HOW TO BUILD A DEGU CAGE !

[mhb]

We went to a reclaimation yard yesterday and got a teracotta roof tile which fits in the bottom of our cage now.
We were going to save it for the DIY box but couldn't resist it - got that and a three way pipe joint because we have been buying the rope tunnels from P@H which were fine initially, but bought them a new one last week and they destroyed the cardboard inside within two days! That was a waste of £6.
This is too heavy for them to drag about and they can nest in it, climb on it etc and it won't break.
They love it.

[smithomatic]

pictures!

[mhb]

Here is the new tunnel - they absolutely love it and run through it, climb on it and nest in it.
Was fearing the nails on a chalkboard effect of them chewing it, but so far they haven't!



And the terracotta roof tile.
They haven't used this as much other than to walk on top of, but when they are upgraded to a larger home this will go in the digging pit at the bottom to provide stability when the root around.

[smithomatic]

Looks ace! im really pleased for you! they are great for wearing down the degus claws too if they are running on top

[mhb]

Both for a tenner cash too!
It was a total whim because I genuinely needed petrol (fuel light job!) as every idiot in Exeter had been hoarding all week so I was forced to drive to the country side to find an open garage and just down the road was a place I was taken to by a friend years ago when looking for a door.
It was a treasure trove of them too.
whilst I was rooting through roof tiles it was my other half who came up with the idea of using the tube to substitute for the P@H rope one - it has been a great shout.

I forgot about the manicure benefits too!
lol

[aya0aya]

Hi. After a long time I need another advice. Ma cage is not homemade and my degus and myself are very happy with it. The one and only problem are small door. I will go crazy one day while trying to clean the cage. The doors are 25x25 cm and a cage is 105x75x175 cm. There's no way to reach shelves in the back of the cage so i'm dancing around the cage, trying to use broom and cursing every time I'm cleaning.
So I decided to find an extra door that could easy assemble to the cage. I'm not handy so they should be really easy to assemble. I have an idea to do it with clips or something similar. It doesn't matter how it looks, the functionality is the most important.
If anyone have any solution please help me. The door don't have to be handmade, but I'm not sure if there is any store that sells large doors alone.
The price is not the problem.
Well I did found someone that claimed he will do that to me, but now I'm waiting for two weeks now and every single day he have excuses why I can't get them yet and I'm sick of that.
I'm desperate to find a store that sells something I could use for the door expansion.

Any help? Pretty please...

Edit: I bought wire cubes to fix them on the cage, but degus can crawl through the bars easily.

[deguconvert]

Can your cage be broken down into pannels . . . as in . . . are all exterior walls/sides welded together, or can they be taken apart to be separate pannels?

When we first had two large wire cages, I broke them down and then re-assembled them to be one LARGE cage. I then attached the two front pannels to hinges and the hinges to a long heavy duty metal bar. The heavy duty metal bar I connected to the cage frame, and in doing so I gave myself two doors that were now the full width of the cage, and could open completely up. Did I like that!! Made cleaning SO much easier.

Now, as time passed I realized that the bars I had chosen were not idea for the job, though they did enough, as they did not fully support the cage, which left it a bit precarious. Eventually I opted to build a cage. However, I'm thinking that if you were to make an outer frame out of wooden boards, like those used to frame a new house construction, then you could attach your metal cage to it and keep it stable, and then attach hinges and make a wide door out of the front cage pannel.

I really hope this is making sense. I wish I had drawing tools on the computer that would enable me to illustrate what I am saying as well. Tell me if this doesn't make sense and I'll see what I can do to better describe it.

[moletteuk]

Or you could cut a piece out where you want the door. Once you've trimmed off the sticking out stubs where you made the cuts, your cutout is going to be smaller than the gap, so you might be better buying a new piece of mesh for the door. You can make the cuts with 'diagonal cutters' or maybe tin snips, and then file off sharp edges. You could make hinges out of coils of wire, hold together the two pieces you want to hinge together and add in a large nail (or similar), tightly wrap some wire around for a couple of centimetres, and then pull out the nail, do this in 3 or 4 places depending on the size of the door. Or you could use metal hoze clips or whatever else springs to mind. Best thing I can come up with for closers is bulldog clips or similar.

I think you can do what you like if you just keep an eye on the integrity and strength of the cage.

If you show us a picture we might be able to make some more suggestions

[RedsZoo]

What programme did you use to model? X

[timonpumba]

Hi after a lot of consideration iv decided to build a cage for timon n pumba. I've thought about it in the past but never really had the guts to do it. I was also going to buy a brand new cage but dnt really want to spend 200bucks on it. I've got a wardrobe that we dont need anymore so was gona use it for the cage. I've done a little bit of planning but am stuck deciding what to do about the doors. At first I was planning on having 2 large sheets of plexiglass on metal runners but as they r gona b very tall and narrow they would cost too much. Does any1 know of a suitable alternative? Any ideas would be appreciated.

[Lrak]

All I have done for mine is cut holes in the doors where the floors are and then put wire mesh on the in side, little bolt one side and a little lock for the other. Or you could just build them with some 2x1 timber. I'm sure some others will be along soon with some ideas ;-)

[moletteuk]

Tall and narrow sliding doors probably wouldn't run very well anyway.

You could do as Lrak suggests and just cut the middles out and replace with mesh, but you would probably need to put edging on all round the exposed edges because I would think they could still get their teeth between the mesh to chew the edge. If you put tall edges on the fronts of the shelves I don't think you should get too much mess through mesh doors.

Other option is to build doors from softwood battens and mesh or I guess you could use plexiglass with a softwood frame to attach to the wardrobe.

You might need to do some strengthening on the wardrobe, particularly to the back, because they are usually just hardboard. It's easier to put shelves in and so on if you can attach them to the back. Also, there might be quite a bit of edge protecting required, or protection of little holes and non flat areas on the sides of the wardrobe.

Is the third door a seperate area of storage?

[timonpumba]

Yeah I was planning on putting some wood on the back to strengthen it. The third door is another tall narrow cupboard which I had planned on cutting holes in to allow easy access from there to the main area( It could be used as some sort of climbing area but not 100% sure of this idea yet). I also thought that the holes in the wood would need to be filled but wasn't sure what with?

[moletteuk]

If you cut holes in the vertical dividing the main space from the narrow space, it will all need edge protecting. I suppose it depends how many holes you cut and how big they are. Would it be possible to remove this vertical piece altogether and replace with a vertical batten at the front (and back if necessary) to hang the door off and provide strength? How wide is the main section?


Regarding the little noggin holes, it depends how many there are. You can either put a flat metal strip over them, wooden battens which will get chewed and need replacing now and then, or you can line the sides completely with thin plywood or mdf.

[saddlers]

I have had a look but can't think of anything else than has already been suggested, you may find actual glass cheaper than plexi if you want to use sliding glass doors. If you say they are for sliding doors they will smooth/round the edges for you. I got two pairs of glass doors made before for £48, and that was with the finger grooves in them which were a couple of £ per door. If you do cut holes through the divider, plasterbaord edging may be ideal as edge protection because you could secure it into the chipboard.

[timonpumba]

well after deciding to convert the wardrobe into the degu cage. I have now decided to scrap that idea as the girlfriend thinks it would look horrible in the living room lol. I am planning to build a cage from scratch using MDF sheets for the sides and maybe the bottom. Ive still to decide which material to use for the levels. I seem to have hit a roadblock in my planning as im not sure if the sides go on top of the bottom sheet then screwed on or the sides just press up against the side of the bottom sheet then get screwed together.( hope this sort of makes sense ) Also I was planning on using thin plywood for the back but wasn't sure if this would make the levels sturdy enough? sorry for all the questions but Im not too good at woodwork I just want to make sure its all planned out with no errors.

[Lrak]

For fixing the levels in I used batten alone the sides inside and placed the levels on that then screwed them down to stop them moving about. It fine not being any good at wood work, if you need any advice then just ask, a few of us are good at wood work ;-)

[moletteuk]

The sides and back can be the same MDF, not less than 12mm, although personally I would use plywood because it is more scrubbable and will resist wee dribbles better, but it depends on your priorities. For the base and shelves, you need to think about urine-proofing, you could only use MDF if you totally waterproofed them somehow. Consult the materials guide for more info.

It's not crucial whether you sit the sides on the base or run them flush past the base, it's more a matter of preference. If you sit the sides on the base you have a horizontal crack which attracts less crud, but the base will be visible when you view the whole cage from the side, so it's up to you. If you aren't so accurate at drilling or want to make the whole thing rock solid, then use wooden battens or metal brackets to connect the whole thing together. If you look in the blog section there are some about cage building, mhb and smithomatic spring to mind

[timonpumba]

Does anybody know where you can buy the metal protection to prevent the degus from chewing on the wood?

[saddlers]

If it is edge protection you are after you may want to look at www.wickes.co.uk/invt/240322

Read more: deguworld.proboards.com/thread/17548/protection-material#ixzz2bvoWQxTL