Jherek
Well-Known Member
I've seen a few pictures on here of an "Alu Cage by Otten" but I cannot for the life of me find this anywhre through Google. Where are these available? How much are they? Thanks in advance. :happydance:
SQ said:I have a couple of large bin cages that I use if needed as baby cages or travel cages ... much too small for rat cages as rats need a min of 2 cubic feet of cage space per rat .... so I assume that your cages must be similar to the cage Dalhas used to have and are very very tall due to the hardware cloth.
The problem with hardware cloth is that it is galvanised and so will be difficult to clean, will absorb urine, etc. as will wood.
If you have found powder coated hardware cloth in NB, I'm sure many people would be interested ... people in the states have it.
If you buy 1/2 x 1/2 "hardware cloth" by the roll you can do some interesting things. I made a cage using a hardware cloth roll and a huge rubbermaid bin I just cut out the sides of the bin (huge squares of plastic so there's basically no plastic left on the front and back except for a strip on the bottom to retain the bedding and strips around the outside to keep the whole thing structurally stable.
Next, I cut the screen out to match the holes, placed it on the inside of the plastic bin and drilled holes about once every 2 squares of mesh along the outside. Use a "pin vice" http://www.kathrynloch.com/FWThumbnails/6pinvice.jpg if you want control and don't mind calloused hands Take some 22 gauge or larger steel wire (look in the picture hanging area of a walmart or the like) and thread it through the holes like you're sewing.
Presto- a cheap, easy cage to make. It's not beautiful but it does the trick and you can hang things like normal in it. I did this style cage up for my boys in a night and it only cost me about $30 (with lots of hardware cloth left over afterwords).
What's easier? Take 1" wide wood strips of reasonable thickness (I'd try and get 1/4" thick) and make a frame the size you want. Next, cut the hardware cloth to size and staple it onto the inside of the frame, making sure all the wood is covered by mesh. Note that the staple gun should be loaded with staples that aren't longer than the thickness of the wood.
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