Building a Cage

[Adrian J]

Hello all

I am planning on building my chinchilla a new cage, i will have all the supplies and everything, im just curious of anyone out there has built their own cage to see what they did, or if you could post up pictures of your cage so that i can get ideas to help me, also any suggestions would help

thank you

 

[Dolyphinm]

Well are you planning on making it out of wire or a melamine cage cuz that would change the way people answer this question.


If wire I fully recommend investing in a dremel.

 

[Spoof]

Metal: Dremel or wire shears. Wood: Miter and table/skill saw.

 

[ABBY W.]

A dremel is highly recommended no matter what type of cage you are building. I have built both kinds and the Dremel came in handy with both. If you are building a wire cage, having a straight edge for bending the wire around is very helpful, so you can get a nice clean bend. Also, a dremel attachment for grinding down metal is useful to soften sharp edges, and I highly recommend a good set of gloves. The edges of the wire will scratch the heck out of your hands and arms!

If melamine, you want to make sure you always pre-drill holes for screws. If you try to screw into melamine without a pre-drilled hole, it will often crack and splinter. It's not the easiest wood to work with, but it's well worth the effort.

 

[stargrazer]

building your own cage

I built my own cage over a few months time as I had to buy and make parts of it as money allowed. It turned out be a great cage and am very happy with it,
Here is the site I used for the build: http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/5102/cageplans1.html

I built a dolly type storage box under it with wheels and it gets the cage off the floor and makes it a little more mobile.
Also didn't use the wood they suggested (couldn't afford it). I used 1/2" plywood and glued a thin sheet of melamine onto it with liquid nails canister glue (took 3). All materials were bought at Home depot and they cut the large pieces for me (also came up with the idea of gluing the melamine to the plywood). It has been a great cage thus far albeit a bit heavy. With the wheels though it moves good and our chin Remi has tons of room to run and play. Also had to put metal edging on all edges I didn't want him to chew like the exposed melamine around the doors. It was a labor of love but well worth it.

 

[VolunteerChin22]

Melamine is extremely heavy. If you like attaching things like hammocks and tubes and things it is not always easy to move things around in a melamine cage unless you drill lots of holes. Plan ahead if you plan on getting/or have a wheel you want to put in because I built my melamine cages from a plan and didn't think about it.

You can order custom pans from Bass equipment for decent price no matter which material you use. Be sure to measure twice because they don't accept returns on custom sizes. Be sure to use kiln dried pine anywhere the chins can chew. Melamine contains formaldehyde and is not safe for chins to chew.

Be sure if you make your cage really tall that your chin cannot fall from high shelves and be injured.

Here is a pic of one of the melamine ones we built with a drawer underneath. They are from the spoiledchins plans. good luck!

ps. if you do the pull out pan flap, put the hinges on the bottom - hard to get the pan out and hold the flap up.

 

[Adrian J]

what kind of wire do you all use for the cage doors, is it sturdy enough to attach stuff to it? (wheels, hammocks)

 

[VolunteerChin22]

I used hardware cloth. I use 1/2 by 1/2 because I breed but 1/1in would do too. It's rolled and they sell it at home depot where the chicken wire is...Yes you can attach stuff to it if it's supported well, but probably not a wheel...

 

[Spoof]

I would use 1 x 1/2" if you were going to attach anything to the doors. It's sturdier than the 1/2 x 1/2.

 

[Rickman]

I built a few melamine cages myself, but if I were to again, I'd do it altogether different.
As mentioned, the 1/2 in. plywood is heavy, even more so with the melamine and glue.
Mine were 4' w x 4' h x 2' d, divided in half, and probably weighed over 100 lbs. with the shelves!
I'd use 3/8 plywood for the back, bottom, top, and divider, with the melamine, use 2x4's and 2x2's for the corners and horizontal side supports, [which could hold a wheel] and 1/2 x 1/2 x 24" hardware screen, stapled every inch to the wood, on the inside, so they can't chew the corners or doors!
Shelves could be attatched to the horizontal supports and back, and you'd end up with good ventilation, as the doors and both sides would be screen.
Get some pans made-up for the bottom, and you'd be good to go!
Good luck, whichever way you build!

 

[mishellyshel]

We are in the process of building a cage. Ours is wood & sheet metal. it is very large and will be split vertically to house our 2 chins boys that dont seem to want to live in the same space yet want to be next to eachother!!
its not finished but i attached pix of what we have so far. my fiancee is a union sheet metal worker so he has the metal break to bend it to cover some of the shelves. We used the hardware cloth. the larger size on the sides and the smaller size on the bottom. i had him make metal pans for the bottom so i can just brush the shelves off but i will use fleece as well and just shake it off the bottom but this way if the pee runs thru it will go in the th pans with the carefresh.
any exposed wood we used the kiln dried pine. ours will have 4 separate doors that way one cant try & sneak out when i am doing something with the other side.


i cant wait until its done........we are at the hardest part right now which is determining how the inside shelves will lay out. i have been searching the archives for pictures because i want it to be perfect!!

as as note the sides look flimsy but we have since put sheet metal in as support and they are very strong. i will upload the most recent pix later if i get a chance.

 

[Rickman]

Michelle - he could probably make some money if he can make custom pans!!

 

[mishellyshel]

hmmmm.........never thought of that!

 

[ChipNOreo]

I built my own cage last summer. I misread my plans and well, it didnt fit though the door to my room. So it was disassembled and brought in in pieces. The thing i really like about mine is it is divided into two cages that can be opened up at the bottom and combined into one. Currently it is two cages and will be for a while since two of my chins just will not get along.

Anyway, the basics on mine. The back and bottom are melamine. The top, sides, and doors all have a frame made of kd pine with 1/2 inch wire mesh, i think it is steel? it is whatever they sell at home depot. All of the wire is mounted between two pieces of wood. I put 4 doors on mine just so i could reach my chins wherver they may be hiding.
I do not have a tray in the bottom as of now. I have a hinged piece of wood that folds up so i can sweep out the old bedding. It latches in place when its not being cleaned.

The biggest drawback i have found is mounting my chinspin was terrible. There was no way to attach it to the wire because it is just too flimsy. I had to mount the chinspin on a piece of wood and then mount the wood to a solid part of the frame. It works well... except my chins spend a lot of time sitting on the chinspin instead of running in it.

Anyway, here are some pictures!

 

[ChipNOreo]

Oh! one more thing. Only the fist picture shows this. But i modified the shelves from the other pictures so that the farthest my chins can fall is about 2 feet should they somehow fall off a ledge. I just made sure there was no drop from the top of the cage all the way to the bottom.

 

[mishellyshel]

anna--our just barely fit in the door!! i thought we were going to have to do the same thing! we hope to finish it tomorrow, so i will post more pix this week.

 

[sierrachins]

Does anyone have links to websites with plans for melamine cages?
My husband and I are in the midst of building a huge 4 compartment cage for my herd.
I've tried explaining what I have in mind but we keep running into problems.

thanks!

 

[starleomach]

and the one in the works now

 

[chinchildren]

check the plans kindra has on spoiledchins.net

Does anyone have links to websites with plans for melamine cages?
My husband and I are in the midst of building a huge 4 compartment cage for my herd.
I've tried explaining what I have in mind but we keep running into problems.

thanks!

 

[ABBY W.]

Starleomach,

How did you cut all those cool shapes for shelves? Just a plain power saw, or something else? They are so much more interesting than my boring rectangular perches.