You have two options when it comes to cages for chinchillas. You can build your own or you can buy one ready-made. We've actually done both.
Our first cage was typical of pet store cages. Its dimensions measured 3 feet x 1.5 feet x 2 feet and it had two levels. It seemed to be a decent size for one chinchilla, but it didn't take long before we started to think about coming up with our own design. The main advantage of a store bought cage is immediate availability. Pre-built cages can also be reasonably priced given the economies of scale inherent in mass produced products.
Our second cage was one we designed and built. We wanted to build something as large as possible, but still be small enough to move around our house as needed. This meant the cage had to be no wider than 2 feet so that it could fit through a doorway. The length was determined by figuring out what we could maneuver around the hallways of our home. This turned out to be 4 feet. And the height was also 4' mostly because of the size of the materials that we selected (more about that below).
The custom chinchilla cage we built has a 5-sided base (i.e. 4 walls and a bottom) made out of melamine. Melamine is particle board covered with white plastic that is easy to clean with Windex and a paper towel. To make moving the cage easy, we attached strong caster wheels to the bottom of each of the 4 corners.
The sides and top of the cage are made out of white Elfa shelving you can buy from the Container Store. Holding the whole thing together are 1-inch square pieces of wood that run length-wise or width-wise throughout the cage. These pieces of wood also provide support for wooden shelves (4 levels) that the chinchillas can jump onto. The Elfa walls and ceiling form another 5-sided box that sits within the melamine base. Both the melamine bottom and Elfa have a door to allow for entry to and exit from the cage.
To make the cage easier to clean, we put together a 5-sided wooden box which we filled with bedding as a cue to our chinchillas. The wooden box also has a melamine bottom, but it has pine sides since they're exposed and may be chewed.
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June 16th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
Robyn,
Try Canadian Tire or Home Depot. Those kinds of stores should carry the same sort of wire shelving.
At first we just used a bunch of thick zip-ties to hold all the pieces together. Our chins kept chewing the zip-ties though and we had to keep replacing them. After some thought we came up with a better solution by using pieces of wood that run length-wise and width-wise the cage. These pieces of wood are attached to the cage walls with bolts and washers. We also place the pine shelves on top of these.
I've posted one more photo above that I hope sheds a little light on what I wrote.
June 16th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
Thanks!
I live in Canada though so I have not heard of the Container Store… Do you know where I could get the wire shelving in Canada?
Also, what did you use to attach the wire shelving?
Robyn
June 16th, 2006 at 3:02 pm
Robyn,
Our cage is 4 feet wide, 4 feet tall, and 2 feet deep. The base which you can't quite see in the photo is made of melamine, the shelves are pine, and the walls are wire shelving from the Container Store.
As for cost, we sort of lost track. It was by no means cheap and may have approached $200. The good thing is that it has lasted 6 years and except for putting in new pine shelves, we haven't had to replace anything.
June 16th, 2006 at 2:46 pm
Hey Chinchilla Planet!
I've been looking for ideas of building my own cage for my chins. I really like the cage that you have pictured on your chinchilla cage post. I was wondering, how much did it cost and what materials did you use? Also, what are the dimensions of the cage?
Thanks,
Robyn