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Post by misscatafer on Apr 30, 2017 21:10:25 GMT
Success! After 3 months of having our degus we have finally had a stress free, enjoyable out of the cage time with our new playpen It was great, no escape attempts, they even noticed us and the toys! It cost £33 to make and we have stored it away under the sofa... I am so pleased I can finally have my girls out yayy! Thought I would share how we made it in case anybody is interested: We bought 2 pieces of 6mm MDF and got them cut into 6 pieces of 80cm X 120cm at B&Q. We also bought a roll of heavy duty rope and already had some tape at home. We were going to create the hinges which we have seen on here already... but at B&Q this would have cost at least £50 for the hinges alone! Rob drilled 4 holes into the wood at each corner when they were all stacked together. We then cut the rope into pieces and secured the ends to prevent fraying using the tape. Next we simply attached all the boards together top and bottom using the rope. As you can see it is more than sturdy enough. The finished result! More than enough for both of us and two excited goos! No more escapes this time girls!
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Post by deguconvert on May 1, 2017 6:13:25 GMT
Well done, I love it!! What a simple and effective idea. Just make sure you inspect your rope fairly often. They will be quite delighted to chew it once they discover it.
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Post by misscatafer on May 1, 2017 7:44:20 GMT
I think a 'spot check' will be in order at each use to replace/cover as required!
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Post by moletteuk on May 1, 2017 10:52:44 GMT
Super duper! Looks very spacious Have fun! You could also use wire to 'rope' the sections together. Metal hardware is ridiculously priced at B&Q and HOmebase etc, tends to be cheaper at Toolstation who also do free postage if you spend £10, you can buy a pack of 10 piano hinges there for £17. If somebody wanted to use easily available and cheap hinges, you could use quite small ones and place one top and bottom of each join. You could use tiny nuts and bolts if there was a problem with tiny screws in 6mm mdf. I bet you could even use self adhesive velcro straps to join the sections (on the outside).
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Post by misscatafer on May 1, 2017 11:09:57 GMT
Some great suggestions! We went with this design so we have full flexibility over it's usage. For example, we can use only 4 panels to create a smaller square play pen, or simply use it as a guard to block of sections of the room etc. We had toyed with the idea of using metal rings on the corner joins, something similar to a keyring loop. The break for freedom attempts have all but disappeared thankfully. They seem to much more relaxed now they can't see through the wire mesh now. In hindsight, we could've drilled the bottom holes higher up to discourage chewing. Looking forward to getting some new toys for the play pen only to create a totally different experience for them when we get the out
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Post by randomname on May 1, 2017 11:28:34 GMT
Love it, looks awesome. I bought a rabbit run for my guys, but they hated it, I suspect because the open nature of the mesh made them feel vulnerable. Yours would be much more suitable I think. Looks easy enough even for an diy-idiot like me! Great job, thanks for posting pictures, this is a really good inspirational post. I love the idea of someone stumbling across the forum & seeing this & realising that degus (& hamsters, rats, gerbils etc) need a lot more space than you think at first. A huge cage & playpen are minimum requirements for all little critters to be happy, & you've shown how easy & cheap that can be. Love it.
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Post by misscatafer on May 1, 2017 21:35:30 GMT
Thank you for the thoughtful feedback! Maybe that's why we were not having any success with our mesh run before... Maybe ours too felt vulnerable and were desperate to get to safety. Our old mesh run has now been collected... Let's hope it has a better use than before (it is not being used as a run, I should add). Yes, degus really do need so much room for such small beings! Once we expanded the behaviour and mood changed so much in them and every inch of our cage gets used. I'm still so happy I can get them out of the cage safely now.
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flip
Newborn Degu
Posts: 4
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Post by flip on May 8, 2017 21:37:45 GMT
I love this! Thanks for sharing. I just came on here tonight to get ideas for partitioning off the space outside our cage to give a free running space and this could work really well for us. Off to B&Q tomo! Thanks again
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omiai
Foraging Degu
Posts: 86
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Post by omiai on Jun 2, 2017 22:25:13 GMT
where did you get your MDF for this? i think i'll be constructing a smaller version for my Chip
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Post by misscatafer on Jun 2, 2017 22:41:00 GMT
B&Q, they will cut to size for you too free of charge.
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omiai
Foraging Degu
Posts: 86
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Post by omiai on Jun 2, 2017 22:45:11 GMT
oh brilliant! shall have to find some time for a trip there soon! thanks! was the rope from there too?
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Post by misscatafer on Jun 2, 2017 22:51:01 GMT
Yes it was. To be honest if you position the boards correctly and tie them tightly at the top you shouldn't need ropes at the bottom, or put them high enough so they can't chew them. I now don't have any ropes at the bottom of my pen, and it is still sturdy and escape proof. I just have 4 boards up permanently now and it is great for giving them all some time out of the cage
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omiai
Foraging Degu
Posts: 86
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Post by omiai on Jun 2, 2017 22:53:25 GMT
excellent! next pay day i shall go get the mdf and hopefully enlist my father to drill the holes (i'd do it myself but he's very precious over his tools XD ) thanks for your help!
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Post by misscatafer on Jun 2, 2017 22:59:07 GMT
Yay! Let us know how you get on
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omiai
Foraging Degu
Posts: 86
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Post by omiai on Jun 14, 2017 13:17:07 GMT
finally getting a chance to go to B&Q today to get the mdf for my own playpen. it'll be much smaller than yours, but it only needs to fit me and one degu. plus i have limited floor space XD hoping i can talk them into drilling the holes in it too, but if not, then i can do it myself or get dad to do it when he gets back from his holiday.
got the MDF! the guy was so helpful, really impressed. Since i had only a vague explanation of what i wanted and some measurements i wasn't totally set on. so got myself a bunch of panels, with some spares since i had to buy 2 sheets to get what i wanted, but only needed 4 panels. so i've got 2 backup or just 2 panels of emergency MDF for other stuff in the garage. plus some little off cuts i can use as a ramp for him to get in and out of the cage to the playpen.
i don't think i'll be drilling the holes in it tonight though.
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omiai
Foraging Degu
Posts: 86
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Post by omiai on Jun 17, 2017 16:43:01 GMT
got the playpen made up. using cable ties to hold it together (i can prise them apart so i don't need to keep using new ones every time) chip had a nice run around in it today, not for too long as i wanted to give him a chance to get used to it, and he did spend most of the time trying to find a way out, though the sides are way too high for that. he also likes to use me as a climbing frame which is nice. so hopefully we'll have lots more play time in the future!
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Post by misscatafer on Jul 27, 2017 16:02:27 GMT
Our girls are so spoilt! love having all this space to play with them safely...even if it means not as much space for us outside of the pen!
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Post by deguconvert on Jul 27, 2017 17:05:04 GMT
Awesome!!! Love it!!
Had to laugh . . . the little stuffy fooled me for a second. LOL!
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Post by misscatafer on Jul 27, 2017 17:07:38 GMT
Lol!! They still fool me at times when I glance in there to see what mischief is occurring! Boo has one permanently in her nest box now which she uses as a pillow, so adorable.
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Post by deguconvert on Jul 27, 2017 17:22:15 GMT
Yeah. I looked at it and thought, "Oh my goodness, what's wrong with it? It's so stiff looking, it seems to be in pain. Wait a minute . . . LOL. It's just a stuffy. No wonder it looks stiff."
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