Post by davx on Nov 18, 2013 22:03:12 GMT
Hello,
recently I talked with different people about this topic and it seems to be also of interest for this forum.
I was asked for information about natural looking cages with rock/stone background as we know it from zoos, so I started to research my literature and asked in the deguforum.de for additional ideas. The topic I started is available here (of course it is in German):
degus-online.de/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=40874
As this was also a topic among English speaking owners, I summed up the content of this topic as followed:
one idea is using clay products for modelling artificial stones. I asked for the name of the product, it is called "NonaD": www.nonad.de//#cc-m-product-8222217994 probably it has another name or there are other similar products available in UK.
The users also referred to different topics with interesting ideas.
One is a thread in a hamster forum with a mixture of sand and clay (in German "Lehm") for burrowing:
www.das-hamsterforum.de/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=126083&pageNo=1&highlight=sand+lehm
here an example using styropor (polystyrene foam, PS) as base material, it looks great however I think PS foam isn't a good choice for degus:
www.degus-online.de/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17782&start=0
My research about suitable techniques and materials in literature resulted in the following summary, but please keep in mind this is from a reptile terrarium building book and it does not take care for the strong gnawing moods of rodents. Thus some of the mentioned methods might be a bad choice:
it is a terrarium book. Its title means about "how to set up a terrarium: backround, materials, methods" (in German: "Terrariengrundeinrichtung: Grundlagen, Materialien, Methoden" written by Thomas Wilms published by Natur und Tier Verlag a well known and reputable publishing house for reptile literature).
The topic "back wall / side wall" includes more than 20 pages. The list of used/discussed materials is quite extensive:
* granulated cork panels
* cocosnut fibre mat
* tree fern panels (xaxiam)
www.rainforestsupplies.co.uk/lrf/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=11_346_396_400
* turf bricks
* natural bark
* natural cork panels
* natural stone
* artificial rocks (consisting of a base material, e.g. Styropor, Styrodur, Rigid Polyurethane Foam, Autoclaved aerated concrete - or something like wire mesh, netting, scaffolding etc. and a coating, e.g. epoxide resin, gypsum, chopped strand mat and casein glue or gypsum, tile glue, mineral and concrete plaster)
* clay based back walls
Maybe this might be an inspiration here. The above list of materials I tried to translate as close as possible, but in some cases it was quite difficult. If something sounds strange or incorrect, let me know, I do not know which terms are familiar in usage and which are odd or strange in this context.
recently I talked with different people about this topic and it seems to be also of interest for this forum.
I was asked for information about natural looking cages with rock/stone background as we know it from zoos, so I started to research my literature and asked in the deguforum.de for additional ideas. The topic I started is available here (of course it is in German):
degus-online.de/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=40874
As this was also a topic among English speaking owners, I summed up the content of this topic as followed:
one idea is using clay products for modelling artificial stones. I asked for the name of the product, it is called "NonaD": www.nonad.de//#cc-m-product-8222217994 probably it has another name or there are other similar products available in UK.
The users also referred to different topics with interesting ideas.
One is a thread in a hamster forum with a mixture of sand and clay (in German "Lehm") for burrowing:
www.das-hamsterforum.de/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=126083&pageNo=1&highlight=sand+lehm
here an example using styropor (polystyrene foam, PS) as base material, it looks great however I think PS foam isn't a good choice for degus:
www.degus-online.de/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17782&start=0
My research about suitable techniques and materials in literature resulted in the following summary, but please keep in mind this is from a reptile terrarium building book and it does not take care for the strong gnawing moods of rodents. Thus some of the mentioned methods might be a bad choice:
it is a terrarium book. Its title means about "how to set up a terrarium: backround, materials, methods" (in German: "Terrariengrundeinrichtung: Grundlagen, Materialien, Methoden" written by Thomas Wilms published by Natur und Tier Verlag a well known and reputable publishing house for reptile literature).
The topic "back wall / side wall" includes more than 20 pages. The list of used/discussed materials is quite extensive:
* granulated cork panels
* cocosnut fibre mat
* tree fern panels (xaxiam)
www.rainforestsupplies.co.uk/lrf/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=11_346_396_400
* turf bricks
* natural bark
* natural cork panels
* natural stone
* artificial rocks (consisting of a base material, e.g. Styropor, Styrodur, Rigid Polyurethane Foam, Autoclaved aerated concrete - or something like wire mesh, netting, scaffolding etc. and a coating, e.g. epoxide resin, gypsum, chopped strand mat and casein glue or gypsum, tile glue, mineral and concrete plaster)
* clay based back walls
Maybe this might be an inspiration here. The above list of materials I tried to translate as close as possible, but in some cases it was quite difficult. If something sounds strange or incorrect, let me know, I do not know which terms are familiar in usage and which are odd or strange in this context.