell right out of it onto the floor.
Thankfully, he wasn't hurt (and at least we were at the vet's if he had been), but I was simultaneously horrified and mortified. I scooped up Mickey and checked him for injury; he was understandably freaked, but not injured. The receptionist quickly brought us into an exam room and the vet was there within minutes. I explained what happened and she checked him over thoroughly before she took him in for his tooth filing. Once he was situated, I went out to the waiting room and put the carrier back together. When it was time to take him home, I made sure to carry the carrier by the base and not the handle.
Once we were home and Mickey was settled down in his cage, I went to the F&S website and not only emailed them telling them about my experience, but wrote a review of the carrier stating all the problems I had with the carrier. In both cases, I recommended that either a weight limitation be listed for the cage or it not be listed as being appropriate for rabbits. The Large Travel Home is listed as being for "rabbits, ferrets, chinchillas or transporting multiple small pets at once". In reality, it could hold a ferret or a very small rabbit, maybe, but nothing more than that. Mickey weighs 5 lbs.; if that carrier can't handle a rabbit his size, I'd shudder to think what would happen if you placed "multiple small pets" in there.
So now I have a new carrier coming; I went to the cat section and ordered a small Double Door Vari-Kennel; it's over twice the price of the Large Travel Home, but at least I know it's not going to fall apart on me. Since I can't return the LTH because of the modifications I made, I'm going to use it as a place for Mickey when I'm cleaning his cage, so it's not a total loss, but it still annoys the hell out of me that it wasn't the carrier it appeared to be.