Building your own cage

[petluvr01]

Hi, I had a lot of questions about building a cage, and I didn't think I should put them under the galvenized wire post, so here they are.

1) Has anyone made their own and cage good pics??
2) Can I use wood?? or would they chew it all off?
3) What is they minimum size for 2-3 degus?
4) How many levels should it have?

Those are all my questions...for now anyways!!! I am really not having luck with finding a cage other than online, and online is hard b/c you have to pay with credit card, and I don't have one! Thanks for any help, it is all appreciated!

[mulder]

i've built many cages, for rats and goos. wood works, they'll chew it, but if you make it sturdy enough then it'll take years for them to get through. they like levels and ledges for sure. my goo cage was 3 feet tall, 2.5 wide and 2 deep. you can use marine boat paint to seal the wood, otherwise it'll soak up pee. but im not sure of the effects of a goo chewing marine painted wood. you can find those linoleum sticky tiles to use as flooring. you can get at home depot etc. a roll of metal caging for like ten bux, a roll that's ten feet long lol. it's what i did and i had tons left over.

Degu guide

[Amethystbelle]

I've found degus will chew new wood for a start but once they have had the initial chew test they tend to leave it pretty much alone. All my goos have wooden shelving and i thought it would take a battering once they got their little teeth on it but after the first few days they lost interest and not touched it since. The only downside to wood is that it soaks up urine, not sure about using marine wood stain though as it may be toxic. All i do with my wood is once every couple of months i remove it and sand it down to remove the top soiled layer which is fine for shelving but would be harder if the walls were made from wood although the walls wouldn't get as soiled.

For 2-3 degus i would go for at least a level each so aim for 3 levels or more but the more you have the happier they will be as they love to explore and hop around. We've made it so they have to work to get from level to level and they have hanging tunnels and ledges to hop across which they all seem to love

[petluvr01]

It seems that the only kind of wire I can find is any kind other than powder coated wire. I see a lot of cages made out of the silver wire, isn't that galvanized wire?? just like the cage in those pics above, they seem like they would have gal. wire. That is a great cage though, I would love to make a cage like that!!! I love the idea of all those huge branches. Thanks for the link. Any more???????

[Amethystbelle]

For inspiration take a look on here its the most fabulous site. Its in german though but the pictures speak for themselves

Degu Heaven

[petluvr01]

WOW! Those are absolutley great cages. I think I have saw that sight before, but as soon as I relized that I couldn't read it I got out of it. So goos won't chew through the wood?? and what kind of wire is that-- if anyone can read that!--?

Gotta go, lunch bell is gonna ring!! Yum I'm hungry

[petluvr01]

I'm gonna go under the rat section and see if they have any ideas. Most of the cages are rat cages anyways. Oh, I was wondering, on the German site, what kin of wire would that probaly be? It looks to m like silver-galvenized stuff? Anyone who has that huge cage, their goo must be in heaven or beyond!! LOL That's like half the size of my room or more!

[MañasMom]

I'm very jealous of those cages too! They are the absolute best.

I think you'd be ok with wood. I have a wooden nesting box in with Mana, and after nibbling it for a couple weeks, she pretty well quick nibbling it.

I have no idea what kind of wire that would be. I did google "Chicken Wire" and found that you can get PVC coated chicken wire or stainless steel, but it also comes as galvanized wire too. The PVC coated hexagonal wire was in different colors, rather than just plain silver. I would think the silver wire would still be galvanized, but wouldn't swear to it.

I don't know if every store would have the PVC coated or stainless steel chicken wire, but it does exist. lol

[petluvr01]

Thanks! At least now I have some hope! I will look for pvc chicken wire. I never even thought it existed!! LOL would the hexagon wire be too big though? I seems like they would be able to squeeze right out of it! I will look into wood, and make sure i have a lot extra for the first while if they happen to chew through.

[mulder]

lol oh chicken wire.....lemme tell you something when i first got my goos, and i was making their cage, all i had was chickenwire. i thought i'd made it up nicely, i let the goobers in it, they ran around had fun, they were about 2 months old. i turn around to clean up my mess and a goo runs by me. WELL lemme tell you the little buggers squeezed on through and had a blast running around my place LOL. as adults they don't fit through, but as youngins they sure to fit through! lol

[MañasMom]

LOL Oh my, what a surprise!

I've seen little brown blurs out of the corner of my eye before, and you just think, "That just can't be a Degu" - and it is.

That is so funny!! LOL!

[petluvr01]

LOL!!! I will keep that in mind!

[petluvr01]

OMG!!! I just went under the chicken wire--agian-- and typed in pvc in front of it, and I found some 1" by 1" black pvc coated (fence) wire. It is 48" tall (4 feet) and 50 feet long, for $85. I just e-mailed them askingif it would be a t all possible if they cut it only to like 20 feet. I can't believe I finally found some wire. Even though I was looking for powder coated, I suppose this will do--I think. I will let you know what they say.

[MañasMom]

I sure hope this is something that will work out for you!

[mulder]

im telling you, if you can find a home depot or rona or anything like that, they have garden fencign in rolls, like ten feet for ten bux