Building new cage (Question)

[tacti&yuri]

I am moving soon, and in our new house, our chins will have their own room.
I'm planning to build a new cage for our two girls.

Initially I was going to use solid KD pine for entire cage, but found this thread

http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1367

I'm wondering what would be the advantage/disadvantage of using pine instead of melamine board.

our girls chew on anything, and i just want to keep them safe...
is it safe for our chins to chew on melamine, or is it so hard they cannot chew?

thanks!

 

[Sugarmama]

I think my main concern would be the inability to really clean the pine. If a chin urinates on it, and it soaks in, it's going to be unsanitary and stink, whereas the melamine can be washed.

 

[Jyss]

That's what I would think too. With the melamine, you can just wipe up any pee, but on pine it will soak in, possibly causing fungus?

 

[soqrbrad]

I posted the same thing in a different post regarding a melamine stand that I found through craigslist that I am going to convert into a cage. Melamine is made with formaldehyde so you do the math on that one. embalming fluid is bad for any living creature and yes they can chew it off.

Our cage design can be found here:
http://www.chins-n-hedgies.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2500&page=5

We are going to move those melamine shelves and just turn them into back panels. That way Pachuco can't chew on them. We will keep the bottom two melamine shelves in there and not cut them in anyway. We will leave that first shelf down below for storage of food and treats and things and the cage will be everything above that. We can then screw in a 15" chin spin into melamine on the 2nd level and put bedding on that level. All the other shelves above will be replaced with KD pine and holes will be cut into them so that Pachuco can run and jump up the entire cage.

Hopefully we can teach him to only relieve himself in the bedding section so nothing will soak into the pine. If we need to I have heard vinegar works really well in getting out the urine out of the shelves.

We are having a bit of trouble finding a distributor of KD pine in Colorado and I'm fairly certain a job requirement of all Home Depot Lumber managers is that they must have a brain tumor and/or be clinically retarded. Once we get the wood though we will be posting pictures on the site. I may try contacting other lumber yards though too.

Hope this helps!

 

[ABBY W.]

Melamine shelves are great for the cage, very easy to clean, and last for longer than pine shelves. However, melamine can be toxic if consumed, so you MUST line the exposed edges of melamine shelves with a metal guard, so the melamine cannot be chewed. You can get aluminum bars from Home Depot. They are L-shaped, and fit beautifully on the edge of the shelves. BUT they are a pain to cut to size and screw onto the shelf edges. That was probably the toughest part of building my cages, btu well worth it. The cages are almost 2 years old, and I have not had to replace a single part yet. The shelves and the aluminum have held up great to the wear and tear of chinchillas. Cage cleaning is super easy. Each week it takes me about 90 minutes to clean all 6 cages, including washing dishes and water bottles, vacuuming and wiping down shelves, and changing the bedding.

 

[starleomach]

I use pine in mine and vacum it out regulary an dwipe down shelves..haven't had any problems yet...other than I need to replace chewed shelves soon

 

[shouts]

Pine shelves, definitely. Pine walls, never. Shelves I can replace, but who wants to build a new cage every year? Melamine with a pine frame is a great cheap cage.

 

[starleomach]

I have to say the back and sides of my cages are pine and are going on two Years and still in great shape. no damage to the back or sides, just the shelves.

 

[Carol~Anne]

I have a large cage that is made out of a melamine frame and has pine shelving and it works great. I suppose you could build the whole thing out of pine but I'd think that would be quite a bit more expensive than using the combination of melamine and pine.

I do have a smaller all-wood cage and I haven't had any trouble cleaning it at all but I do have all males and they don't spray. Even so, I do keep hydrogen peroxide on hand for cleaning the stains out of wood.

Have you check out this thread yet? http://chins-n-hedgies.com./forums/showthread.php?t=101

 

[tacti&yuri]

Thanks for a lot of info.

currently i have 3 cages combined for our girls.
they sleeps in Ryerson's starter cage, which connected to the play area.
those two are covered with shaving.
on top of the play area is another cage where i put a lot of ledges (shelves?)
our girls only pee in the play area.
never in second cage on top of play area, or their sleeping cage.

that's why I didn't even thought about the pee issue...

one reason i worry about melamine is that our girls try,
and they actually do chew on flat wall.
on the floor of the play area, we had a stick on vinyl tile,
which they eventually start chew into, and peel them.
also, when i let them out for their playtime, they sometime try to put teeth on wall.
and they actually make some dent....

maybe i will need to look for galvanized mesh to make the wall...

and i've been looking thru this Housing forum for any ideas.
a lot of their cages are fascinating, and hopefully i can post ours in a couple month as well!

Tact

 

[tacti&yuri]

after posting the previous post, i thought about IKEA's cabinets.
they say in the material section "Melamine Foil".
does that the same thing as what everyone is talking as melamine board?

we have IKEA near by and they have outlet section where they sell damaged items and a lot of random shelves for really low price.
if they works, maybe that would be a cheap choice for us to build a cage...

any idea?

Tact

 

[Spoof]

I always used polyurethane in the bottom and on the sides of the cages I built as well as caulked the cracks. No, they don't chew on it. It makes an excellent waterproof seal.

 

[SunshineChins]

I have used pine shelving for years and never had a problem with smell.

 

[Cuddlebug]

I have pine shelves and have had them for about 18 months now. I just vacuum them daily and wipe them down with peroxide once a week. Yes, they get chewed, but I have had the same shelves the whole time and they are not bad enough to need replacing, yet.

 

[tacti&yuri]

I'm still putting together some ideal.
since our girls seems not to pee when they are on shelves, I may make something like melamine just on the bottom of the cage and around the edge.

by the way, where can we find galvanized mesh which can be used for the cage?
I've found some online store where we can purchase, but i prefer local store where i can see the product before i purchase.
does anyone know what kind of store may carry them?
I went to lowes and homedepot, but sales person had no idea what i was talking about...

i'm located near cincinnati, OH and if anyone know good place to go please let me know!!

thank you.

 

[MyFuzzies]

I'm still putting together some ideal.
since our girls seems not to pee when they are on shelves, I may make something like melamine just on the bottom of the cage and around the edge.

by the way, where can we find galvanized mesh which can be used for the cage?
I've found some online store where we can purchase, but i prefer local store where i can see the product before i purchase.
does anyone know what kind of store may carry them?
I went to lowes and homedepot, but sales person had no idea what i was talking about...

i'm located near cincinnati, OH and if anyone know good place to go please let me know!!

thank you.

The Lowe's where I live has it...it's in the fencing area.

 

[sillybebe]

Home Depot in my area also has it...in the fencing area...ask for chicken wire...mine was right in the same area! Good luck!

 

[Spoof]

Lowe's & Home depot should both have it out in the garden area - which is where the fencing mentioned above is. Mine sells out quickly, so as soon as they got it in I bought out their entire month's inventory(?!?) of four rolls.

Any ranch/feed store that sells small animal supplies also seems to carry it, it's commonly used to build rabbit hutches and keep critters out of your garden.

What you're looking for is 1" x 1/2" hardware cloth, though for doors you could probably get away with 1/2" x 1/2" if it was a good gauge. May also be called wire mesh.

 

[Rickman]

Even Ace Hardware has it, and it's called "hardware cloth". Cheapest I found it at was a "Big R" store, and they had quite a selection of different widths, lenghts, and even sizes! [1/4, 3/8,+ 1/2 inch] But I've also bought it at Home Depot + Lowe's!

 

[soqrbrad]

The other option is Elfa Shelfing if you are looking for a more durable cage. It may be a bit more expensive but you will never have to replace it. If you can find a friend that works at the Container Store, you can use their discount and get 60% off.