# Has anyone DIY'd a cage?



## PoisonGirl

I've seen a few DIY cages on google and wondering if they are hard to make?

What do you use? And has anyone DIY'd with tubes attaching to another part of the cage?


At the moment hammy has a gerbil tank (2.5ft) which I made a hole in the wire mesh lid to put a rotastak tube through, so he has a large round room that he uses for his bed, and then the dining room next to it. 
His wheel in the gerbil tank keeps falling over!  Even though I got suction cup and cable tie it keeps coming off! Grrr.

I have been looking at full plastic cages with the wire on top (he is a serial chewer!) but for the price you don't get alot of room! I had one girl on FB offer me one for £20 that was only about 1.5ft and IMO too small for my boy. He doesn't run around alot but I don't like small hamster cages.


I used to have, years ago for my rat, like a zoo zone and it had a shelf inside it but he was pretty much a free range rat in my room. Im sure it was about 2.5ft but I cannot find it anywhere so might try making hammy a cage.


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## Wobbles

I'm not keen on most of the cages out there for hamsters either, because their either too small, or the decent sized ones are pretty pricey. I make my own bin cages which are cheap, fairly easy to make and customize, and your bound to find one that suits your space/requirements. Buy a plastic storage box with a lid from somewhere like wilkinsons, then, unless your good with DIY get someone to help you cut a panel or 2 out of the lid or side (personally I don't do the sides as it means you can't put as much bedding in or it all falls out), cut some wire mesh to fit just larger than the hole(again you can get this in wilkinsons called 'cage mesh'), use a hot screwdriver blade/ soldering iron to melt holes around the hole you've cut and secure the mesh with cable ties. Quick and simple, and wont cost anywhere near the price of a decent sized cage - your looking at about £10 -15 for the bin depending what size you want,and about a fiver for the roll of mesh. All you would need to do is leave a gap somewhere to attatch the tube to. A couple of good tips to help you would to try and melt the plastic to make the hole as it's far less likely to crack than if you just try and drill it. Also fix your mesh to the outside of the box,so if you have missed filing any bit of the edges down your hammy won't hurt himself on them. I am actually in the middle of making 3 of these atm, but I do have one that is already in use, I will take a pic of it tomorrow for you to see to give you a better idea of what it would look like.

His wheel in the gerbil tank keeps falling over!  Even though I got suction cup and cable tie it keeps coming off! Grrr.

BTW to solve this I either put a free standing wheel in the tank, or if hammy keeps knocking it over, tie it to the mesh at the top with some cable ties and put a toy under it so he can reach it. Works like a charm


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## LostGirl

My hammy Is in a freddy 2 rat cage she loves it's! They are normally under £30 on eBay x


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## Maiisiku

I used to make bin cages for my hamsters. They were alot bigger than a regular cage and they only cost me about £10 to make.


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## PoisonGirl

Can you show me some pics?  

I am going to try that with the upside down wheel, he will still be able to reach it as the tank has 2 shelves in it.


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## Wobbles

Here's some pics of one of my hammy's bin cage. It is a 62 liter bin from wilkinsons. She is a Chinese so you would probably need a bigger bin for a syrian
































































And just to give you a bit of inspiration if you wanted to try something else, this is my mice's cage, I've got 4 in here and they love racing up and down the levels! this wasn't as hard as it looks to do, I just had to make a mesh panel in the front of the drawers this time, and a hole in the top and middle one for them to climb through.





































Hope these help you, and good luck with your cage!


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## Maiisiku

This is the only one I could find, but the lid wasn't on it. I haven't had any since the begining of the year when Tama passed away.... it's a 45ltr box I already had and I cut the lid area out and put wood in there with wiremesh. I think you could probably keep a syrrian in there it would be bigger than a standard cage but I personally wouldn't do it long term. You can keep 2-3 small hamsters in there just fine as long as they are happy together.


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## PoisonGirl

Thanks 

I LOVE the drawers cage! 

I'll need to find a see through bin if I am going to do that. NO bars within reach for my blimmin noisy boy. I hate the noise of chewing on metal  He does little pull ups while he does it :lol:


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