Roof Tiles

Hey everyone,

Quick update, I just wanted to share these with you while they are fresh in my mind. You can get them from building industrial estates, offer to buy the spares off people who have just had extensions to thier homes or Ebay. Obviously they will need a tidy up depending on thier condition. Stay tuned to the blog, I myself have some of these roof tiles and will post them here when I get my cam fixed.

They make excellent tunnels and hiding holes for Degus, I love the lip at the front of the tile. Reminds me of a little hobbit home or something. They are great for burying under bedding for the degu to find aswell!  They still look very natural above bedding too, I cant wait to share my pics of the ones in my cage.

Degu Cage Progress

Please find below a video of my degu cage progress so far. The cage is structurally ready, just need to add the furnishings, metal work and glass. Very near the end now!

Please also note that it does not take as long to make a degu cage as I have been taking. I have been purposefully only doing small bits at a time as my degus live in the garage and the garage is also my only place to perform wood work. I do not wish to disturb them too much or fill the room with saw dust.

Many thanks all,

Smithomatic

Degu cage - Shelves

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to show everyone that I have built and installed the shelves (or levels) of the degu cage. Below are some pictures of the steps I used.

As you can see below, I have the shelf already cut (I had this done previously when I had all my peices cut) and I have trimmed off the 4 corners so it fits inside the cage around the (inner) frame.

I have used a jigsaw to cut 2 holes into the shelf at the back, this way the degus can get from level to level.

In the middle I have bolted 2 strips of pine down. My "divider panel" will slide in between these 2 strips, this gives the degus an equal share of the cage without being able to get to each other.

In the picture below my "divider panel" has a large rectangular hole in the middle. This will be covered in mesh so the degus can see each other but not attack each other.
 

I then attach two long panels of pine wood onto the front of the shelf. This will keep the bedding in. I bolted two strips of pine wood frame to the front and then bolted my two pine wood panels to them.

This is what the finished product looks like:

I then had a friend hold the shelf in place while i drilled the holes through the side and into the frame underneath the shelf. We then bolted everything together.

Below are some pictures of the shelves inside the cage.

Many thanks everyone, keep an eye, more updates to come!

Smithomatic

Degu Home - Top Tier

Hey all,

I wanted to post some pictures of the Degu cage. Progress has been slow trying to fit the build in around work.

I have added the back panel of the cage, this panel is made of 2 smaller panels as BnQ were not able to provide a sheet of MDF big enough!

As you can also see, I had to take the picture from just outside the door, the garage is very small with all the DIY kit out. Not only this but the cage almost touches the ceiling.

I have also finished creating the top tier.

I have left a small gap in the frame to allow for the runners to fit inside. I got the idea for this top tier here (this is a very informative degu website by Nightwishraven999). I decided however that I could use the entire space by making a shelf here, thus giving the degus more room to explore. Half of this top tier will be behind glass (I need to add a hole to this top shelf so the degus can get up) and the other half will be a balcony for them to come out and visit us on!


Below are some pictures of longtail (one of my degus) exploring the top tier and checking that everything is in order. He seems to be quite pleased with the results.

Many thanks everyone, stay tuned!


Smithomatic

Back Panel

Hey all,

Back panel has been attached, pictures soon. Do stay tuned!

I will also be releasing a complete list of materials and tools required, aswell as where you can get them and at what cost.

Many thanks,


Smithomatic

Hey guys, I just wanted to clarify one of the pictures in my designs.

As some of you may have noticed one of the pictures in my designs is half blue and half purple. This is because my 3 degu boys do not get along. The purple area is the space I have designated to one of the degus and the blue area is the space I have designated for the other two degus. They will all be living in the same cage.                     

Build progress so far

Hey everyone, heres another update for you.

So I have started to build the cage and below is the progress so far...

So in this first picture you can see the base of the cage and some pine strips that I am using to construct the frame. The front back and side panels are going to sit on top of the base, because of this the frame needs to be 18mm inside the base (18mm is the thickness of the MDF sheets). It is also not important if the frame stretches all the way around, it will work as long as the pine strips hold the panels to the base.

 

I am using 55mm bolts to attach everything in the cage together. Bolts are good because it means that each panel is easily removed in the future and replaced if required. Bolts, unlike screws, will not move around in the hole you drill if the structure wobbles (this will make the holes bigger and the structure will become more and more wobbly!). Bolts go straight through and keep everything really tight.

Below you can see how the front panel has been attached, a steel "double u" glass runner will sit exactly on top of this panel at a later date.

I use about 3 bolts to secure a panel, depending on whether or not it still feels a bit wobbly. If it still does not feel secure I use 3 - 5 bolts, you shoudnt need more than this. (unless you are building a HUGE cage!)

There will be 4 strips of pine wood in each corner to secure all the panels to each other. As you can see below I have 1 strip attaching the side panel to the front panel, and another strip ready to secure the side panel to the back panel. The side panel also has 2 bolts securing it to the base.

I have also secured another front panel that will frame the glass sliding doors. I used another long pine strip and 3 bolts to secure this smaller panel.

More build updates to come (hopefully) this monday, so stay tuned!

Many thanks guys! :)

Panels for new cage have been cut!

Hey everyone,

The panels for the new degu cage have been cut! As you can see from my plans in the previous post, I worked out which panels would fit onto which sheets of MDF. Building has now started, more to come on my progress this Monday or Tuesday.

Below is a video of one of the sides being cut from a sheet of MDF. (A big thanks to luke in the video, very helpful member of staff and very patient with my large order!)

*EDIT UPDATE*
 I would recommend to anyone that has access to this service to make use of it, even if it costs extra! It saves so much time and is a far more accurate way of cutting large peices of wood. Accuracy is so important on projects so large, a few millemeters out at the start can cause disasters at the end!

Blue prints and planning!

As im sure you all know, coming up with a bullet proof plan for any building project is important! (Especially with degus, needs to be degu proof!) Planning out carefully what you are going to do is very important, below you will be able to see the detail I have gone into with my plan.

(note: the pictures below do not represent all my planning. I have worked out costing, exact materials and tools needed etc. I will be sharing these at a later date.)

Ok, so here are some of the plans / blue prints I have been working on. Exact measurements are very important! These pics show some of my thought scribbling, working out the measurements and the overall idea for the cage design. I am hoping to start buying the materials later today, I am very excited!

Enjoy!

Hello again everyone,

While looking to see if I had any more pictures for degu cage building, I stumbled across some old pictures of my degus. I though it would be nice to share these with you.

I guess what I am trying to say is, although building a wooden cage is a great experience, it is not for everyone. These pictures clearly display that degus can be just as happy in a wire cage of the correct size. Wooden homes do reduce a large quantity of the mess but can be more difficult to assemble.

Smithomatic

New Degu Cage

Just to let everyone know I will be adding another, hopefully more detailed guide, on how to make a degu cage. I am looking to build a new bigger cage for my boys.

So if this is something that you will be interested in, please stay tuned.

Building a degu cage (Issue 1)

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to share with you my experiences of building a degu cage. From what I have seen, scouring the internet, more and more degu owners have begun to build their own degu cage. I decided that this was a venture I would like to embark on. Below is a breakdown of the stages involved when I constructed my degu cage.

Step 1

Ok, so the 1st thing to do was to build the frame. I selected pieces of MDF and had them cut at the local hardware store. I then used strips of kiln dried pine to bolt each piece of MDF together. The base had 4 strips of kiln dried pine attached, I then bolted the sides and back onto the base. I also attached a small panel to the front; this is for keeping all the bedding in later on. 




At this point we had to take quite a large break between Steps 1 and 2, so we started building again about 7pm. Some of the pictures from here on are a little dark because we built it outside on the drive.





Step 2 

The next step was to attach planks of pine wood to the top of the degu cage; this makes the cage look neater and gives you something to staple the mesh onto.

It is important to make sure that you get a mesh that is too small for the degus to squeeze through, or to make sure that the mesh is high up enough that the degus can’t reach it.

In one of the pictures below you can see we have turned the degu house upside down so we can staple the mesh to the inside of the cage.


The mesh you can see in the pictures was too large and was later replaced by smaller mesh and a wooden lid.

It is also important to make sure that any structural frame work is covered with metal strips or is on the outside of the cage. In my design the degus are able to chew the pine strips inside the cage but fortunately doing so does not compromise the structural integrity of the cage and does not allow them to escape either.

  


Step 3

After the mesh is attached, we glued on some PVC runners to the top and bottom. It is important to make sure that these runners are flush.

  
Once the runners are in place you can add your windows so that you can see your degus playing in their new home. Using PVC windows is easier for this design as they are flexible and can be removed and replaced easily by simply lifting them out. However as a negative, PVC is much more easily scratched and cracked. This is something that has happened to me since finishing building my degu cage. Glass is much sturdier and resilient to biting and scratching.

Step 4

Once the main "DIY" jobs were completed I moved my degus new home to the place that I wanted it (in my case our garage, it is a large well ventilated room that remains at just under room temperature through most of the year).

I attached 2 more panels of pine to the top of the cage to keep it looking neat.

I then added the middle shelf and another panel of pine to hold in the bedding.


Left over pieces of MDF were added inside the cage to be used as ledges and shelves for the degus to climb and jump on.


Step 5

Finally add your choice of bedding; in my case I used wood shavings from Pets at Home. I added plenty of hay for them to forage in and use as nesting material as well as adding some shredded paper and fluff.

Add your cage furnishings. In my case the degus wheel, some wooden branches for them to climb and I used an old curved roof tile for them to use as a tunnel.

Then just put in your degus and enjoy watching them explore their new home!


I would say that in total, for an inexperienced cage builder (such as myself) that it takes around 6-7 hours to build a cage. (Unless you are wood gluing your cage together, as this may take longer.) Make sure to hoover out your cage and clear it of any potential splinters that may be left in the cage from the build. It may also be a good idea to observe the degus in their new home for a short while to make sure that you haven’t missed anything and that there is no escape routes.


Thanks for taking the time to read my post on how to build a degu cage.