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Post by gerbilless on Jul 21, 2011 6:12:28 GMT -8
So I am making a 30 gallon bin cage, and I need to know what type of wire mesh to use. I know nothing about wire mesh and I'm afraid I'll pick one with squares that are too big or the metal is weak and they will chew their way out of it...
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Post by esztershine on Jul 21, 2011 9:04:26 GMT -8
Half a centimeters wide holes which is about the fifth of an inch
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Post by johanne on Jul 21, 2011 10:31:24 GMT -8
There are a couple of sizes that will work. Anything similar to window screen is easily chewable and to be avoided. I have used 1/4" and 1/2" successfully. I think that's 19-22 gauge wire, but might be remembering wrong. It's usually called hardware cloth here.
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doug
Member
Posts: 2,064
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Post by doug on Jul 21, 2011 10:32:25 GMT -8
The 1/2" x 1/2" works quite well, and you can put the tube of the water bottle through it if you put bedding all the way up.
It is also easy to manipulate.
Doug
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Post by brighttreegerbils on Jul 21, 2011 15:32:25 GMT -8
My one major concern with half inch mesh is that I recently had a gerbil become stuck in it. She was gnawing at it and her upper teeth and nose became lodged in the mesh! I couldn't get her easily unstuck and eventually had to use wire cutters to cut her out. It was lucky I was there and she was only trapped and struggling for a few minutes, but it was pretty traumatic for her.
Use quarter inch and just cut a small hole for a water bottle tube.
-Matt
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doug
Member
Posts: 2,064
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Post by doug on Jul 21, 2011 17:22:42 GMT -8
I have never had a gerbil get stuck in 30 + years of using 1/2 mesh. There are many things I chock up to natural selection taking place, gerbils injesting plastic, teeth stuck in water bottle tubes (seen this one), and I would put a gerbil getting it's teeth stuck in 1/2 mesh in that catagory as well.
Cutting a hole leaves sharp edges which would be more of a concern, but since this is for the top even that would be remote.
Doug
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Post by brighttreegerbils on Jul 22, 2011 0:21:04 GMT -8
Yeah, I still have half inch mesh made into tops and obviously that isn't a problem... And I've never had an issue with getting stuck before either, but it can happen obviously.
You can make the argument that this is natural selection, and that is fine, but that doesn't mean you should leave the poor gerbil to die a slow death. Moreover, if you can easily prevent it, why not do so? Cutting one small gap in quarter inch mesh does not have to leave any sharp edges if you cut and treat it right. The fact that the water bottle tube will extend through this gap lessens the odds of injuries even more.
And really? Teeth stuck in water bottles?! Never heard of that one! How'd you get the gerbil out? (Assuming of course that you didn't let natural selection take its course).
-Matt
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Post by indyrascal on Jul 22, 2011 2:46:50 GMT -8
While I agree that I have used half inch mesh and never had a gerbil become stuck I cannot for the life of me understand how you can believe that things like ingesting plastic etc is natural Doug? How on earth is a gerbil ingesting a man made product "natural" selection? Surely as responsible pet owners we should do all we can to try and make sure our gerbils are as safe as possible and not just write them off due to "natural selection". I don't understand how a gerbil could get it's teeth stuck in the water bottle - I mean they use their lips and tongue to drink from them. I can only hazard a guess that one might try and for example gnaw the spout if the water bottle is empty in an attempt to frantically try and get something to drink.
Back to the original question i would agree with what Matt has said and go for the smaller mesh. I have noticed from my own gerbils they can sometimes do a lot of chewing on this larger mesh and making it as small as possible will help to stop this. i do have some 1/2 inch mesh but will eventually be replacing these with the smaller for the reasons stated.
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