would this work as a cage?

[ChinnyMom]

hey all, i've been looking around on my local online classifieds for a nicer cage than the one that my foster guy will be coming with, and have noticed a few people selling their wire dog crates for pretty good prices.

i was wondering if this type of crate would work for a chin cage? the dimensions of most of them for sale are 24"W 36"D 26"H, so the space inside sounds adequate, and they would be sturdy, i'm sure, since they are designed to hold a fair sized dog.

here's a photo of what i'm talking about:

 

[Laurie]

Yes it would work as a cage, but there is no removable pan for shavings and the bottom looks very shallow for shavings. You would to invest in a special made metal pan to hold the shavings or have a few fleece liners to use. With that cage there are no ledges or shelves so you would need to make sure you fill it with several wooden ones and a house as well.

 

[ChinnyMom]

i would build plenty of shelves for it and put in at least one hammock and a hidey tube if i were to get one of these instead of an actual cage, and would use a fleece liner for covering the pan (seems they are made of the same type of plastic as the shelves that come with FN's) along with a pyrex dish for a litter box instead of having the whole bottom be covered with shavings.

seems there's enough floor space in one of these to have the litter box, a flying saucer, a house on the bottom, a food dish, and more. and would be easy enough to fashion a platform with wheels (with locks of course!) so cleaning under the cage or moving it around would be easy.

anybody else have input or opinions on using a dog crate for a cage?

 

[Stackie]

I don't like the wire spacing on the cage..it is pretty large and I would be worried about an adventurous chin trying to stick his head through it. It could also be pretty bad if you get a cage surfer..the wider spacing makes it easier for a leg to go through and it could get caught awkwardly on a bar.

 

[Riven]

I think it would work great if you want a loose chins or as Stacie said a chin with it's head in the bars.

I knew someone who made a CnC play pen and had to cut a chin's head out of it. Not a good deal because she was really scary with tools... lol.

 

[broderp]

I don't like the wire spacing on the cage..it is pretty large and I would be worried about an adventurous chin trying to stick his head through it. It could also be pretty bad if you get a cage surfer..the wider spacing makes it easier for a leg to go through and it could get caught awkwardly on a bar.

Yep.

I think it would work great if you want a loose chins or as Stacie said a chin with it's head in the bars.

I knew someone who made a CnC play pen and had to cut a chin's head out of it. Not a good deal because she was really scary with tools... lol.

I have had first hand experience in this! When I bought my chin for my wife 2 weeks before Christmas, I bought a Chin cage, but it was wrapped as a gift so I borrowed what appears to be that EXACT same dog cage from my parents. The little bugger got out of it the second day and ran up stairs into a bedroom. He proceeded to get out no matter how much I tried to block him in. I wound up having to use double thick cardboard wire-tied ALL around the cage to keep him in. He was a bugger to catch when he was smaller and much more wild.

Not a good idea.

 

[ChinnyMom]

thanks for the feedback all! the photo made the bar spacing look like it was 1 inch, but it must be more than that.

 

[Cuddlebug]

I had a customer bring a cage like that made for small dogs and cats. We found out within 2 minutes that the spacing on the bottom of the cage was more than large enough for a chinchilla to get out of. Since he was traveling to Arizona with the chinchillas, I traded him my old travel cage for the new one.