Cage help

[BMoneyHabs]

Hi everyone,

I just brought up an adorable chin that I named Mika, and he is already my precious little man. I have been reading a ton about them, and it was a huge decision for me. I feel like I know a lot from reading every article on the first 20 pages of Google about chin care. The only thing that I don't know much about is cages. I bought a cage with plastic shelves and bottom from PetSmart, and I know that Mika will eventually chew through. Would anyone have any good ideas of a cost effective cage that will be good that I might be able to order online? Ideally in the future I'd love to invest in one that costs a few hundred dollars, but I just don't think I can do that financially right now.

Also, with this plastic bottomed cage, should I be expecting him to break out soon or do I have enough time for a cage to arrive.

I just want to give him the best home possible.

Also any other tips y'all might have would be great.

Thanks,
Brandon

 

[Cat75]

Try replacing the plastic shelves with wood ledges. Have you noticed Mika chewing on the plastic bottom? If he is a heavy chewer you may not have long before he chews his way out. Have you tried craigslist for a cage? Otherwise I would recommend a ferret nation even if it's a single unit.

 

[NiftyKat]

You can also order some of the fleece liners a few members on here make to cover the plastic shelves. )

 

[BMoneyHabs]

You can also order some of the fleece liners a few members on here make to cover the plastic shelves. )

That sounds awesome! I would love to know more about that.

 

[MyzarandGemma]

I highly recommend the ferret nation cages. They should last you a really long time! $200 may seem like a lot now, but even if it only lasted 5 years, that's still only $40 a year. From what I hear, though, they last longer than that.

There is a DIY on here about making your own shelves. We found that to be SUPER cost effective

Fleece liners are a good option to cover the plastic shelves. What cage do you have? You may be able to just cover the bottom in fleece and not have to worry about getting a new cage

 

[landrk11]

Hi,

I have the Critter Nation (Ferrett Nations same company) 2 story and love it. 5 ft high, 3 ft wide and 2 ft deep. Plenty of room and have swapped out the plastic trays with wooden shelves I had made. There is another posting named Critter Nation that has a great picture. I'm actually thinking of have granite shelves made as well.

I provide plenty of wooden perches, toys and sticks so I am not concened about not having wood in the cage for chewing.

Check out the Chinspin too. I have one for Lola and love it. She was going through a wheel a month and I was afraid she was going to get hurt so I invested in the Chinspin. Expensive but worth the piece of mind that the little one is safe.

Check it out. I agree that it's worth the investment. Chins live a very long life and I wanted my little fuzzball to have a home with room to play.

 

[BMoneyHabs]

I highly recommend the ferret nation cages. They should last you a really long time! $200 may seem like a lot now, but even if it only lasted 5 years, that's still only $40 a year. From what I hear, though, they last longer than that.

There is a DIY on here about making your own shelves. We found that to be SUPER cost effective

Fleece liners are a good option to cover the plastic shelves. What cage do you have? You may be able to just cover the bottom in fleece and not have to worry about getting a new cage

That's the cage that I bought. Where can possibly buy these fleece liners? I really would love to get some, and also get wooden shelves. Yeah, I am definitely investing in a ferret nation cage, but I just want to wait until I have a little more money for another investment.

So far, he isn't chewing his shelves or the plastic bottom. He is just chewing the cage wires. He's got a ton of chew toys in there to enjoy, and I consistently ordering more

 

[MyzarandGemma]

AH! THE PLASTIC! *dramatic faint*

The fleece liners can be found in the Chin Supplies for Sale, the Grand Master supply list will have the list of everyone and their sites. I suggest getting some pre-made stuff if you can, since you will want to cover it fast.

Take out the plastic shelves immediately and the ramp. That ramp can get their feet stuck and you may end up having to take poor Mika to the vet for x-rays.

Go to Ace Hardware, look through their scraps for Kiln-Dried (KD) Pine. We got our scraps for 75 cents, cutting was a dollar. Get them to cut them into a couple pieces for you and then follow the DIY above. It took us 3 hours total to deck out a ferret nation, yours will probably only take an hour max.

Because your cage sits in the plastic bottom, you could possibly TEMPORARILY (until you got liners) try buying a piece of fleece to put over it (hanging out from all sides) with a towel beneath it to absorb pee. This would be very temporary though. I would get right on those liners

There are some people that have tiled the bottoms of their cages, you should search for that too and see which you like.

Also, I don't know if you already have, but remember to take out the plastic feeder cup. Ceramic bowls are $2 at PetSmart or PetCo.

Good luck!