Tips for DIY Cages? -- Use of Plywood in Exterior

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kid coyote

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Dec 25, 2018
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Hi! I made an account on here just for this purpose, ahaha. I'm preparing for my chinchilla (which I'm picking up on Saturday) and plan on building my own cage. I've done plenty of research but I'm on a tighter budget than what a lot of DIY tutorials suggest.
To cut a long story short I was thinking of using plywood for the outer shell of the cage. I've read in most places that the glue in plywood is unsafe but since I'm simply using it for the exterior I figured it might be okay? For the record I won't be using plywood for the shelving or anything like that. I'm a first time chinchilla owner so I'd love for one of you more adept chin-parents to help me out. Thanks so much in advance!

-- Shania
 
I wouldn't use plywood anywhere the chins could actually access it. The glue used in plywood is toxic to chinchillas so you would need to make sure there is no possible way they could end up chewing on it. So use only high quality smooth surface plywood with no knots, and make sure the edges of the plywood are not accessible.

Honestly though, I would think unless plywood is cheap where you live, that it would be cheaper to just buy a cage.
 
I would think that the plywood and other hardware for a home made cage would be pretty close to cost of a ferret nation unless shipping is totally out range. Plus the plywood is going to absorb urine and start to stink fairly quickly/harder to clean than metal Nations.
 
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