A friend gave me a free cage. Question about plastic bottom.

[Bovril]

A friend gave me a very spacious cage (I'll upload a pic when I'm not doing this from my phone) but it needs some work. I'm going to replace all the shelves with pine, etc.

My question is with the plastic bottom. The cage sits in a plastic tray, but its not attached in any way. Is that bad?

Also, I know that plastic can be a problem due to chewing. Is this issue with the raised plastic sides being reachable from inside the cage, or do they somehow chew the actual flat floor? (Or both?) I want to know whether I just need to protect the sides or if I should invest in hardware cloth for the bottom too. Thank you!

 

[Dreamlite]

If the inside is smooth it would be difficult for the? To chew. I've used plastic bottomed cages before. You just have to watch that they don't chew the edges.

 

[Basket_of_Chinchillas]

Some people blanket the bottom and up the sides of the plastic with fleece, so that the edges of the fleece come out on the outside of the cage (if that makes any sense) and the plastic is not accessible for chomping. Although it might turn out that you have a fleece chewer With plastic bottoms the important thing is to keep a close eye on it to see if the chin is showing any interest in chewing it. Also, a chin that ignores plastic at first might one day change its mind and decide it's good for a chomping!

 

[Mystic]

My first cage was a wire cage that sat in a plastic bottom. The plastic bottom had wheels so the cage easily maneuvered around and the plastic was pretty hard so I never had problems with my chinchillas chewing on it, but it does all depend on your chinchilla and like the previous poster above me said: he could ignore it for days or even weeks and then decides to start chewing.

 

[Cuddlebug]

Also, once they decide to chew it, they can chew a hole large enough to escape in as little as 15 minutes. I have seen this happen with my own eyes. I used to have a small cage with a plastic bottom that I used to pu the chins in when I cleaned their cages. I put a pair in it and went out to spray down the cage. I was outside for 15 minutes and when I came back, they had chewed a hold in the bottom and were running around the room having a blast.

 

[halfstache]

If this is one of those super pet cages that they sell at all the pet stores I'd recommend adding some hardware cloth to the inside of the cage running down the inside of the plastic pan so that the wire of the cage extends all the way to the flat bottom, if that makes any sense. That way even if they reach through the wire at the top rim of the plastic they can't chew a hole where they can escape from it. In the meantime though, keep an eye out for a better cage if possible. Plastic always has the possibility of being chewed through, and once they set their minds to it, they are really fast at completely destroying a plastic pan. For example, I had a chin in a ferret nation which still had the plastic tray in it at that time. She was in the cage for quite a while and showed no signs of messing with the fleece or plastic underneath it. Then one day out of no where she decided that chewing the plastic tray was the worlds greatest activity and in a matter or hours while I was at work she chewed up about 1/3 of the entire tray. Basically if they can get to it, they will chew it eventually.

 

[ZachMan]

Can you custom make a piece of wood for the bottom to cover it? That's what id suggest.

 

[Godofgods]

Also, once they decide to chew it, they can chew a hole large enough to escape in as little as 15 minutes. I have seen this happen with my own eyes.

I can definitely second that. My oldest guy chewed a whole so large in a plastic tray that several chins could probably fit through there at once.