Help! Making a cage and adapting some vivs

[Deleted]

Okay, the viv thing Cal is being a poo head about so not going there.


Hi all!


We will be planning the goo cages and buying material next weekend, so by then I need to have sussed it all out to get Cal on board and make the process as easy as possible and as cheap as possible as I’m extremely lacking in the funds department and I’m paying for everything.

I need your wonderful guys’ help! So... please please help!

We are going to make each cage unit separately, but they’ll all be identical except for what is inside (shelving arrangement potentially).

So each unit will house 2 degus, then one will house Alfie (but I’m planning on getting him a friend).

I will go and measure the available length of the wall and the highest I’d like to go.



They’ll be in a grid of four as very crudely pictured lol!

What wood is the cheapest yet would still work?

I want to do the cages in white.

If we go on the middle-max CARA for two degus what sort of level arrangement would you all propose? Crude paper drawings are all good!!

They each have a 12 inch wheel, but Alfie’s cage needs to fit a 16 inch wheel.

Cheapest place to get glass/runners?

What lights do we use?

For the vents we will use PC disc things the cooling things I think.

What UVB bulb/light holder etc do you all recommend and how do we make them inaccessible?

Anything else I can’t think of?

Thanks!! 💗💗💗

[misscatafer]

How exciting! So how big will each square be? Me and Rob are 80% finished modifying our cage (decided not to build a new one from scratch in the end). It has cost us around £200, they are expensive blighters! Screwfix was pretty reasonable for most of the stuff we bought. Have you thought about a thick perspex instead of glass? It might be cheaper, lighter and more adaptable, for example you can drill into it etc. I think I would want to give a minimum of 2 levels each... Then again we gave changed up B&H's space so much that now they actually only have one full level, but loads of other levels at various heights so it really does depend on what you want in the cage.

[deguconvert]

So the large square is the condo building, and the smaller squares are the individual suites?

[claire]

I'll get a pic of mine up it's white 120cmx120cm with sliding glass doors if you like it I can help with advice

[moletteuk]

MDF is the cheapest but I would only recommend if they don't pee round the edges. I would always use melamine face board for the shelves and base so it's waterproof, but plywood with vinyl tiles might work out cheaper, but they are likely to find places to chew the tiles if you have good chewers.

Don't forget the wood comes in 1.2x2.4m sheets so it's always going to be cheaper if you can work in something close to multiples or parts of that. 2.4m should be a good height anyway, that would give you 6 shelves of height which should be fine. 3 levels of 1.2 long x 0.5m deep is 1.8m2 per pair so that would be great.

I would recommend more vents than the PC vents. I always recommend a big mesh covered opening in the top, but since the bottom layer is not going to be connected with that and actually only vented on one side, you are going to need quite big openings for vents in the side. You probably should factor that in strength wise and use 18mm thick boards for the sides.

[Deleted]

Thanks guys!

So misscatafer that’s undecided! I want to maximise space for them but work within the length of boards etc to not make it too complex. I’ll measure the room today.

Cals dad might be able to get the glass cheaper for us, wouldn’t be cut nicely etc though. But would be to size.

deguconvert yep! So it’ll be 4 cages in one big unit type style. To fill the whole back wall. If there’s any left over space I’ll see if Cal can make storage too! So it’ll look like one big unit lol and free up a whole wall in the room.

claire please!

moletteuk they do pee in corners, they all do. They only pee in corners lol! Alfie is litter trained though so he doesn’t. But their peeing behaviour may change with a loose substrate?

So MDF and melamine. I could do the roofs from MDF and perhaps the back panels? Might just be easier to do it all from Melamine.

2.4m sounds like a good height, 1.2 wide each does too.

Then it’s just figuring out the spaces in the cage, especially for Alfie and his stupid wheel lol!

moletteuk so perhaps cut big rectangles and cover them with mesh? Or would we need to cover them with something less chewable?

The very top two can have roof vents, just not the bottom two, would need to be sides/back.

Thank you guys!!! I’m so excited!!!

😁😁😁 the goos are gonna love it!

[claire]

Ok here goes this is my hand built Viv.

gyazo.com/cfec0e40afe4bdf3ae188e786eedb8fa

It's made from full sheets if melomide. If put together correctly they can't get to any edges to chew.
It's 120cm x 120cm x60cm.
Has glass doors on plastic runners with metal L shaped edging to protect from chewing.

Bottom nest area is 60cm x 60cm and I'm sure you can adapt the size to your needs we just used full sheets for simplicity

This is just showing we used 2 sheets upright for the back.


gyazo.com/36da6290ec827316d57375e53d9b162b

As you can see the shelfs are sat on a ledge fixed to the cage. The middle shelf isn't even screwed in so we can replace if needs be.

gyazo.com/3ac84d8878a04f19d4ff25edec064ae2

There you can also see ratty favourite chew thing... the vents lol. Got one on each level eventually on both sides plus this is the top one. Excuse little man getting fattening up brekky.

gyazo.com/e3f5ec17719a0ccaa99e07326ebd5b8a

I think that's it for the basics then we just screw thing in as we want to add hammocks and hay rack ect.

Hopefully g8ve you some ideas

[misscatafer]

I really like your cage Claire if we had built from scratch we would have used the same material for the outside.

[Deleted]

claire thank you!

Can I ask where you bought all of the stuff from? And what mm glass you went with?

[winic1]

Are you planning on building one giant structure that fills the wall of that room? If so, I would suggest building it as four separate cubes that stack together, instead. That way, should you need to move them, you can move them as individual pieces, instead of a massive structure that will be impossible to budge.

Or what about making them four long cages/sections, full width each, stacking one on top of another, four high? You might not get many levels or sections of levels in each cage, but just think of the running room they'd have going wall to wall!!! You could put in partial levels here and there, so they'd have places to go up and under, but the main floor for each would be so huge!

[winic1]

As for doors/the front, make a combination of screen/mesh doors and glass doors, so instead of opening the entire front, you could just open a part of it, either the glass sections or the mesh sections, and there'd be plenty of airflow as you'd have enough mesh sections for air to circulate through and around the glass sections.

[Deleted]

Feb 13, 2018 21:11:13 GMT winic1 said:

As for doors/the front, make a combination of screen/mesh doors and glass doors, so instead of opening the entire front, you could just open a part of it, either the glass sections or the mesh sections, and there'd be plenty of airflow as you'd have enough mesh sections for air to circulate through and around the glass sections.

Wouldn’t mesh equate to mess though?

[zenaida]

I think it depends on where and how you do the mesh.

I would echo what has been said about size/weight. You have seen pictures of my build. My biggest mistake is how big and heavy it is. If we move, I don't think it is coming with us. I think it is easier to destroy, get temporary housing, and build new, even though I know that sounds crazy.

[claire]

The glass is 4mm toughened glass we got it from our local glass supplier all 4 pieces cost roughly £20. If you tell them what it's for they will make the edges smooth and for a little extra they can do something for handles.

When measuring the glass you need to allow room for the glass to slot in and out. I can remove mine for cleaning it just lifts back in.

Put the plastic runners on then measure from the top of the cage to the top of the lower runner so that it will be slightly smaller if that makes sense if not I'll try to draw a diagram

All the rest of our supplies were from b& q apart from the plastic runners we got off ebay they came with the plastic handles as we forgot to ask the glass supplier to do something for handles lol

Also the runners will come in 2 different sizes. Always put the thicker one on top so you can lift up the glass and unslot it from the bottom.

I can put more pics up if you get stuck.

I'm very lucky I have a window fitter as a partner he's really good at this stuff lol

[Deleted]

Feb 13, 2018 22:13:52 GMT claire said:

The glass is 4mm toughened glass we got it from our local glass supplier all 4 pieces cost roughly £20. If you tell them what it's for they will make the edges smooth and for a little extra they can do something for handles.

When measuring the glass you need to allow room for the glass to slot in and out. I can remove mine for cleaning it just lifts back in.

Put the plastic runners on then measure from the top of the cage to the top of the lower runner so that it will be slightly smaller if that makes sense if not I'll try to draw a diagram

All the rest of our supplies were from b& q apart from the plastic runners we got off ebay they came with the plastic handles as we forgot to ask the glass supplier to do something for handles lol

Also the runners will come in 2 different sizes. Always put the thicker one on top so you can lift up the glass and unslot it from the bottom.

I can put more pics up if you get stuck.

I'm very lucky I have a window fitter as a partner he's really good at this stuff lol

You used plastic runners? Weren’t they chewed? Xx

[Deleted]

Feb 13, 2018 21:08:45 GMT winic1 said:

Are you planning on building one giant structure that fills the wall of that room? If so, I would suggest building it as four separate cubes that stack together, instead. That way, should you need to move them, you can move them as individual pieces, instead of a massive structure that will be impossible to budge.

Or what about making them four long cages/sections, full width each, stacking one on top of another, four high? You might not get many levels or sections of levels in each cage, but just think of the running room they'd have going wall to wall!!! You could put in partial levels here and there, so they'd have places to go up and under, but the main floor for each would be so huge!

I LOVE THIS IDEA! What would the CARA be?

2.4m long x2 levels, the base and another full one.. 60cm deep?

[zenaida]

Let me dig a moment. Someone a few months back posted a video link of a build and was asking viability questions. The build was modular like winic is talking about. That build would need some signifcant changes to make it degu suitable, but I felt like it was do-able.

About the plastic runners, you need to protect them with metal or other means. I have metal strips along them on the inside and when it is playpen time I use the flexible log bridges right over them so they chew the bridge not the plastic.

[zenaida]

I found the post. There is a video link embedded in their first post. I found the design intriguing and would have likely done things slightly different based on info from this build.

deguworld.proboards.com/thread/21891/cage-work

[winic1]

at 2.4m x 60 cm (so that's 240cm * 60cm) your CARA for a SINGLE level is 14,400. So if there are two complete levels in that cage, that's 18,800cm2.

So, at minimum recommended sizing, one level is just enough for 2 degus, and 2 levels is generously large for 2 degus and almost enough for 3.

If some of the front door sections are mesh, to allow enough air movement, I would make the bottom few inches glass or plexiglass covered, to contain the substrate, but then the upper part mesh to let the air flow.  If you only have vents at either end of a 2.4m stretch, I would worry about having enough air circulation.

[winic1]

And I picture having several openings between upper and lower level, so they can go up or down at several places along the length of each level, and I see ramps going up and down from the holes, so that they can get running, go right up a ramp without slowing or breaking stride, continue running on the upper level, then again without stopping run right down a ramp to the bottom level and keep on going....won't need wheels anymore, they can just run and run and run....okay, now I want to ditch the cage and make a degu run all around the house....