Critique my cage please!

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ChinnyMom said:
from what i have seen in stores, that is the 'gnawsome hut' or some such name, and it is made of plywood.

fleece liners for the cage bottom don't necessarily need to be sewn. quite often i will just fold a large piece of fleece in half so that it is two layers and the same square footage as the cage bottom (just shy of 2x3 feet by the way, is this cage's floor space). works great, and if my boys don't pee on the fleece too much, i get an extra day or two out of it by shaking it out, opening up the fold and folding it 'inside out'.
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Well I got in a fight with the sewing machine during the hammock making, but we reconciled, put our issues behind us, and moved on! Soo to expedite the process with the floor liners I just made them way too big and sewed the outside shut, seems exposed, but they should be well away from any chins reach outside the cage! BTW I added 2 extra pieces of double thick felt in between the layers! These 3 pads are like pillows and should help soften any falls!

Hammock and chin safety proofed ferret sleep cube! Took the fabric straps off and added fleece ones, and took the fabric off the opening! Not sure how long the opening will last but we will see!
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Dust baths are helping! She's still dirty though!
 
Looking good, Cosmo! You are doing a great job with modifying her cage to be as safe as possible. It's worth it for peace of mind too!
 
mistywaterwoman said:
If you don't want to use fleece, Kiln Dried pine bedding is fine and so is Aspen.
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Thanks, I had the old double thick fleece lying around for dog beds, so I used that and just bought some new fleece to cover it. I may switch it up between pine and the fleece just to keep her entertained;)

Aridan said:
Looking good, Cosmo! You are doing a great job with modifying her cage to be as safe as possible. It's worth it for peace of mind too!
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Thanks, I have 6 more ledges to add, which I'm sure is too many, and I also have a big hammock I'm gonna spread a little below half way down to catch her if she misses a jump. It should cover about 3/4 of the cage and anything it doesn't cover will have a ledge to catch her.

I thought I'd keep her low in the cage for awhile, but she can climb the wire cage itself, so I guess I'll be finishing those off tonight and finish setting the cage up.
 
Ok! Now how does it look? Made a new bedroom for her,
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Sewed 3 fleece liners and added, took out carefesh
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Sewed and added a big hammock half way down to stop a fall and added some ledges! She was climbing the walls of the cage anyways!
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That looks great, and I wanted to commend you for being SO willing to learn and take constructive critism and you actually sought out an opinion! You have one lucky baby!
 
momenteller said:
Looks great!
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InkedupTara said:
That looks great, and I wanted to commend you for being SO willing to learn and take constructive critism and you actually sought out an opinion! You have one lucky baby!
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No worries, thanks alot for the help. I'm a big member on 2 forums that involve reef tanks so it kills me that I didn't do this first. I just read with my boy for weeks on chinchilla care, but what happens when you do that, and not ask practical people that own them what to actually do? You get alot of crap you don't need and have to redo everything. I know that and should have joined earlier to set everything up. Oh well, my boy and I had fun making the stuff for it, well the stuff involving power tools lol, the sewing part, I'm not a fan of.

I think I'll be buying more fleece stuff from the vendors on here. Most of them seem really reasonable for what you get.

Thanks again for all the help;)

BTW, put a litter boc in there that was just a pyrex glass bowl with some soiled carefresh in it. Should I even get that out and just use pine for that too, or is that little bit ok?
 
Ok 1 other question, the cage is in the basement, man cave if you will, its where my boy and I spend most our time. But it has the standard small basement windows. I have the cage about 10 feet from a window. Is that enough light, or should I move it closer?
 
love the tunnels! but the pvc pipe will need to be covered in fleece or taken out. plastic isn't safe around chins, since they are likely to chew it and ingest bits of plastic pieces, causing impaction, bloat, or worse.

the cardboard tunnel is fine, as long as you don't see your chin actually eating/ingesting a lot of the cardboard.
 
ChinnyMom said:
love the tunnels! but the pvc pipe will need to be covered in fleece or taken out. plastic isn't safe around chins, since they are likely to chew it and ingest bits of plastic pieces, causing impaction, bloat, or worse.

the cardboard tunnel is fine, as long as you don't see your chin actually eating/ingesting a lot of the cardboard.
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OK, trying to figure out how to make a cover for this tubing, but I think i'm gonna admit defeat and say that this is well beyond my sewing abilities:(

Can you rec someone that could sew this so it would be easy on and off without having to take the tube out? I'm thinking like a wrap with ties on it??

Thanks
 
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