Epic Cage Building!

Aw! What an awesome cage for Kiah! Can I come live with him?

Wow that's one big cage! I bet he will love it soon enough!

Very cool! I've built dozens of C&C cages from when I had guinea pigs, and always had the coro just an inch or so off once it was cut!

Do hedgies use those plastic saucer wheels?

Kiah's little face is so cute and funny in the last picture! I bet he's on cloud nine with the new cage! Hopefully someone can help you with the ramp! :cute:

I just had to say "WOW!" This is the exactly the kind of cage I hope to one day build for Tiggles.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Tiffany

Nice house.

I think the ramp is too steep. You can fix it by adding an additional row of cubes to the left side and one to the back (to make them the same height as the loft, a landing and another ramp. You can make a landing in the back corner that is 1/2 way up the bottom row of cubes. I would put his box under there. Then make a ramp from the landing along the left side of the cage to the ground level and another ramp from the landing to the loft. The landing could be a square the same width as the ramps. This would reduce the angle of the ramps and make it easier for him to climb.

I'd also alter the way the ramp connects to the loft. There is a great potential for him to fall with the gap between the top of the ramp edges and the loft. The top of the ramp sides should be at an angle like this _____/ so that once it's in place there isn't a gap, then get rid of the lip on the loft where the ramp is. It's hard to tell from the ramp picture, but does it have a guard rail on the side that isn't attached to the cube wall? If not, I would be worried that me might fall off the top of the ramp. Also, make sure that the guard rails connecting the two ramps don't leave a space at the landing that he could potentially fall off.

Does that make sense?

Kiah-Muz said:

menagerie- You're comment made a lot of sense and thank you for your response. Though I was to ensure that all of the guard are zip-tied. And all of the guards are actually still attached to the flooring. My fiance' was a genius to only cut through one layer of the coroplast so we could easily bend it. He can be a pretty clever guy.
Right now, the ramp is not up- we took it out until a) we could figure out a good way to make the ramp and/or b) Kiah's at least used to the bottom level.

Both Angie & menagerie: do you think it would be possible to lower and use A LOT of zip ties to place the lower level about.... lets say 7 inches from the bottom level? Do you think that it would be safe or being too trusting in zip ties? Nancy suggested if I lower the level, we could solve the problem of the ramp being too steep since we can't make the ramp longer?[/CENTER][/I]

Click to expand...

I think you could easily zip tie the level lower. Hedgies aren't very heavy and zip ties should be fine.

Zip tie it is fine and will hold the level no problem. Zip ties are actually a more secure way to put C&C together anyways as the corners can come undone.

An Update on the cage...

so after a lot a sweating, twisting around, and over 64 zip ties, I was able to lower the second level and adjust the ramp that's more realistic for Kiah's capabilities.
I kept checking on Kiah about every hour or so.... and he switched level every time! So I guess he likes the adjustment- haha. He's eating more, running around a lot more. Just overall more active and happy.

Here are some photos of him, the ramp, and the cage. Enjoy. The last photo is with all the safety guards up.

Disclaimer: when these photos were taken, I was was washing 2 out of the 3 liners we have so I places a back up town *WITH NO LOOPS* temporarily until the liners got out of the dryer. There is also a temp towel on the second level, but that does not have loops as well. We were very careful in our material selection. And they are just in temp use until my new liners come in *yay for Nancy!*
/Disclaimer :thumbsup:​

Nice job, that looks a lot more user friendly. :dance3:

Thanks! He's really liking it too. Last night we could hear him scurry up, then down over and over again! However, I guess he is starting to slide down the ramp... But intentionally. Since I had the wonderful chance to hear him going up and down for hours, I could hear/see him occasionally sliding down... Varring from either near the bottom, half way or all the way! I was worried at first, but there several times he would normally run down... Should I be concerened? I lowered the level as much as I could... And the ramp can't be any longer either... Maybe he just likes to slide?

Kiah-Muz said:

Maybe he just likes to slide?

Click to expand...

haha, a hedgie who likes slides!
And I think thats the case, I mean would you rather walk or slide down a ramp? But he could be possibly having trouble coming down the ramp, so he just slids down. Does he have trouble coming up the ramp? If not, he's just probably being a funny hog...

He has no trouble going up and there are times that he just runs down normally. So I guess he is just being silly!