To those with melamine cages...

[Huffnpoof]

To those of you who have melamine cages, I was wondering what you use to fill in holes. I was looking to change some of the shelf placement in mine, but would like to know what to place in the holes left by the screws so she won't chew around/near it.

Thanks!

 

[Twilight Chinchillas]

I really don't put anything in it's place, but suppose you might be able to possibly put a eye ring hook in there to hang a toy??

 

[Huffnpoof]

When you say you don't put anything in it's place, do you mean it would be okay to leave a small hole?

 

[greychins]

I haven't put anything in the holes my shelves have left behind... in my experience, the chins don't bother the holes (and there's not many of them, because we only had to take out one shelf in order to put a chin spin in).... and our holes aren't very big either because we used shelf brackets to hold our shelves in, and those only take little screws.

I suppose, though, if you have large holes, what you could do is get a carriage bolt the size of the hole and screw it in so that the larger end of the screw would cover up the hole on the inside of the cage... make sense?

 

[Huffnpoof]

Yes thank you. It's a great idea. I didn't make very big holes when installing the shelves, so I'll let it go and see if she bothers with it. First sign of any issues and I'll plug it with the carriage bolt.

 

[mercynursie]

That is what I do when I have left an empty hole just to be on the safe side.If it's an all the way through the wall hole,just a bolt/washer/through the melamine/washer/nut works best for me.If it's just a screw hole that doesn't go all the way through.I just put a shorter screw in and tighten it down as smooth as I can get it without cracking the melamine.

 

[Kansas City Chinchillas]

You might want to consider putting the bolt in now. If your chin chews the hole the bolt may not be large enough to cover chewed area. Once chins remove the melamine layer they will continue to chew the area. Also Melamine is not good for chins to chew as they may ingest it.

 

[arf2184]

You could always add a washer to the screw/bolt to make it cover more area if needed.