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Magyk

Magyk

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 18, 2011
Messages
68
Location
Calgary, AB
So, I've been planning to upsize Magyk's cage for quite a while now and I finally got one! I have a friend who was getting out of chinchillas and GAVE me this awesome cage! Big thank you to her for sure, it's beautiful!

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I'm going to have some clean up work to do (It's a little dusty and such, nothing some TLC won't fix) and I've got some stuff to work on before it's Magyk ready, I just wanted to know how the plan sounds.

It is 32" long by 22" wide and 4 foot tall (Not including the storage underneath, that is only living space)

First thing I plan on doing is buying enough wood so she doesn't have to be on mesh, as well as buying some more for shelves to be built. I plan on having two main floors so it will not be possible for her to fall from top to bottom, so the bottom and then in the middle will be another floor with a small hole under another shelf so it's not possible for her to, in any way, hit bottom.

Now, I was wondering for bedding, I've been using newspaper (Mostly shredded, which involves a lot of cleaning as well) since nothing else seems to work. Luckily, she rips up the newspaper but does not ingest it so I haven't been too concerned about problems from that. I've tried shavings and it gets EVERYWHERE and I was planning on getting her some fleece but my worry is, Magyk is a big time chewer. Give her something, she'll destroy it. So what are the odds she would just destroy any fleece covers I give her?

That ladder will also be moved, so no worries there. I was just wondering that if I put it sideways so it was along the cage parallel and not high, would it be safe for her to play on or should I remove it entirely?

I was also going to buy some PVC pipes tomorrow so I can attach it to the sides of her cage, it seems like something she would love. HOWEVER, I would have to be making fleece covers here as well. My worry is, if she chews through the cover and gets to the PVC, will chewing it hurt her?

I'm sure I'll think of more things to ask later. I have so many plans (Bridges, homemade hanging toys, hammocks (Which, hopefully, she won't chew), beds, handmade wooden houses) so I'm sure I'll be updating this thread as I go. I really wanna spoil my girl silly since she did have a bit of a rough start, hopefully have a huge cage like this will help :)
 
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are you putting wood on the bottom? i think that would get smelly, maybe not idk. you could put tile on the bottom.
she may chew the fleece if she's a big chewer. bedding does get everywhere, i don't really see a way around it. i use aspen. but i don't get it everywhere like i do her poo.
remove the ladder entirely, ladders and chins are not a good combo
idk about chewing on pvc so i can't help you there, hopefully someone else will chime in. :)
 
Alright, so the plan is now to get wood for the bottom and cover the majority of it with tile (The bottom is kind of an awkward shape, so I'm not going to have it fit perfect), hopefully that will help. I was hoping I would be able to litter train her to just pee in a container, so I hope that goes well.

I think if I can't use fleece, I'll stick to newspaper. It seems to be the one thing she doesn't chew/eat and the vet said newspaper should be a fine bedding as long as she doesn't eat it.

Alright, that ladder is outta there. I just gotta figure out a way to remove it, it's attached on there pretty good by metal.

Hopefully someone will know about the PVC...
 
Since she's a chewer, I'd go with steel tubes instead of PVC. My girls are both big-time chewers and Nixi chewed clear through the PVC tube and the fleece cover the first night she had it. She was rather proud. I could've killed her!

I wouldn't use newspaper for bedding. It's messy, smelly, can lead to impaction and the ink can stain her belly. You said she's a chewer, so while you may think she's not ingesting it, the liklihood that she's ingesting small pieces at a time is still pretty high, especially if you continue to use that bedding over time. I use aspen shavings as well, but I got the Bass pans for the FN cage to keep most of the shavings in the cage. They've made a huge difference in the clean-up process and are well worth the investment in my opinion. The dimensions of their "Ferret Pans" are close to your cage, but they also do custom sizing, so that's probably your best bet. Also, since the aspen is safe to chew, that helps her to get the gnawing out of her system without you having to worry about it.

If you don't want to do the Bass pans, I would go with tile for the floor, as Keisha suggested. The downside to wood floors is that you'll probably have to replace them regularly. Tile is easier to clean and doesn't need to be replaced, so you can spend all of your money spoiling her rotten instead.
 
Ouch, that must have been quite the unpleasant surprise in the morning to find. I'll start looking around for alternate tubes (I think I actually saw some metal ones while I was at Rona, so I'll look into those!). I actually have this large thing that we get dry soup mix in, it's metal and pretty big, I wonder if that would work instead?

I have a temporary flooring in there now that is half tile and half wood and I couldn't find tile to cover the floor completely. I'm going to look around for some more tile but if I can't come up with anything, I'll definitely look into the Bass Pans, those sound neat. I have some Kiln-Dried Pine Shavings that we use for our guinea pig, so perhaps I'll use that for temporary bedding for now. I was going to go out and get a little pan so hopefully she'll catch on to peeing in there quick. I've got all my critters except for the guinea pig and Magyk litter trained, so hopefully she'll be fairly easy. The poop isn't hard to clean up, but the pee is a little more of a problem. But even if she doesn't, I'll find a way to work around it. Is it generally hard to litter train them to pee in one spot? Should I get two pans so she doesn't have to go far between levels?

For now, this is what I have going,

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I have to wait until Dad gets home before I start drilling and such, but you get the basic idea. I have it so she has 9 different shelves she can bounce between and I have them placed so there is really no way she can go from top to bottom. The biggest fall she could possibly have is from the shelf that will be placed near the top of the wheel to the main shelf in the middle, and even then, it's highly unlikely as I'll have others ones placed around it.

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All the shelves are not put up yet and none of them have been secured yet, but for the few that are up, how does the placement look? (Note:The wire that is exposed in the bottom left will be covered by her litter pan before she gets in the cage)
 
I included the link to "steel tubes" and "bass pans" in my last post. :))

If you're going to try and litter train her, most people use pyrex baking dishes. Mine aren't litter trained, as I never transitioned to fleece liners, so I didn't see the need. When they're out for playtime, they just go back into their cage to pee. Vinegar and water will take just about any urine stain out, but I'm not sure if you can use it on wood or not. Regardless, you'll want to leave the stain on the glass so that they remember to go there next time. There are quite a few threads on litter training methods if you use the search feature at the top of the page.

Cage is looking good! I would add a little ledge to the bottom, just above the shelf on the right as a step up to the top level. On the top level, I would raise that shelf that's on the bottom right side an inch or two so that she doesn't hit her head in between levels. Also, if you put a little ledge immediately to the right of the wheel (attached to the back), that would bridge the gap between the top shelves a little better.

Once you add some hanging toys and hammocks, I think you'll have one very happy chin!
 
yup use hydrogen peroxide, the pee will bubble up and then scrub it away, and you can also sand down that spot after you use it.
 
Wow Laurie, you must have one crazy chewer to go threw PVC! Mine are pretty much untouched! I have heard of people using coffee cans, but you need to make sure it has no sharp edges, might save you some $$$ that way, but couldn't hurt to try PVC if it's the super thick stuff. Most chins are safe for it, but like above, there are exceptions!
I think you have a lot of fun ahead of you! The cage is awesome!
 
It looks like the big shelf placements are pretty good, it looks like some of the spacing between them might be awkward so you may want to build some leaping ledges to assist in getting between the levels, maybe lava ledges? Only problem with those would be since you said she is a major chewer she'd probably go through them pretty quickly ;)
As for litter training I think it really depends on the chin, for instance I have seen many people having problems with their chins peeing all over shelves and in houses and basically everywhere you don't want them to, but my guy pees in the same place in his bedding basically every time. I didn't train him to do it, he just did it on his own. I use KD pine shavings for his bedding and while it makes a total mess around his cage it doesn't smell much for me at all.
For chewing through the fleece to the PVC, I thought I heard somewhere that PVC was toxic, but don't quote me on that because I'm not positive. I've heard of people using the metal cans from coffee, I'm assuming that's kinda like what you are describing. I know that someone on here also sells metal tubes with covers (I believe that link was provided). My boy is a HUGE chewer, but besides testing out the fleece a couple times, he mostly leaves it alone and just sleeps on it. I'd say before you spend a lot of money, see how she reacts to the fleece and go from there as to what you'll use for bedding and what material you want to use for the tubes.
The cage is looking great! Can't wait to see some pictures of your chin enjoying (and possibly destroying, but that is enjoyable for them right?) the cage you've built for them!
 
PVC has been used for a very long time with success. A lot of people use it instead of cardboard tubes, which is another another option, unless your chins like to chew that up too! Some even use the PVC with out the fleece, like myself. Not all of mine are covered.
A couple of my chins have attempted at chewing the pvc but barely make a mark, and must have gotten bored and onto things they actually thought they could destroy, like their shelves!
Dawn (ticklechin) has tiles on the floor of her cages, but they are melamine cages. You could then add a pie plate, baking pan, etc and put shavings in to that for them to hopefully potty in.
 
I think the toxicity I was thinking of when it comes to PVC is mainly when you put it in the oven to melt it (like the bit that is in vinyl records when you melt them to make bowls) I use PVC tubes without an issue.
 
Not sure if your chin is a clumsy one (mine is a bit), but a few hammocks that act like safety net would help just in case your chin goes in a running frenzy, slips and falls off any of the ledges/shelves.

Other than that, that's a really nice size for a chin!
 
It's looking great, you've done a really nice job so far! If it were my cage I'd put a shelf directly above the chinspin so your chin doesn't try to jump on it and fall backwards as it starts to move :) but the chin of mine that did that is on the slower side lol, he continued to try to use it as a perch even though he fell each time. You could even just put a little ledge there so your chin has a spot to properly land if he jumps that way.
 
Twilight Chinchillas said:
Wow Laurie, you must have one crazy chewer to go threw PVC! Mine are pretty much untouched! I have heard of people using coffee cans, but you need to make sure it has no sharp edges, might save you some $$$ that way, but couldn't hurt to try PVC if it's the super thick stuff. Most chins are safe for it, but like above, there are exceptions!
I think you have a lot of fun ahead of you! The cage is awesome!
Click to expand...

Sorry I'm a little late on this, but YES! She's ridiculous! I'll try to get pics of the tube tonight so you guys can see. She's my little groomer and has quite the oral fixation. I think she was just trying to tell me she really, really, really loves her tube!
 
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