Several concerns about DIY cage project materials

[ninguino]

Hello there!

I have been willing to provide Ceres with a bigger, nicer and more entertainment enclosure to live. Also I started doing some DIY projects around the house and I decided building a better cage should be priority.

The background:

She started living in a pretty small, plastic and bars cage but she wasn't happy and started to chew every single thing in there. Soon enough, we move her into her current house. Things got better but I noticed that she was showing lots of stereotypical digging in the corners, so I did some research and ended adding a good thick amount of bedding, more chewing toys, a and a small wooden house that she amost utterly destroyed but somehow is still standing. She seems happier now, much less sterotypical digging, quite active and lots of gnawing but from time to time it seems like she is bored and then she goes up to the cage door and starts bitting it and digging. Okay, sorry. Enough context.

The actual project:

So I decided to build a bigger cage out of an old IKEA's lack table I have lying around.

The main frame would be putting the table upside down. Cutting it about 15cm (sadly if I left the table at its 55 original cms we won't be able to navigate the hallway correctly). Relocate the two back legs and move the middle table into the back, against the wall. Then cover with wood the two legs that would go against the other wall (the cage would be corner placed). The other two sides would be covered with plexiglass. This way she would get an opaque more intimate corner and still there be plenty of areas to see her running around, playing and exploring. According to my caculations, this would make a 128L cage or about 33.8 US gallons. I'm planning to place the glass container of her current house against the "opaque corner" as a nesting area and then fill the rest of it with lots of bedding, tunnels, chambers, platforms, a proper size running wheel... But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The issue:

The materials, of course. So I just jumped into buy anything I would need the easier way possible. In Spain and as far as I know that would be Leroy Merlin, and I got the wood and then it struck me: I got all fir wood and plywood!

So basically, my concerns are: are those materials valid enough? Or shoud I return them and try to find a better suited wood?

• So I watched this guy's DIY cage and I found it just amazing. And, when you look at it, it seems like he is using plywood. Then you reads the comments and he claims they are not bitting them at all. Does this mean it could be a suitable material?
• While researching I found some rabbit cages supposedly built with kiln-dried fir. Is this the same situation as with pine? I don't know whether my fir wood has been kiln-dried but would it be safe it was?
  
• While the little wooden house we got her has been absolutely gnawed, the house platform doesn't even have a small theet mark. Any idea on why could that be? Would I be this lucky with any plywood platform or with the IKEA's legs that certainly are way thicker than the plexiglass and corner shaped? Could this make them look tempting for Ceres to gnaw on?
  
• Should I be this concerned at all since there are so many plastic made cages in the market sold as suitable for rodents?
  

The apology:

Sorry if this is maybe a bit overwhelming. In case nobody noticed, I tend to overthink and overplan. But I have Ceres' health on mind above it all. Thank you so much if any of you read through the whole thing. I hope everything is clear enough. Any little bit of answer would be hugely appreciated.

Cheers!

[Markpd]

Hi
Kiln dried pine is fine, it's when their not and the wood oozes resin that it's a problem. I would think kiln dried fir could be fine too, but I'm not sure TBH.

Plywood is much more dubious, if they can chew the edges, then definitely not. The glue in the plywood can cause health problems. If they can't be chewed on the edges, I think their is still some concern about 'out gassing' of glue vapours (unless it's really old plywood), I can't remember what the overall recommendation was though. Their was a thread discussing all this a few months back, couldn't remember it's name, but found it anyway , see here.

What are theet marks?

Lots of pre-made cages claiming to be suitable for rodents simply aren't, so ignore that.

Plastic sides/cages are ok as long as they can't get a bite on a corner or edge, otherwise they'll chew through it. The other problem with plastic sides/bottom, is if they dig/scratch on it, it can get quite noisy. Whereas with glass it's nearly silent.

If the the table legs are inside the sides of your cage, they will definitely chew the corners, that's what corners are for!

So if they are made from plywood (plypaper?), then that's not suitable, and they appear to have laminate on them too (so glued on). What you could do is put the sides of the cage on the inside of the legs, they can't chew them then! (they would lose a little cage volume of course).

[ninguino]

Dec 2, 2021 7:06:30 GMT -8 Markpd said:

What are theet marks?

Teeth marks*

I've been taking a look to the thread you linked. I have also tried to discover whether the fir wood is kiln-dried or not. I hope it is. I also think that I will replace the table legs with a same size batten (is that the word?) that I have, in case fir works... Regarding the plywood, I have been trying to find someplace online that would provide me with proper not-painfully-expensive wood and this far I have only found pine as a viable option...

I don't know what I'll do, but I'll let you know here eventually.

Thanks again!

[Markpd]

Lol Do you know, I wondered if you meant teeth, and wrote that, but then deleted it before posting thinking you'd said something opposite!

No probs, hope you find a good cheap option!

[ninguino]

Well, it took a while and lots of concept modifications, but it's finally done.
We moved Ceres a couple days ago and she seems to be doing fine. I'm really happy she now has more room to dig and I hope she'll be happier in here.

We ended up with a 90cm(L) x 40cm(W) x 40cm(H) using the said IKEA's table for the bottom and the back, but replaced the legs with kiln-dried fir and the modules on the inside are made of kiln-dried pine.

Here a picture of how the enclosure turned out:

She moved tons of bedding just in night one 

[Markpd]

Nice job!

Maybe could get more bedding in the right hand side?

Thanks for updating us anyway