Desperate for DIY!

[Whizz]

After seeing other member's photos of their home built Degu cages, its really made me think about building my own. I would love to build my boys a really nice cage.

I just have one problem: My mum doesn't think they need another cage.
We got a bigger cage in February, which is massive in comparison to their last cage. It's metal and by all means, its a lovely cage but I can't really fill it like those of you who have lovely home build cages.
She thinks that it'll cost a lot more money than its worth, but my big metal cage I have now costed me about £130 and she is quite sure that it will cost more than that!

I'm really quite desperate to make my cage because it looks ever so fun!
I especially love the homemade cages where they have loads of floor space and an equal amount of climbing space, my boys don't have as much running space as I'd like.

I'd probably find an old chest of drawers unit and modify it, speaking of that I think I have an old MALM 5 drawer unit from IKEA sitting about somewhere that isn't being used.. I think it would be a fairly swift modification and wouldn't cost much either.

Any ideas on how to persuade someone that a Homemade cage is better?

[fred]

I think if you print out the testimonials from Nightwishraven's site and show them to your mum, that may be a good start. For £130 you would be able to build a great cage. Perhaps you could also consider to make you current cage (climbing space) part of the new one (running space). I have seen a few cases where this has been done very successfully. Maybe you can post a picture of your cage and someone will come up with a good idea for this.

[Whizz]

I will get her to have a look at them later, hopefully that and they picture might swing her by.

Here's a picture of the cage - click!
My cage can also be used to cage Parakeets, so as you can see it has the long vertical wires rather than simple square mesh. I'm not sure if that means I couldn't make something out of it or not, or it might just make the job much, much harder.

In consideration, I'm mainly looking for a way to get a lot more running space. Even if I can't make a cage at this very moment in time (I may wait until my birthday so I can use the money I get), I would like to improve the cage I have now - even if it is just some bigger/wider shelves! It gets dirty really easily aswell, which I wouldn't get with a Wooden one.

It's really quite aggravating because when I started looking for a bigger cage months ago, I never gave building one a thought and now I have little money to no money to work with. Whereas, I could have made a really amazing cage with the money I had, but I guess I never really thought about it.

However, like I said I do have an old unit laying about somewhere - it would just be matter of getting some shelves, fixing some doors and adding ventilation. That shouldn't cost too much, should it?

[fred]

One of the advantages of DIY cages is that they can be continuous building projects where you can add here and there over time. One thing that came to my mind immediately is whether you could put your current cage on it's side and on top of the IKEA drawers. That way you may need very little money at the first stage. Now I have to admit that I am very bad at DIY and not the one to give advice here, but there will be others around who can.

[Maravilla]

At the moment your cage looks a little bit crowded. But maybe I only see it like this due to the closed doors and the colourful wallpaper. In my opinion it is important to strike the balance between useful toys and space to run. Do your degus really use all these things hanging in the cage?
I do not know neither your size measures nor the kind of wood available in DIY superstores there. But if you have the chance you could include three complete levels in the cage. The holes only need to be 10x15 cm, so there is more space to run.
Can you provide permanent space in front of the cage or next to it? Then there would be the possibility of a playground. Lots of people do use temporary playgrounds for 1-3h per day, but often degus start to chew on the cage when they want to leave it the rest of the day. A permanent playground allows degus to use it whenever THEY want, not only when WE allow them to use it. There are different ways to build such a thing.

In general the idea of fred is not bad. It is only the question of how to clean the cage when you include a second floor.

[Whizz]

The main problem with that idea, is that by turning my cage sideways and adding it to the top - it will be far too long to be able to have it there.
I have just done some measurements, and it turns out that without the cage on the stand, it is 133cm High, which is of similar height as the unit from Ikea. So alternatively I could take the cage off of the stand and attach it to the unit as it normally stands (vertically).
However, even with that idea I am restricted, my cage is in bedroom and has a few room restrictions. My bedroom door is to the right of the cage and opens inwards, to the left of the cage is another unit (which is also strangely the same size unit as what I'd like to make the cage out of).
If I added the current cage to the proposed unit, it wouldn't be able to fit, which means either my room would have to be moved about (which is almost impossible due to sliding wardrobes) or having my degus elsewhere in the house (however the idea is not particularly popular with either of my parents).

I really should add, that the size cage I have now is brilliant. I love my metal cage as it is, but it just creates more mess than I would like it to. I also dislike the lack of running space as I said before. The cage size fits my boys perfectly as they can group together or have some alone time. It's really not the cage size that the problem, is more to do with the running space and the mess that is problem.
Measuring up, the MALM unit and the cage are very similar in size.
Cage: 133cm Height (without stand)
50cm Depth
80cm Width

Unit: 123cm Height
47cm Depth
80cm Width

As you can see, they're rather similar in Height, Depth and Width. Although the Unit is slightly smaller in both Depth and Width, I think I could perhaps think of some ways of extending it so they are either the same as the cage or even bigger. The height could be made up of a Mesh extension roughly 40-50cm high, which would make it 160-170cm high.
Depth, I'm not sure on this one, but I know that the doors would be plexi glass or something similar, so I could always add an extension on the front or back using a plank of wood to create a few more cm's.
Width wouldn't need to be changed, although I admit that the unit's casing is 1.7cm big so I could always slim that down using plywood or something - other than that the Width is fine.

So in any case, if I was to make a cage out of this unit, it would be so I could add running space and create less mess - rather than making a cage that is bigger than the one I have now, although if I could make it even a few cm's bigger - I would!

[Whizz]

Aug 23, 2011 12:21:04 GMT Maravilla said:

At the moment your cage looks a little bit crowded. But maybe I only see it like this due to the closed doors and the colourful wallpaper. In my opinion it is important to strike the balance between useful toys and space to run. Do your degus really use all these things hanging in the cage?
I do not know neither your size measures nor the kind of wood available in DIY superstores there. But if you have the chance you could include three complete levels in the cage. The holes only need to be 10x15 cm, so there is more space to run.
Can you provide permanent space in front of the cage or next to it? Then there would be the possibility of a playground. Lots of people do use temporary playgrounds for 1-3h per day, but often degus start to chew on the cage when they want to leave it the rest of the day. A permanent playground allows degus to use it whenever THEY want, not only when WE allow them to use it. There are different ways to build such a thing.

In general the idea of fred is not bad. It is only the question of how to clean the cage when you include a second floor.

You had posted when I was writing my huge paragraph - sorry that I missed your post!

It's quite crowded because I'm just really trying to use the best of the space I have. My boys really love hanging toys and whilst I'm sure they wouldn't need all of them.. I'm not sure what I'd put in there place! I'm not really sure why, but I don't like empty/sparse cages I really like mine to be packed full of things to do.
It is also probably to do with the wallpaper and the closed doors, I'd take some in-cage shoots but my degus are currently in the cage.

That is what I would really love to do! Even if I didn't build a new cage, just change this one I have now then I would be happy. I really would love three whole levels for them to enjoy. Plywood or something similar with a Kiln Dried Pine edge would suitable, right? The problem I really see with adding whole levels is because of the placement of the doors on the cage at the moment. The doors are large and take up the majority of the cage, with a 7cm gap between them. I'm not quite sure how I would add three whole levels when the doors take up the majority - it would make the cage much harder to clean as a whole because you can't get to all those hard-to-get places. Getting some holes in the levels would be no trouble and I think my boys would really like it.

I could have a permanent/semi permanent playground, but it may have some issues - due to the space. My bed is in front of the cage, leaving only a 70cm width gap between, which by all means you could probably place a nice playground in. My cage is on a stand also, so I'm not sure how to make a connection between the floor and a 46cm-50cm stand! Although thinking of it, the playground could be a long rectangle, which would cover the floor space from the cage to a unit next to it - I think my boys would quite like that aswell. I wouldn't be sure what material to use to create the playground however.

[Kat]

Hi,
I really like your cage. I have oh-ed and ahh-ed over that model myself.

I can see what you are saying about adding 3 levels and I also that it would be hard to clean/rearrange the cage this way.
How about adding a full level just under or inline with the bottom of the top door? You would have more floor space but still good access.
Because the cage is so tall I think that this would also be a good safety precaution incase of falls.

Kat
x

[moletteuk]

I like the suggestions to just modify the great cage that you have by adding a shelf, or something, and then put your creative efforts into making a playpen for them. You could use mdf or plywood to make the sides approx 60cm tall depending on their jumping abilities if it's going to be open at the top. You could use plywood to make a base or get a piece of lino, or both. You can use a ramp or a tube to get between the cage and the pen.

[Whizz]

kat, thank you - I really do love the cage because it's a lovely size for my boys.
I understand what you mean, I thought that aswell, it's be really hard to clean because of the location of both doors. So I've stolen your idea and I had a chat with my mum.
I managed to persuade her that we should add a full level where the top of the bottom door is. She's agreed to do it aslong as my Grandad is happy to help me make it. So my boys will soon be getting another large floor space!

@molette, that's actually a really good idea. I mean, I have a run that they go in when we clean them out, but a semi permanent playpen they can jump in and out is something I'd love to do as I stated earlier. I think they'd really enjoy it. I'll play about with the tape measure tomorrow and see what measurements I can come up with.
My boys are quite keen on jumping - although I must say that if they have access to both a playpen and cage as they wish I don't think that they would be thinking of jumping as much, along I could think about adding some sort of roof to it but I'm think it may get a bit complicated if I do!
Thanks for the ideas, it'll give me something to think about - shouldnt cost to much either with the mdf/plywood. Any ideas on the cheapest place for mdf or plywood? I'll have a check on B&Qs and Wickes' website.

[Kins]

Sunds like you've been helped with some great ideas there!

When we made our cages we just got the MDF from B&Q, most stores offer a cutting service. One store who cut some bits for us were great but the other store weren't quite so accurate. Although I'd imagine for a playpen all the bits of MDF would be the same size so would make the cutting part much easier...

[NightwishRaven999]

@ Whizz

I have been reading through this topic and am very happy you will be able to give your degus more floor space. Adding one or two extra floors to the cage is a great idea. Give them a wide open area where they can run. You may not like to see open floor space that is bare of toys, but these spaces are very important in a degu cage. Although toys, ropes and such make for great environmental enrichments, open floor space is far more important to the degus.
In the wild degus run, burrow, chew, climb and forage. The degu cage should provide your degus with many opportunities to perform all of these activities. All else is secondary.

I will be following this topic with anticipation.
Please keep us up to date with your new project !