usda cage requirements

[akane]

Are there any cage material requirements for USDA licensing? I have some cages currently housing guinea pigs which we are selling to get in to hedgehogs that has unsealed wood. The wood has a vinyl floor lip to stop urine soaking in to it but the majority is untreated plain 2x6s. I also have some tanks(very large tanks), some coroplast cages, some sealed wood cages... Just whatever was on hand but we are planning to replace the coro cages with sealed wood since the sides are too low for hedgies and the c&c bars will not keep them in safely like a guinea pig.

 

[jags]

Your best bet would be to contact your local USDA officer. Everyone seems to read and interpret the rules a little differently and even different USDA inspectors have their own idea on whats ok and whats not according to the rules. I have seen things not even mentioned by one inspector be a hot topic for another one.

 

[smhufflepuff]

In addition to whatever requirements you may find through the USDA, keep your own list of things that would be good for hedgehogs (which is likely to go above and beyond what the USDA requires).

For example, I know some folks have used wood... Looks like you've already figured out needing to address the urine issue. Think, too, about mites. It's going to be a real pain in the rear if you ever have a mite issue. Given the way that mites seem to crop up on hedgehogs, some theorize that, to an extent, there are always mites on hedgehogs... And it's only during times of stress/illness that the balance get out of whack and you end up with an outbreak. I mention this because the old thinking that goes: "well, they don't have mites now, I run a clean shop, so I'm not going to ever have issues with mites" just doesn't pan out with these little guys as well as one would hope. So, it certainly doesn't mean that it's impossible... just make sure you're walking into it with your eyes fully open.

Given a couple illnesses my hedgies have had and the amount of cleaning needed to ensure health... ugh... took a lot of time and energy. But I had the relative ease of being able to clean plastic... I think I'd cry if I had to ensure that wood was fully free of issues.

Actually, C&C cages are pretty popular among the hedgie crowd too. I don't happen to have them (I prefer the wire-top, plastic-bottom version because I can use a CHE set-up). You are absolutely correct that the openings on the cubes are definitely too big - both babies and adults can slip right though them. As long as you get the coroplast to go up the walls, that may be a better choice than wood. It's not going to harbor mites, you can wipe it down easily enough with the big scary things like bleach (then rinse the dickens out of it, of course!), etc...

Tanks -- like the glass sided fish tanks -- aren't really favored in the hedgie community. Not enough air circulation is the main issue there.

Other question: how are you planning on heating your new cages? The type of cage will dictate heating / the type of heating will dictate the type of cage. If you're flexible on both ends, you're in a good place. But if one part of that equation is fixed, then the choices on the other end are narrowed.

 

[akane]

We don't really have to clean the wood because we stapled rolls of vinyl to the inside and then slapped a piece of plywood on the backside for support. I just wipe down the vinyl. Our sealed wooden cages use marine polyurethane like for sealing boats which makes it act just like plastic and it can be wiped clean with vinegar or bleach. These are the cages I prefer. I can't get full sheets of coro here so any coro cage has to be duct taped together from smaller pieces. Duct tape gets eaten, stuff gets shoved up under it, etc.... I just can't make a good coro cage especially with 1' high sides or more considering the biggest piece I can get is 30".

 

[akane]

This is what I just got back from working on for the rabbits. 6 in stacks of 3, 48x30" cages with 2x6's as the frame to hold bedding in (we can do 2, 2x6's to make 1' edges) sealed in nontoxic marine polyurethane with removable floors to scrub the corners and seams. It's since been wrapped in wire and we are putting on wire shelving doors but it turned really cold out so it's going slowly.

Currently we are heating the entire room with a space heater. We just got a new one that was suppose to have a digital thermostat instead of just a dial with markings but the thermostat is way off so I'm not sure what we're going to do. The heater says it's 80F when the thermometers say it's 75F in the room so I cranked it up to 79F to keep it running. We'll see if it works to just off set the temp otherwise I'll have to figure out something else.

 

[smhufflepuff]

A little confused... rabbits? You'll have hedgies and rabbits?

 

[akane]

I have hedgehogs, rare breed rabbits, show guinea pigs, although we are selling the guinea pigs to make room for the hedgehogs because they take up all the indoor cages, a parrot, sugar gliders, 2 dogs.... We only keep one rabbit indoors because she does poorly outside but all the guinea pigs are indoors because our winters are too cold. we had gerbils and hamsters not too long ago but getting well bred ones around here is impossible these days so they didn't work out and I'm waiting until I can go to the yearly rodent show and get some well bred ones to start up breeding them again. Had to rehome the cats because of allergies and they weren't getting along with the small animals but we might foster kittens for the humane society. Oh yea and a pasture full of horses. In the future I'd like to get back in to chickens and get some dairy goats. I had to start a new better organized photobucket because the number of animals I've kept and bred from exotic to common got to be too long and I couldn't find anything.

 

[smhufflepuff]

Ah... okay. So then the pics go with the rabbits and you're thinking of something similar for the hedgies? Either way a 48" x 30" would be a nice footprint for a hedgie cage.