Adventures in Cage Restoration:Bye Bye Birdcage, Hello DCN!

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odduckOasis said:
That's an awesome cage for sure! Yeah, your rats will totally love all that extra space! Very cool. ^.^
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Yup, and it looks so much bigger when it is inside of my tiny little room :thud: . I need to knock down a couple of walls to give myself some more room ;) ha ha. I will hopefully be painting it tomorrow so that the girls will hopefully be moved in next month ( I want to give it about 3 weeks or more to cure, just to be safe. I am so excited to decorate it and make shelves . I get bored with cages really fast, so it's always fun to get a new one. So many possibilities. And it was all FREE! :joy:
 
Free is the best for sure!
Yeah, def give it time to be not a danger and all. Have fun with that! xD;
I'm sure they'll be all "What do we do with all this room? >>;"
 
Yup, and I couldn't paint it today, because of all this west coast rain :gaah: So I won't be painting it until hopefully Tuesday. I can't wait either, this thing is literally massive. I'm pretty sure if the previous owner had taken the time to clean it out they could have gotten a pretty penny. I mean I would have paid even 50 dollars for this cage. I'll gladly clean it up if it means its for free ;) I will need to make some more hammocks to fill her up.. it comes all the way up to my chest .. and that's not even on a stand. If I find something to put it on, it will be above my head I think. I got a big hamster ball ( well guinea pig ball.. its huge) to hang in there ( doesn't fit through the door so I have to put it under neath the cage then hang it haha.) Hopefully they will like that , and I will make some nice levels and fun stuff to play on. I kind of missed having a taller cage, because the bunny cage, while it has nice floor space, it is kinda annoying to decorate because it is so short.. the whole cage is dark because the levels and hammocks block off all the light. This one should be nice and bright.

You may be able to tell that I'm pretty hyped about this. I mean it ain't no cn but it is pretty darn awesome.
 
Cinderwolf said:
Ohh thats a nice looking cage, I wish mine had a stand, I don't like having it sit right on the floor. I have carpet :p
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You will need to raise the cage about 12 inches off the floor in case of drafts
You can put a large piece of linolum over the carpet to protect it from urine etc
 
SQ said:
Cinderwolf said:
Ohh thats a nice looking cage, I wish mine had a stand, I don't like having it sit right on the floor. I have carpet :p
Click to expand...

You will need to raise the cage about 12 inches off the floor in case of drafts
You can put a large piece of linolum over the carpet to protect it from urine etc
Click to expand...


Yup , I don't want it on the ground at all, though I'm not too concerned about drafts, My room has only one vent and it is underneath my bed( my bed goes all the way to the ground so you can't actually get under the bed. That means no air getting blown into my room . I also have some foam floor cover things to use under it if I can't get a stand. But I'm still determined to find a stand, I have been trolling around on craigslist looking for a little tv stand or something.
 
So I may have found my stand :D, it is actually the little table that I used with my very first cage. I did a lot of shaking and pushing and prodding to test how strong it is, and well it seemed to hold up to my jerking around. It's one sturdy little table. Might need a bit of tightening up however. The only thing I don't really like about it is that the cage hangs over about 2 inches on either end, but it doesn't seem to effect the stability. When the cage is sitting on the table, it goes up to my nose :thud: . Good news is, if the table works out I don't have to have it next to my door (in fact I won't be able to have it next to my door because of the light switch) It will probably clear the electrical outlet :dance: That means I can put it where I originally wanted it! hooray.

So without further ado, here's that cage one the stand:









I may have to re arange the posters on my wall :laugh4:
 
I cant wait to see this thing finished. You could always get a piece of plywood the size of the cage and attach it to the top of the table or just set it on there, that will help with the sturdy and keep it from being able to be tipped over.
 
hopefloats said:
I cant wait to see this thing finished. You could always get a piece of plywood the size of the cage and attach it to the top of the table or just set it on there, that will help with the sturdy and keep it from being able to be tipped over.
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Yup that was my thought as well. I'm also going to tighten up the legs of the table to make sure it is all good and tight. I'm also thinking of using some small bungey cords to secure it to the table. or some strategically placed Zip ties.

I am actually pretty psyched about this, I can't wait to paint it and cure it and finally use it :D Hooray! My arms will thank me, when I no longer have to reach past all the pokey hardware cloth.
 
Okay guys, I have officially started the painting :dance: . Me and my friend took the cage a apart, lugged it outside, sanded all the pieces and got to work priming it. It was trick, since you couldn't see the white primer on a white cage.. :emb: In hindsight I should have got the gray tinted primer but oh well. We got it all covered ( pretty much) This is when I realized I would need more red paint.. a LOT more. One can of primer barley covered one coat of the cage.. and I want at least 2 coats. 3 coats on the inside, if I have the paint for it. So I went out and bought 2 more cans. That should be plenty. Sad news, I only had 2.50 left on my home depot card so I had to pay 10 dollars worth haha. So not a completely free cage, but pretty close :cheeky:

Funny story: I went up to the counter, put down the cans and the lady at the counter asked " Oh, only the paint today?" I replied " Yup" . Then she kinda gave me a weird look and asked" Would you like to buy a paint brush?" I gave her a ' are you kidding me look' and said no. Who needs a paint brush for spray paint? :laugh4:

Anyways, tomorrow I will be painting it red, and then the waiting begins D: I think I will leave it for 3 weeks or 4 weeks ( 2 doesn't seem like long enough and I'd rather be safe then sorry) It will be a hard wait
 
Haven't updated in a while, so here it goes, Those last 2 can didn't last long so this time I got a can of roll on paint and a couple of brushes, most of the spray paint was just ending up on the ground so this should be better. It will take a LOT more work but its cheaper and probably more reliable anyways. I'm part way through the first coat ( have all of one side done doing the second side soon. It will take me a while, but now that school is out I just need to find a nice sunny day and sit down and just do it, Hopefully it will be all set up and cured before August when I go to Mexico.

I have also found a proper stand for it!




This little baby was sitting next to the washer and dryer just waiting for me to realize it.

So I took it out, cleaned it up ( boy was it dust holy cow. ) and measured it

Using the cage top as a judge of measure, its about an inch too short on every side, so I will have to find something to sit it on I think, like some wood, but other then that it is a billion times more sturdy then the table, and not as tall either.



There was a lazy susan like contraption on the top, but I found a way to take that off, so its just a solid little tv stand now. Plus it will double as storage. doesn't match all my white furniture but it will do haha.

Now back to cleaning my room.
 
That stand works well! Nice! (You could always paint it white... haha!) I think that even if there is some leway, it should be fine since it's a very small amount. It shouldn't cause the bars to bend or anything like that, if you have a proper pan and such in the bottom of the cage and whatnot, it shouldn't be an issue really. You'll def need something to protect those wittle rattle feet from the wire anyways.

But, keep us updated! I wana see it all put together and finished! =D I bet the red will look snazzy. ^.^
 
Yup, there is a metal pan at the bottom. Since its a bird cage, ti has a pull out wir grate, but I won't have tha tint here, I jsut used it to show size comparison :giggle:

I will have ot wait until I put it together ot see if I need something to make it sturdy.
 
My sure your lovelies will be so happy in their new cage once it's all ready. ^.^ And it'll be all snazzy and awesome looking! =D
 
Yeah, I often take things off the sidewalk, my mom got an exercise machine. : D

This person posted an ad, good thing too cause I woul dhave never gone down that street haha
 
Loving the progress! Can't wait to see it all painted up!!
With the weight of the cage itself, and then add in rats and hammocks and toys, I'd be afraid of the bars getting bent some...Even just a board on top and nail it if the stand isn't going to be used elsewhere...and then it could be painted to match either your white stuff...or the cage :giggle:
 

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