Building A Chinchilla Cage Questions

[chinchillachris]

Hello Everyone,
Lately I have found myself very unhappy with my chinchilla's double Critter Nation cage. The pans are super shallow (and the Bass metal pans need to be painted or powder coated plus, they don't make the metal pans for the smaller middle levels on the top and bottom of the cage), the wire bars easily break when you attach an exercise wheel to them, and I just feel like it's poor quality. So, I've decided I would like to build my own cage! Currently I am in the preliminary planning process, I've been doing some research and seeing what it takes to build one of these cages. I shouldn't have much trouble during the assembly of the cage since my grandfather who lives with us is a very handy engineer, my brother is very good a building things, and we have a close family friend who we can call upon for some emergency help. But, I need some advice about materials. For those of you who have built cages, or who are familiar with building cages, I have some questions:
1. What materials did you use for the walls, shelves, etc.
2. Is melamine coated wood a good material for a chinchilla cage? I've heard from some that it's great and super easy to clean, but other have said that a chinchilla can get sick if it starts gnawing on the melamine which is toxic.
3. How did you secure shelves, etc? Did you use gorilla glue or liquid nails? Did you just screw them in, or, if you have an all wire cage, how did you attach the shelves?
4. Was your cage solid sides with a wire front, or was it all wire? If it was all wire, what type of wire did you use? Would you recommend using vinyl coated wire?
5. Finally, do you have any blueprints, plans, or pictures from cages that you have built. A blueprint or plan that I can base my cage off of would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you everybody for reading my very long post. You guys are always very helpful when I have questions! By the way, I will make sure to do ALL necessary research and planning before I jump into this project and I will always have my chinchillas safety in mind when building!
~Chris

 

[breevass]

1. You can either build it out of wood (NO pesticides, NO treatments, NO unsafe woods). Or out of a metal bird cage, or something of similar sturdy stature.

2. Don't get any sort of coated woods. WAY too many things are TOXIC to chinchillas if ingested, and we all know how much they love to chew on anything/everything.

3. The safest way to secure wood on wood would be screws. But, make sure they are somewhat removable without completely damaging the external wood, in case you have to replace that shelf from chewing, staining, etc. I would personally suggest a metal frame with wooden shelves, because you can get those metal screw/bolt and wingnut things that you can secure in the wood, but hold tightly in place on the metal. (Like the ones on the back of high quality wheels!)

4. If you have the cage in a corner of a room, where at least 2 sides are covered, you can have the ease of shelf replacement and still let them feel secured by enclosure. I wouldn't say go for vinyl covering so much, because they can just chew it off and ingest, as with everything

We're still in the process of our's, but I understand your frustration with store bought cages. Just make sure that everything is sturdy sturdy sturdy, and watch your wood to make sure they don't get splinters or cuts!

You can always PM me. I try to get on frequently and try my best to help out a fellow chin parent when at all possible!

GOOD LUCK!

 

[chinchillachris]

Thank you for your advice. Please keep me posted on the building of your cage, I would love to see some pics when your done

 

[ccchins]

chinchillachris....please let me know the dimensions that you want your cage to be and how many chins it is going to hold. I will draw up some blueprints and you can go from there.

 

[chinchillachris]

Thank you so much ccchins! I love it if you could make up some blueprints! I would like the cage to be about 65 inches tall, 38 inches wide, and 33 inches deep. Also, if you can incorporate it into the prints, I would like some wheels on the bottom of the cage, and fairly large doors on the front of the cage. Thank you again

 

[lilanniesmommy]

Just a suggestion on hidey house. My husband made one out of 1"×8" kd pine from lowes, but instead of
Using glue or screws he used bamboo skewers that I had bought at walmart. He pre drilled holes on the hidey smaller than the bamboo, cut the bamboo into pieces and then gently hammered them into place. So if annie does chew on her hidey there aren't any screws or glue to worry about. The skewers were about a dollar and in the bar-b-que section.

 

[chinchillachris]

Cool! I'll keep that in mind when building my cage. Skewers definitely sound a lot safer than potentially toxic glue or sharp screws. Thanks for the suggestion