DCN with RUST?!

We recently adopted two boys and have completely fallen in love with them. My s.o decided to purchase a DCN from a friend who previously owned both rats and chinchillas.
This said friend claimed it to be minimal rust and no cracks in the liners yet, there is a chip missing in the liner and there IS minimal rust but it is EVERYWHERE!!! :confused2:
Makes me a bit upset, she's paying $150 for something that looks like poop. She had sent us pics, and they showed a beautiful cage.....

SO
The conclusion, we have decided we would like to spray paint it with Rustoleum(nontoxic/childsafe, yes?). I believe I have read in multiple places that it is safe for rats as long as you make sure you sand the original cage down, (in our case because of rust), wipe clean, use primer and then spray paint. Allowing 2 weeks to air out and then safe to go.

Is it actually safe?

Quite honestly, I'd rather it sit in the closet than be used by my babies :sad4:

It would be safe but I don't think it will work. You would have to sand blast the cage to get all the rust off, otherwise the rust will cause the paint to chip.

If you can get all the rust off, talk to a local bike shop about powder coating it. I just read a thread a while back about a family that got a DCN re-powder coated for less than $100.

We were thinking of getting it power coated, we were actually wondering if they would take the rust off for us.
Right now, the plan is that we are going to clean it down real good, (it still has urine stains and smells a lot like poop), try to sand as much as we can and then either power coat it or spraypaint or hand paint it with Rustoleum.

I definitely want it power-coated though.
I know it lasts MUCH longer and is a lot more wear-resistant. Yet after forking out $150, plus the time and effort of cleaning it, I am afraid that we could have just bought a brand new one for the same price we are putting into it!! I have heard of people using over 5 cans of spray paint for the cage ($50!!!!) AGHHHH

How disappointing.

Sometime urine gets stuck between the two levels, but I'm sure you'll be separating them to clean it, but just for further reference. I have no idea how they pee there.

MousendBubs said:

We were thinking of getting it power coated, we were actually wondering if they would take the rust off for us.
Right now, the plan is that we are going to clean it down real good, (it still has urine stains and smells a lot like poop), try to sand as much as we can and then either power coat it or spraypaint or hand paint it with Rustoleum.

I definitely want it power-coated though.
I know it lasts MUCH longer and is a lot more wear-resistant. Yet after forking out $150, plus the time and effort of cleaning it, I am afraid that we could have just bought a brand new one for the same price we are putting into it!! I have heard of people using over 5 cans of spray paint for the cage ($50!!!!) AGHHHH

How disappointing.

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If you go with powder coating, a lot of those places will sandblast the metal prior to powder coating (some just include it in the price - better adhesion with sandblasting.) In which case they'll remove the rust as part of the sandblasting. Good idea to clean it thoroughly first though. The problem with powder coating is usually the cost. The ideal scenario would be finding a powder coating company that will do your cage the same time they're doing a larger order so that there's no extra setup or color changes. I've heard of some doing semi-regular runs of a plain color like black to get a bunch of small orders done that wouldn't make sense economically on their own.

The paint would still likely be much cheaper though, even if it ends up being $50. But doesn't hurt to ask some powdercoating companies.

Currently, it is completely taken apart.
I had it set up last night in the bedroom, but the look of it made me angry :rant:
HOW IS IT WORTH $150!!!
ugh made me mad. so i took it apart so I could really get in all the cracks to clean it.

Still deciding what we want to do with it.
Our Options:

1: Hand sand, and paint/spray paint
2: Sand blast then spray paint/paint
3: Get it powder-coated
4: Give it back to the person and buy extension for our current cage.

I emailed a place today for their DIY sandblasting area, its a shop but they have a DIY one (SWEET!) so i emailed them asking how much it would cost to use it. Hopefully i can sand blast it myself and then we will most likely hand paint it afterwards.

Cheapest solution seems like!