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[neal2379]

i've had my chinchilla for several months now, and wanted to get a bigger cage for him. i got a used bird cage that is 35"tallx23"x32. i have already pressure washed it, and am lanning on bleaching it to make sure there's nothing left of the former occupants. right now the cage has nothing in it. sould some one give me some suggestions as to how/what to use to build shelving for him to jump around on. he is very active and loves jumping.

i think the gaps on the bottom are too big as well. i don't want to put a solid bottom in it, but was thinking about getting some type of wire mesh or screening to put over the grate that is in there now.

also, is it a good idea to change the layout of the cage around from time to time to try to keep them from getting bored, or do they not respond well to change?

any info would be helpful and greatly appreciated.

[dianah]

we use untreated pine shelves and cut them up to size. you'll probably want to have a platform in the middle as well so the chin can't fall to far. all my cages (apart from one that usually is a spare but my rescue girl's in it now) are very tall but they are divided by large pine platforms. the way we do it is have a platform that sits in the middle and has space on the sides. underneath that and above that, on each side, there's a pine shelf that overhangs the platform. so basically, if they fall off a shelf, they land on the platform. if they fall of the platform, they'll land on a shelf.

the platforms and long shelves are held in place by these little J shaped brackets - you hook the 'bottom of upside down J' on a bar and screw the flat side on the front of the shelf in several places so the shelf can't move.

we also have plenty of little ledges around the whole cage and they enjoy them very much.

all these need replacing every so often because the chins love to eat them but i quite like that because i know that if they've demolished their chews, they can have a go at their shelving.

i agree the bars at the bottom are too wide but i can't help with that. we did try putting mesh around the bottom of one cage when fluffy was due to give birth and was getting so stressed when i tried to put her into a cage with narrow spaced bars that i decided to leave her in the one with wider spaced bars and we were rubbish at it!

not sure about changing layout. i have found that they tend to move around quite often without looking and i've had a chin jumping onto a ledge i've just removed to replace it!!!

[left027]

I used a combination of poplar and untreated pine.  You can screw in the shelves with fender washers and screws.  As for the bottom, you should get a metal tray so they can't get their feet stuck in the wires.  Look at Bass Equipment.  They make custom sizes for the metal trays.  http://www.bassequipment.com/Cages/Metal+Pans/default.aspx

[jmdebb]

yes they love to jump so lots of shelves, and that pan from bass is great.. its better on their feet than the grates on the bottom of the cage. 


dianea, what are j brackets?  got a pic?

[dianah]

they are mirror brackets (as my husband informed me), here's a picture i found - we use the smaller ones. there are plugs and washers on the picture as well but we (this is royal we  ) just use screws (i guess you only need plugs if the screws are going into a wall):

[neal2379]

thanks everyone for the information. will post pics of the finished project when done.