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Post by degueva419 on Nov 7, 2005 1:24:15 GMT
Hi!! I just bought a guinea pig cage for my degus, and the bottom is plastic. Will they be able to escape from it?
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Post by degueva419 on Nov 7, 2005 1:24:55 GMT
Plz reply!
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Post by degueva419 on Nov 7, 2005 1:32:03 GMT
Bump
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Post by worthym on Nov 7, 2005 2:06:00 GMT
No need to bump a thread after 8 minutes!!  To be honest, degus are great chewers, and unfortunately plastic is no match to their teeth and chewing ability. I fear they will escape very quickly!! Degus also appreciate space to climb, so ideal cages are rat or chinchilla cages, preferably all metal if you don't want escapees! Bear in mind that wire bottomed cages are not especially good, unless the degus have places that they can stand on that are wire free, as their feet will get sore otherwise. |
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rie73
Foraging Degu
Posts: 85
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Post by rie73 on Nov 7, 2005 7:09:08 GMT
I agree - they will eventually chew though the plastic. I use to have a cage where it had a wooden shelf at the bottom and one of my degu chewed a big whole though this one Saturday afternoon - I had to quickly get some wire mesh for the bottom of the cage as the under neath was made of plastic and I knew the little monkey would chew though that. I have now bought a new cage which has a metal bottom.  |
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Hanlou
Burrowing Degu
Basil
Posts: 284
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Post by Hanlou on Nov 7, 2005 11:11:23 GMT
Yep - diet otaku (I think) had a cage with a plastic bottom at first and the degus quickly ate their way out of it........ I've known rats to do this and escape, and they don't gnaw anywhere near as much as degus do.
If you have a read on Meg's site, you'll see that she recommends metal bottomed cages for this reason.
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Post by diet otaku on Nov 7, 2005 13:16:49 GMT
yes, yes, my degus were lightning fast in escaping from my first cage, a plastic-bottom rat cage. they chewed 2 holes in it in a matter of hours. their newest cage is all-metal, 30" wide and 30" tall, with grass mats on the wire floors and carefresh bedding on the solid metal bottom floor. i got it from petsmart for $120.
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Post by Aimeelou on Nov 7, 2005 13:29:17 GMT
HeHeHe!
I can remember that!
What a panic!
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Post by ra on Nov 7, 2005 18:56:09 GMT
My original cage was a Chinchilla "First Home" with a plastic base. Mocha was quickly chewing her way through so my husband and father line the sides with aluminum flashing. By June she and the babies had chewed a hole through the aluminum and plastic large enough the babies could escape. So I measured and ordered the pieces of glass I would need to construct a glass base for the cage (now cages I stacked two Chinchilla cages verically).
The only metal based cages I saw were either too small or anodyzed metal which can become toxic when the Degu urine comes in contact.
The glass base has worked well. It is very heavy however. I lift each cage off separately to clean and then scoop the litter out of the base with a kitty litter shovel. Wipe clean with white vinegar and then water before re-assembling the cage.
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Post by Sunshinemeg on Nov 7, 2005 21:56:26 GMT
god that sounds like a long job, how long does it take you to do all that? And what happens to the degus while its happening? I can alternate between keeping them in the cage and scooping out around them, or moving them into their travel box, although they hate this as they have a fear of the vet, and associate the box with a visit!
Can you post a pic of the cage sometime? I know I talked on here a while ago about wanting to make a glass base, but have so far not got round to it. I know just what I want, and it would stop all the bedding getting kicked out if it was deep enough, just need to work out the practicalities of it all!
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Post by ra on Nov 8, 2005 1:20:46 GMT
I was toying with the idea of starting a picture of your cage thread so we could all get ideas from one another. It's tough to get a picture of this cage because it's tall. I can get an overall shot and then a closer shot of the base.
Yes, it is quite a production to clean but I have it down to within and hour to an hour and a half. I have been trying different techniques to stream line the process. I'm not real happy with it as of yet. I put the girls in what I called the boys cage when I separated them at 6 weeks. Its a nice 12" high x 12" deep by 16" in length cage. I give them a couple of chew sticks and carrot/alfalfa cubes. They roll around together and sit and watch me cursing their cage as I try to get it clean! I turned on the radio this past weekend and the both stood on their hind feet looking around like " hey what's that? " I said sounds better than me doesn't it?!!
I originally planned on connecting the Chinchilla cages side by side. Then I remembered they like to climb and get up high so I stacked the cages. Side by side I could have closed the door between the cages and cleaned one side then moved them over to the clean side and clean the other. They seem very happy with their vertical condominium. The horizontal set up would have called for a gigantic glass base - not a very good plan financially speaking.
I didn't make the sides of my glass base high enough. I made them 5" high. Any higher would have been too expensive but the 5" does allow them to kick out litter. I helped to eliminate that problem by leaving the fine mess hardware cloth wrapped around the cage. (I'd wrapped the cage with the hardware cloth to keep the babies from getting out between the bars. 10" high base would keep bedding in but then it does cut off air circulation the higher the glass sides go. That's why I never seriously considered putting an aquarium on as a base.
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Post by Sunshinemeg on Nov 8, 2005 14:42:38 GMT
It sounds brilliant, but a seriously long job. cleaning the boys cage takes me half an hour, and if they are in the travel box it just gets me mad, as they continually chew it, the little gits! Its not too tough as I use a pet safe cleaning formula to wipe down the base, and then once a month I take the whole unit outside and hose it off. they generally dont tend to be too messy upstairs, so its not too bad. But Im not sure I could cope with an hour and a half to clean them out!
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Post by diet otaku on Nov 8, 2005 17:51:27 GMT
scoop, eh? i've been cleaning my cage by separating the cage and the base, and dumping the base into a plastic bag. quick, but hard work doing all that lifting.
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Post by ra on Nov 8, 2005 19:48:06 GMT
diet otaku, I agree it would be much easier to lift and dump once I separate the cage from the glass base but the base (comprised of 1/4" thick plate glass )is heavy and cumbersome. Though I could lift it I worry I might drop it or bang it off the table and break it. Safer to scoop.
I was tempted to use a wet/dry shop vac to suck out the litter!
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Post by Sunshinemeg on Nov 8, 2005 19:56:36 GMT
I have used a vac to clean out the debris, it works, but even with the guys in a seperate cage, i dont think they like the noise much!
I understand your worries about dropping the cage, I did just that with an old glass one I had years ago. That was an expensive clean out I can tell you!
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