Question:
What do you like and dislike about your current cage?
As most of you already know, I am hoping to build two new cages in the next few weeks and I want them to be "keepers". I built the girls a cage last year but I don't like it anymore. It is a wood frame with wire and it cannot be steralized completely. There are other flaws like being hard to clean, only having two doors, etc. so I want a cage that I am going to love.
Feel free to add even the tiniest, most nitpicky thing because it will help with my design.


Answer:
I dislike just about everything about my cage because I still have the extra large rabbit cage that Buddy came in.
I really want a homemade cage, but I don't have any tools or building skills...


Answer:
I honestly don't have any complaints about the cages I have except for the fact that I will never have a cage shipped to me fully assembled. UPS mangled the two cages I had shipped to me and I plan on replacing one of them next year. Other than that, I love the size, situation of the shelves, ease of cleaning, etc. The two bottom cages have wheels which makes it SO easy to clean underneath them.


Answer:
yikes Denise, I would have made a big fuss about that
I just have the Hagen chinchilla cages, even tho they are not overly huge I am pleased with them, they are easy to clean, lots of room for shelves, leap n ledges and a corner shelf and their house,
sorry i cant be of better help, I have never built a cage before


Answer:
Brandy, the one cage Dave was able to straighten the wire with plyers so you can't notice it but the other one was sent back and the one I got still had damage done to the wire. Dave did his best at straightening them out but you can notice it.


Answer:
Does anyone have an opinion on using tile on the floor? I was going to seal the melamine edges with caulking anyway but then I thought that tile might be a good idea. I was thinking of using tile along the bottom and then those really short ones (only a couple inches high) around the bottom of the cage to keep the corners clean and also so that they could have a cool place in the summer. My concern is the glue that is used to put them in place...is it non-toxic?


Answer:
my concern with tile is how hard it would be for the chinnies to fall on if one lost foot on a shelf or something. I'd be really concerned about one of my babies injury itself.


Answer:
Do you think that it is much harder than melamine? I am definitely building a middle floor for the cage and I am hoping to have overlapping shelves as well to give them the most space to run and also to prevent falls. If everything goes right, there should be no space that the chins could fall from the top of the cage to the middle floor. I plan on putting the shelves in a spiral pattern...ie. right wall, back wall, left wall, front...and having them longer than half of the cage width...am I making any sense? Basically, if the cage is 2' wide, the shelves will be at least 18" deep.


Answer:
Ok, since there isn't much feedback about other people's cage, I would like feedback about some of my cage ideas...
The first is the tile which I already mentioned but I am thinking that it probably won't work. Tiles come in 12" squares do they not? If that is the case, I won't be able to put them in without cutting them and that's a pain.
Secondly, I was thinking about caulking the corners of the cage at the bottom (for moisture) and possible all the way up the corners, just in case. I have to use caulking to assemble the DuraDeck in their other cage and they never chewed it but I am wondering how much good it will do and if it is too risky. The boys typically use their litter pan on the middle shelf but also use the shavings in the bottom to pee. What does everyone think?


Answer:
Tiles come in multiple sizes.. I've found 4"x4", 6"x6" and 8"x8" @ lowes.com. If I were using melamine for shelves, I wouldn't tile them.. maybe you should try a section/shelf with tiles and see how you/they like it?
I personally wouldn't caulk the cage. Kindra doesn't use anything in her corners.. so I don't think it's really necessary. But, if you really want something maybe you could glue metal strips in the corners, because that would protect the corners without them being able to nibble on caulk which could be bad. What kind of metal? I don't know what's available let alone what's safe.