Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[GrayRodent]

I've been wanting to make this post for a while but I have been making a lot of modifications to my cage. I think it's pretty much done now. I used to use a generic and somewhat small Super Pet cage but I exchanged it for a super big pet cage!
This comes after I did a nice slide show for my relatives to show them what I've been working on.

[GrayRodent]

The cage was originally made for large parrots such as macaws. The floor was not safe for a chinchilla but it came out easily in one panel. I originally replaced it wire mesh but the steel tubing made it difficult to install resulting in gaps around the edges. This eventually resulted in injuring my extremely active second chinchilla when he got a toe through it. Thankfully the injury healed on its own.

The attached diagram shows the new design. There are three wood panels and one of the panels is fitted with wire mesh. It has turned out to be a decent compromise as long as I sweep the floor each morning.
The seed tray below holds an absorbent pad. The animal has no access to that space so I can use whatever I want. I found dog training pads are pretty cheap. There is also a wooden substructure (green) beneath the floor to hold it in that is in the diagram which is taped with foam tape (yellow) to eliminate noise. The wood is cut to fit the cage snugly also to eliminate noise.

The lowest structure is made from 2x4s to hold 5" casters. The brackets and fasteners are color coded red.
The original wheels disintegrated under the weight of this massive cage and I needed something so I could pull it out and clean under and around it. I am pleased with the current rig.

You can see by the second attachment I have an elaborate lighting system to simulate natural daylight and it seems to work very well. He gets very little natural light in the room the cage is in. By having it rigged this way it gives my chinchilla an accurate day/night reference. Since chins are naturally crepuscular (and males are more likely to stick to that) they are least active during the middle of the night. Since I sleep in the same room this has helped to facilitate this. On days where the lights are not working (If I clean the cage and forget to plug them in, or leave the override on) I have noticed I get less sleep from the noise because his schedule becomes erratic.

[GrayRodent]

The shelves in the cage were all made from 7" wide pine board. The long shelves kind of snap into the cage and don't require additional hardware. The short shelves were used from the smaller cage I originally had and those are bolted on. You can see in the second image that the stud bolts are covered with blue vacuum line caps. This prevents damage to the door frame when rolling the cage out of the room for deep cleaning.

On the right view the lava ledge (yellow) is a store bought pumice stone ledge and can be seen attached to a door that is for holding seed cups. The white surface on the floor is a marble slab from a broken dresser. This The back of the cage is to the right and you can see the blue caps over the bolts.

On the left view you can see the short shelf over the J-feeder. This discourages Kulu from jumping on it and rattling it at night. The ledge below has a standard Chin Chiller. The metal band around the J-feeder is also meant to minimize rattling. The shelf with the hay on it is the wire mesh frame that rests over the seed tray.

In both pictures you can see the electrical conduit run down the back of the cage to protect the cords running the lamps. I installed that after I had a mishap when cleaning the cage and the chin chewed part way through a cord that was (thankfully!) not plugged in. The cord was originally protected with clip on standoffs which too easily came unclipped. I removed the end from the extension cord to run it through the pipe then soldered it back together.

[gasaraki03]

Your cage looks nice the lighting is different and neat.

[GrayRodent]

This is the water system I am using. It is from Edstrom and is similar to the technology used in their Water Buddy system which was discontinued and it is getting harder to find them. They specialize in these kinds of watering systems where the nipples are all hooked into tubes that connect to a large reservoir. This system will probably be around forever and refurbishing kits are available for it.

I have adapted it to dispense from a soda bottle. It's kind of like a DIY water buddy. I'd recommend getting that over building this if you can find one but building this isn't that bad if you can work sheet metal with pliers and hand shears. The beauty of this design is that you can cheaply rebuild it if it gets chewed up.

The biggest advantage to this is that it does not leak. It is not a vacuum type waterer like the tubes with the balls in them you get from a pet store. The vacuum can be compromised by vibration and temperature and leak or even become too strong and fail to dispense water under certain conditions. This bottle is open to the air and the valve is opened by a small metal stem inside. It is gravity fed so you have to have a couple of inches of water in the bottle to keep the pressure in the tube up. You do have to be careful when switching systems. My second one took to it immediately but my first chinchilla took about a day to figure it out but . I smeared raisin on it to help.

There are probably better ways to connect the tube but I found the best for me was to stick a rubber automotive vacuum line cap on the end of the tube and cut the end off. This was then inserted through a hole drilled into the cap of the soda bottle. It was the narrowest type of bottle I could find. It came from some kind of fancy carbonated health drink that tasted pretty bad. I don't remember what it was called but I remember what it tasted like!

Since I've used the Edstrom system set up properly I have had no issues with it. Getting my kludged rubber seal to set right was initially an issue until I pressed the hose further into it and smoothed the hole in the cap with a file. Also I had a few mishaps with hose chewing before I learned how to get that right. It has been trouble free for months now and it only drips when my chin plays with it.

I used the guinea pig water nipple and used the cage mount designed for it. I found both my chinchilla was able to reach far enough behind it to chew the hose so I wrapped the hose with a piece of galvanized sheet metal. You can see it in the front view photo.

The soda bottle mount is very kludged from three different items. A piece of sheet metal from a bottle adapter hangs behind the bottle to prevent the chin from chewing the bottle and hangars from two different sized bottles that my chin destroyed holds the bottle to the bars.

Also the bottle is wrapped with two Velcro cable straps that hold a ruler (cut in half long ways) so I can measure the water intake. Personally I like to take logs of my chin's daily water and food intake.

[GrayRodent]

gasaraki03:
I'm glad you like it. I really enjoy having it next to my desk.

[GrayRodent]

Attached you can see how I hung this Treat-k-bob from the lower shelf with an eye bolt. My chinchilla likes to sleep on this shelf during the day. He also sleeps on his side quite often. It is amusing. The room temperature was about 72F when I took this so he is not overheated.

[mb30]

very nice work. I have the xtrail rodent cage and have been thinking for a while now about modifying it as an open cage instead of a cage that has two main floors.

[Snickerdoodlesmom]

He is so cute

[GrayRodent]

For some reason my chinchilla has recently decided to get into trouble.

Saturday morning he managed to push the metal plate protecting the bottle away and get one of the plastic straps and eat part of it. I replaced them with a single metal strap. Last night he managed climb up near the light fixture and dislodged the posterboard glare shield and chewed one of the edges. It did hang down a bit so I can see how it that have happened. I repaired it by trimming it shorter this morning. These things have been installed for over a month. I guess he's just now figured out he's big enough to do all that.

Also my mom added a new toy made from parrot toys. The chains used to have wood pieces on them that were destroyed by the parrot. The chain underneath is not safe for him because his talons can get through the links without the wood being there but it's fine for my chin.

[GrayRodent]

This may be of importance to anyone using this kind of valve, even in systems that have no tubing.

A couple of days ago Kulu decided to dislodge his water nozzle and chew through the tubing. I thought it was just him being his little destructive self, getting bigger, and finding new ways to get into trouble.
I measured his water level the next day and found he didn't drink anything. He could have been without water for 48 hours since I could not get a reading the day before after it drained out through the chew holes. Apparently he did this because it wasn't dispensing water.

I should have checked it when I refilled it. The valve was totally clogged. I took the valve assembly apart and found wet chinchilla hair that had spilled out into my hand. It appeared to have been wrapped around inside of the valve where I found more hair. My guess is that it came from the funnel I used to fill the reservoir and it may have built up over time.

There probably isn't a good way to prevent that but I will be more vigilant to make sure the water is dispensing each morning.

To keep Kulu from dislodging the water nozzle again I made a new modification. The problem was the nozzle is attached to the bars by a spring-like clamp designed for small gauge wire cages having a 1/2" x 1" bar spacing. It is not as secure on the large bars I have in the parrot cage. He managed to pull the valve into the cage and ate a 2 inch section out of one side of the hose. It was the by the grace of God he did not get sick from that. In the diagram you can see how the clamp can be rotated against the vertical bar and dislodged by a fidgety rodent.

I repaired it by installing a clamp next to the water nozzle bracket that simulates a second vertical bar. You can see how it's arranged in the attached diagram below (color coded green) with a bolt and nut (color coded blue) through it to tension it to the bars. It was fashioned from an electrical conduit fastener with the ends bent outward. So far it has been trouble free.

[GrayRodent]

I just added a wheel to the cage now that my chinchilla is fully grown. (about 470g) After many days of carefully plotting his weight the line is finally flat so I can now put a wheel in and not worry about his growth being stunted. This should greatly decrease the noise of his activities at night, which, is something I have been looking forward to for a while. I got a deal on a 14" "Silver surfer" chinchilla wheel. 15" is considered the optimal size for an average chinchilla and going smaller can potentially cause harm. My chinchilla is below average size and the wheel seems to be a good fit for him and the cage. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it for larger chins. I've found that others have used them for years without any problems so I decided to get this particular wheel. It is less expensive than the Chin Spin and is all metal construction. It is painted with a metallic silver paint but is also available in other colors. The quality of the paint's application is not that great and there are some rough spots that I didn't expect to be there. It is just fine though for what it is. The construction of it seems to be very good and it mounts to the horizontal bar on my cage just fine. It basically hangs off the bar but there is a third mounting point available. The seed cup door behind it does require a longer bolt setup than the one it came with because its structure pushes it about 1/8" back. I doubt I will need it anyway. The wheel supposedly has ball bearings in it and in action it is very quiet. The loudest thing is the sound of Kulu's feet pattering against it. I am looking forward to having a good night's sleep.

[GrayRodent]

Kulu has now grown to be closer to 510g since last year. The wheel is almost too small for him but he is still okay. I recommend going with a 15" wheel if you can. The wheel itself is still in excellent condition and the bearings are quiet. It is a good product and I highly recommend it for smaller rodents.