HOW TO BUILD A DEGU CAGE !

[charliex]

OMG this page is amazing!!! them cages are like wow! (well not a cage as such but yu know what i mean!!) they must take forever to clean them out!!

am taking a look at the website now! found it very useful

[NightwishRaven999]

Hi : ) Actually, cleaning a wooden cage is very time efficient and fun.
These cages only need to be cleaned out once every few weeks, since they stay clean for much longer than metal cages.
They keep bedding, hay and everything else inside the cage and not out on the floor.
The bottom and the levels are covered with thick layers of bedding. This keeps the cage smelling fresh and clean for a long time and keeps the wooden levels from being stained with urine.

Cleaning a wooden cage only means scooping out the used bedding into a large garbage bag and replacing it with fresh bedding. No more scrubbing the bars to get the urine off.
No more washing walls to clean off urine stains. No more sweeping the floor around the cage every half hour. No more back problems due to difficulty reaching inside the cage because of small doors. No more carboard to cover up wire mesh. No more smell...no more hassle.

It really simplifies things. Instead of spending ages keeping the cage clean, you can enjoy spending time with the degus. You also save money and give them something very big to live in.

[charliex]

id wrote my comment before id got the cleaning part on your website! id rather clean out a degu cage then a cat little tray anyday haha!! from the pictures on the 1st page of this topic which one is yours?

[NightwishRaven999]

The photos you see in the website are all photos of the cages I have built.
All of them except the one with the credit to Mr.Lennart.

I was going to post the link to the topic of the forum I have my photos in...but looks like you already found it

[charliex]

yea i did realised after id posted my comment too!! we've mesured ours up were going to do it 55 cm wide and 100cm in height, that should be enough space for them wouldnt u say

[emz]

100cm in height and 55cm wide (I assume by wide you mean depth?) sounds fine but what about the length of the cage?

Try whatever dimensions you decide into here and it gives you a nice value of roughly how many degus that cage is suitable for: www.octodons.ch/rechner/?lang=en

[charliex]

im so sorry we just realised i had done our mesuremnts wrong (hey im a woman i cant get it right all the time), i put in the ones i had before and it said it was too small and im like wtf :S so we just re mesured and the mesurments are

length 56inch

width 20inch

height 39inch

anyway the degu calculator says


Evaluation of your cage:

Length: 142 cm
Width: 51 cm
Height: 100 cm
Base: 0.72 m2
Capacity: 0.724 m3

Your cage is appropriate for 2 to 5 Degus.




see i knew it was big enough haha!!

thank you for your help btw

[emz]

Sounds like a nice size - you will have happy degus. ;D

[charliex]

i hope so! dont like the sound of them being unhappy to much!

[NightwishRaven999]

Sounds wonderful : )
I am sorry for the mixup with the (Lenght x width x height).
In some countries (its Width x depth x height) in other countries its (Lenght x depth x height).

Just so everyone knows, the first figure is the horizontal lenght of the cage, the second one is the depth and the last one height, of course...


@ charliex
The measurements for the cage sound wonderful.
As emz mentioned, its always fun to see people like you who strive to go for whats best for the pets.
Just keep in mind to make a deep base when you build the cage. You will be happy you did so afterwards ; )

[charliex]

yup ive included it into my design haha, is 6inches deep enough would u say?

[NightwishRaven999]

Six inches seems good, I would honestly go for an inch more.
You might not like the look of a deep base at first, but you will find it very useful later on.
To keep the cage nice and clean for a while you need to have a thick layer of bedding at the bottom. (prefferably a min. of 3-4 inches). You might also want to create thick piles of hay.

Degus love to dig and kick around the bedding. They will move around the hay and bedding and might decide to move everything up to the front where the doors are. A deep base will prevent the hay and bedding from reaching the doors of the cage.

[charliex]

okay thank for that

[emz]

I was thinking of having a special section in the cage which has dirt/plants/rocks. So a large tray which I will grow stuff in and occasionally freshen up. Of course it could have grass but what other sort of stuff could I put in there that is degu safe? Also is this an all right idea or should I not do it? As for the size of this area I am not sure I just love the idea after I saw some German outdoor enclosures but this would be indoors in the cage. The rest of the cage would be normal (wood shavings etc.) and it'd just be a small portion of the cage (perhaps the size of one shelf or so.)

Any ideas?

[NightwishRaven999]

Well, it is possible to make something like this, but I do not know anyone who has attemped having an indoor 'greenhouse' inside the degu cage.

Growing grass is one thing, but for growing other plants you would need good lighting and soil. You can use ordinary dirt mixed with crushed coconut shell substrate or peat moss. Peat moss would keep the soil humid, but wouldnt wet the cage since it naturally retains dampness and humidity. (it acts like a sponge and keeps the soil moist) So you wouldnt need to worry about watering often.

You could grow herbs like Thyme, Orgeno, Basil, Rosemary and even Parsley
You could also try growing Dandelion and Daisy flowers. Grass is also an option.

You should be aware though, that flowers and grass would be avidly eaten by the degus and I doubt you could sucessfully stop the degus from eating them completly. If you want to grow grass and flower, the best way to go about it is to use a deep tray or large flowerpot.
Fill it with appropriate substrate and cover the tray or flowerpot with a fine metal mesh.
The mesh should be placed around 4 cm over the grass.
This will allow the degus to eat some of the grass, but will stop them from eating it completly.
This will ensure that the grass keeps growing and multiplying.
You could do this with several flowerpots all around the cage...or you can dedicate a corner of the cage for this purpore.

I can try to illustrate what I mean with a picture if you wish.

As for the herbs...the degus usually like them, but they are not as crazy about them.
I believe you might be able to grow nice bushy herb plants in the cage without having to cover them.

Strawberry and Raspberry plants might also be an option.
The leaves of these plants are very appreciate by degus and you can be confident that these plants wont produce any fruit when kept indoors.

This can be a very interested project for you.
I will try to do more research on the matter.

There is very little info on english sites about such cage projects.
I cannot read or write german, so what I do is go on Google Translate...type what I am looking for in english or french and get the translation of my search in german.
I then go on Google Deutschland and write down the german sentence in the search bar.
I am usually brought to tons of different forums and articles with amazing photos of degu cages and such.

If I am looking for info, I copy/paste each paragraph of the german site I am on and get it translated to english or french. Although the translation is far from perfect, due to differences in language and sentence structure, I still get the meaning and the basic info I need.

If you are looking to try something ressourceful with degus, you need to find a ressourceful way of finding info on the matter ; )
Hope this helps...
I will keep you updated about what I find on the matter.

[NightwishRaven999]

@ emz
I have been looking around on Google.de on the matter of plants and herbs for degus.
Here is some of the info I have found and translated into english.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Suitable and popular herb varieties for degus - Feed List
Dandelion leaves
Grass
Coltsfoot
Parsley
Golliwoog or Callisia repens
Daisy
Raspberry leaves
Dill

Basic rules for the feeding of herbs
The herbs feed only at room temperature. Never directly from the refrigerator.
The herbal wash carefully to residues from cultivation or natural pollution (feces and s more to remove).
The herbs dry well after washing. Brings moisture forage to ferment faster, which in turn causes bloating in degus.
Not eaten herbs a few hours removed from the Degukäfig. (Degukafig=Degu Cage)
It also check the hide of the degus.
The herbal part of the total amount of feed should be about 20% to about 50%."

This site suggests that herbs consist 20% to 50% of a degu's diet.
I was very surprised by what some of my german friends told me but after giving it some though, their way of feeding degus is more healthy and natural.
Many degu owners in Germany do not use food pellets as the main diet like we do.
They make their own food buying all kinds of herbs, plant leaves, tree bark, seeds and hay.

If you were to grow herbs and such in your cage, or simply give fresh or dried herbs for them to consume...it would greatly benefit their health. Herbs are supposed to be very beneficial for degus.

I will keep looking and will post anything I find that is useful.

[emz]

Yeah I got the idea whilst browsing a german degu forum except his was an entire outdoor enclosure which I assume was just for summer time like I said above. ;D They also had some excellent myth busting fact stuff about pets including degus.

I will have to try and find more sites about it in german again as they have some excellent cages. Thanks for some of the ideas though it helped - I just thought it'd be a nice bit of variety to add but wasn't entirely sure on the lifespan like you said with them eating it lol.

Edit: Just saw your second reply! That feed list was useful for ideas on what to use. ;D

[NightwishRaven999]

It would be do-able...but it would be very hard trying to maintain and keep the plants alive.
Your best option would be to grow the plants and herbs on a balcony or near a window.
If you plant the Herbs now, they will be very tall and bushy by the end of May.
By then you could already start trying to add this to their diet.

Btw, another German site had this bit of useful info.

"Generally you should avoid again and unknown poisonous herbs and more on good plants. The following plants are suitable to feed:

Basil
Strawberry leaves
Daisy
diveres grasses
Dandelion
Marigold
Spitz and plantain
Lemon Balm"


I am sorry for the patchy and akward translation. I wish the translator could fill in the blanks and replace the weird words...but its still great that its clear enough to understand the basics of the sentence.

[emz]

Perhaps growing them first and then placing them in the tray like you say could work. Maybe once the plants are gone just leave the soil and rockery stuff in whilst I grow fresh stuff to then plant into the cage when it is cleaned once the herbs are mature. That sounds like it'd be better as then I don't have to worry about them eating them whilst they're growing.

And yeah the sentences make enough sense for you to fill in the gaps so thanks for helping out with some of the research!

[emz]

A little update, I started sketching and then decided to briefly model the cage in a program to see if the sizes on paper looked right in a more visualised form. I am glad I did as I altered a few measurements. It's a little sad of me to spend too much time on the design but otherwise I know I'll mess up when it comes to building it! lol.



The top little random shelf will be for laying about under a lamp I will probably shine through the top gaps in the cage. ;D

Oh and the shelves will have little edges around them I was just too lazy to add them (about 3cm tall I think should be enough?)