My Father, The Carpenter *Now With 1st Pic*

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The more I think about it, the simpler it sounds... Nowhere near the amount of work he was talking about before.
 
Yup, gutting it out for sure... That was one of the things that popped into my head when he was talking about it, he was like "Well we can take out the motor and crap, that'll be better for every one anyway." And by every one he means his back. :p

LOL! That WOULD be hilarious.

The dude finally emailed me back about the upright freezer, and if he gets my reply today then we should be getting it tonight or tomorrow, sometime soon. Woo!
 
rat.charmer said:
That's a brilliant idea! Though it would be funny of the door to the cage was still similar to a fridge door. Can you imagine people who didn't know?

"Why are you putting your rats in the fridge?!?!"
Click to expand...

That's be hysterical, but have crappy ventilation.
 
yeah, i was just about to say, won't it just be a glorified tank? i don't mean to rain on the parade, having a cage made out of fridge is just freaking awesome, but i don't think its really going to work out in the long run. i have nursery cages made from tanks put on their sides with mesh screen doors made for them and though the ventilation is better then an upright tank, its still a tank with the problems of being a tank...
 
Valid point, Twitch! I guess it is, isn't it?

I think using something (fridge, freezer, whatev) that is more wide than it is deep will help with the ventilation part. Plus, where their cage is sitting now is pretty well ventilated, kind of off to the side of windows that are nearly always open, and if I could combine that with fans going to kind of circulate air, but not directly aimed AT them, it could work. Although with winter coming, that could cause a problem, as the windows would hardly be open then. Hmm.

What about grotto style cages? They're basically the same deal, 3 sides with the front mesh.

We'll see how it goes, and if it doesn't work, then it's off to the next thing, which, I think after this there really isn't much else he can dream up, LOL.

You know, that makes me think... What would it take to cut holes in the sides of it? I could use more wire panels on the sides and that'd open it up a bit more. *thinks* I'll bring it up to my dad and see what he says on that technical aspect. I'm not sure you can even do that, LOL.
 
i view grotto cages as glorified tanks too if they have 3 solid sides. except they're normally made of wood and so are normally worse because the wood absorbs the odor as well. the only difference between grottos or the fridge and tanks is the size of grottos and the fridge is normally bigger then a tank.
 
I'll have to hope the size of it off sets the tank aspect. :D

We picked up the freezer! My dad is outside gutting it right now, and tomorrow when I get off work I'll scrub 'er down and we'll see about getting a temp door made up until we can get an appointment at the metal shop for the real deal.

He took off the back panel (there's stuff behind there, IDK what, but that's gone now), so it's a bit deeper than a normal one, but only by 3-4 inches.

I'll get some pics tomorrow. :) Not saying it'll be done, but I'll be busting my butt to get it done, LMAO.
 
You will be able to tell right away with your nose. When it's all set up and the rats have been living in it for a day or too, open the door and take a good sniff, if it's offensive, then it's not acceptable to the rats, if it's pretty decent, then they should be fine in it. Can you do two sides with mesh? That would be even better for ventilation.
 
You know what? no matter how the cage turns out this time spent sharing thoughts & ideas with your dad is immeasurable & irreplaceable.
 
I think lots of mesh 'windows', like an excessive amount would solve the problem. And you could use the extra fridge pieces as shelves.
 
I'll use the sniffer test, Jo!

I forgot to even ask my dad about cutting out more doors. I'd like to take the sides out and use the side panels from that All Living Things cage in the sides, that'd open it up a lot, like you guys suggested. I need to see if he can actually DO that, though. Are they multi layered or something? I hope he gets home soon. I have to finish cleaning it out today and when he gets back I'll see if he can do that. Hopefully he can!
 
Okay so it's all clean, I need to sand off rust spots on the outside (apparently it was stored in a gross basement...) and tonight we're building the door. Dad decided to use panels from Denny's old cage and not the All Living Things cage, that way I'll still be able to use that to house the baby boys in until they are old enough to *hopefully* go with the big guys. Good news with that is, I get two sets of barn doors, which is what I wanted originally, and he's going to use part of the old door to make a lip so I can put bedding in the bottom.

I asked him about cutting the sides, and he said it could be done, but had a lot of apprehension due to how it's made... It's layers, like I thought, and it goes metal, insulation, plastic. His worry is that somehow they could get into that space between the plastic and metal and drop down.

So we're going to go for it with just the front doors. We'll give it a week, if it's bad, we'll do the sides, and have to think of a way to get that made in a way that will be safe for all of them.
 
Well, it'd probably be possible to cover that lip with PVC or something, and "weld" (or caulk, or something similar since its not metal and can't really be welded) it onto the actual wall covering that space... lemme do a quick sketch of what I mean...
 
*is really tired* I underestimated how hard scrubbing the rust off with a wire brush would be. Harder than it sounds.

So we have to paint the outside (black, mmm) and let it dry over night in the garage, then put the doors on. I realized there is already a kind of a lip at the bottom... Enough to keep bedding in. So no need to cut up the old door and create a lip, one is there already. I scrubbed two of the shelves that go in there, and dad's going to shorten them length wise so that they can get from one to the other.

Katie, I get what you mean. Like for between the plastic and metal? AWESOME idea!! That would work, and it rat safe.
 

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