Erikah asks…
Okay, after observing the ups and downs of many different cages, I've decided to take on the project of building my own (which is not much of a problem thanks to the many posts I've found).
Sadly, I've caught myself at a dead-end on the melamine situation. I want the inside of the cage to be melamine, yet I do not know how you can purchase large slabs of it rather than tiny shelf pieces.
Also, I want a type of metal drawer at the bottom of the cage which will hold the bedding and make it easier for me to clean it out. Where can I get the metal from and, lastly, how can I get it fitted for my cage?
In conclusion to this post, I would like to know how install the screen portion (the part which allows for the animal to breathe while keeping them from hopping out of the cage) of the cage, which confuses me also.
Thanks so much for the help (and, alas, for bearing with me)!
Chinchilla Planet answers…
We used melamine for the bottom portion of my cage. We created a large 5-sided box out of it. And then within that box we placed a pine box in which we put the bedding. It doesn't quite slide out like a drawer, but we also don't have to fill the entire bottom of the cage with wood shavings.
As for the walls, we used wire shelves like the kind you can get from the Container Store. You'll want to look into whether these wire shelves are painted or not and go for whatever is safer for chins.
It's tough to explain fully in an e-mail post, but we have take some time to post a fuller description and picture on my site. Feel free to check out our chinchilla cages post.
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