The Fleecing of my cages.............

Fleece is awesome in critter cages !!!

While I was researching building a cage, I came across A LOT of folks who are using polar fleece for their guinea pig, rat, ferret and rabbit cages.  So many that there are now quite a few sites selling custom made fleece for C and C cages and Ferret Nation.
I decided to not only use fleece in Hoppy's new palace, but to see if I could redo the degu's FN cage in fleece.  The first thing I did was to test fleece with them.  Goos are chewers and mine LOVE to chew.  But, there are some things they don't chew on - they don't like hard plastic and most fabrics.  Because they had had polar fleece hammocks and blankets before, I thought they would do well with fleece.  To test it out, I covered the shelves in the cage with fleece and hung a fleece scarf that I got for a buck as a climbing toy.  After a week of no chewing, they were ready for their cage do-over.  I was pretty excited at the prospect of no more nasty, stinky pine shavings that just get kicked out all over the floor, only to clog up the vacuum.
First, I will show you the bunny cage.  The cage is 28 x 56 (2 x 4 C and C), which is a popular bath towel size.  First, I lay a towel down (I have stacks of stained towels I got free from a local resort):

Then, the fleece goes down.  Because my bunny is reliable with his litter box and is a non chewer, I just use some fleece blankets I got at Menards for $1.50.  They are rather thin, but that doesn't matter.  I cut the fleece to fit the cage.  At first, I just pulled some fleece through the corner and zip tied it in place:

 After I saw fleece was going to work out in the cage, I hemmed the cut edges and sewed a little bias tape to the corners for ties:

 I smooth the fleece out in the cage and then tie the corners up.  That is all there is to it.

Because Hoppy uses his litter box, cleaning the cage is simple.  Just pull out the litter box, dump out and refill with new shavings and hay every couple days.  Once a week or so, sweep up any stray poops on the fleece.  When it looks soiled or has alot of shed hair on it, toss it in the wash !!  Because he doesn't pee outside of his litter box,  I haven't had to wash the towel yet - it is still fresh and clean.

I also plan on making shelf covers for the rabbit condo.  I will do it the same way, making ties for the corners, although I might try just making small bias tape loops that can be zip tied to the cage.  Here is a preview of what it will look like:

Now, for the goos Ferret Nation cage.  There are a lot of people selling fleece pads made for the FN, but since I know my goos will simply burrow under the pads, I knew I needed something that covered the entire pans.  The first I used were the cheap Menard blankets, but because the goos dig and their hay cubes get pokey, I switched to a heavier fleece.  The FN cage is easy to fleece:
First, I lay a pan out on my center island.  I lay dog wee-wee pads on the bottom.  I fit towels to the bottom of the pan.  Some edges, I fold under, but if they are too big, I cut.  On the upper level, I add an extra towel piece where their water bottle hangs.

Then, I just lay the fleece over the top of the pan and cut any excess (leaving several inches on each side tor tucking under the pan):

I push the fleece into the bottom of the pan and then use spring paper clips around the edges to hold the fleece in place.  On the top pan, I make a cut to help tuck the excess around the cut out in the pan:

As I slide the pan back into the cage, I tuck all the extra fabric under the pan.  For cleaning, I just use a whisk broom and dust pan I got at the dollar store to sweep up all the poops and hay chunks every day or every other day (takes only a couple minutes).  Then, every other week, I just toss the fleece and towels in the wash.  Easy Peasy !!!  Mine has never soaked to the weewee pads, so I never have had to replace them.
I didn't show how I do the shelves, because I am going to redo them.  I have the old style FN, with the flat plastic shelves.  I taped a wee wee pad to the shelf insert, then cover it with a fleece "pillowcase" I made, then insert it into the shelf wire.  It is hard because of the thickness of it.  My new plan is to sew "pillowcases" out of a thin, absorbent cotton diaper clothe I bought and slip them over the insert.  Then, insert it in the wire and cover with a fleece pad made with two corner "pockets" and two corner elastic strips to hold it down on the shelf.
Here is the upper level of their cage.  The extra shelf is just a C and C grid zip tied to cage and covered with a chunk of fleece folded to fit.

Here is the lower level.  This houses their wheel and I just added that "shavings pit" - I got a reptile container from Petco and filled it full of pine shavings so they can dig and burrow.  I have a medium size one of those containers for their nest (see above pic) and a small one for their dust baths.

New Rabbit Condo

So, after admiring the rabbit and g pig condos on the internet (do a search for "Guinea pig condo"  "C and C cage"  "storage cube rabbit condo", etc, and it will bring up TONS of ideas), I decided to build one myself.  I scoured the local stores for the storage cubes and found none.  I was able to order them off of Amazon.com - they were $26 per pack of 17 and eligible for super saver shipping.  I ordered 3 packs and got them lightening fast (ordered on a Sat, got them Tues).  

Other materials needed for the cage part are zip ties and pliers. 

About this time, I found a cute Holland Lop rabbit for sale.  He is a 10 month old broken blue buck.  He weighs just 4 lbs.  His name was Spooks when I got him, but one of the residents at the long term care facility I work at renamed him "Happy Hoppy".  Not really a name I would pick out, but Hoppy he is !!

Since I get home from work at midnight and the house is pretty quiet, I spent that time over the next few days putting the cubes together with the zip ties.  I decided to make my cage 2 panels wide by 4 panels long.  Making it 2 panels high would give enough room to add a second level.

I made one wall at a time, using 3 zip ties per side of panel to hold them together.  Where four met, I criss-crossed two zip ties.  Then, I zip tied the back and two side walls together.  I made the front with two doors that swing out (leave those zip ties just a little looser so the door swings easily.  I made the top by zip tying 8 panels together, but did not put it on yet so that I would have more access to the inside as I built the shelf.

Next, I headed to Menards and bought a sheet of 3/8" plywood for the floor, castors, some 1x2s for the edge around the bottom and the shelf supports, one 6' 1 X 12 for the shelves, and one box of self adhesive vinyl floor tiles.  I also dug through the cheap "utility wood" for pieces for shelving and misc building.  In this bin, I scored a 35" long 1 x 12 for less than a buck !!!  I made sure to get all untreated wood so the bunny can safely chew on it.  I got mostly pine, but did pick up some hickory on another trip to Menards.  These scrap bins are great places to get materials for critter building !!!
We headed up to Cory's workplace to cut the wood.  First, we cut the plywood base.  We cut it an inch and a half longer and an inch and a half wider so that we could screw 1 X 2s around the perimeter to keep the bunny raisins contained (he is pretty reliable with his litter box, but has a few accidents).  We left a 30" opening in the front of the base so the doors can swing outward.  
Next, we flipped the base over and screwed castors down to it so we can move the cage around easily.

When we got home, I tried out the cage in the base to check the fit.  If there had been any problems, we could fix them now before laying the tile.

I took the base and covered my kitchen center island with a blanket and set the base on it to install the tiles.  The whole box of tiles was less than $15 at Menards and they were very easy to cut and to install.  You can cut them easily with a utility knife and you just remove the paper backing and press down.

I used little nail on plastic fasteners that are made to fasten co-ax cable to walls to fasten the cage to the base.  
For the shelves, we cut 1 x 2s for the supports - these go right through the holes in the grids.  We then screwed untreated lumber down to them for the shelves.  We made a shelf on each side of the cage from a 1 x 12.

We then screwed that scrap 1 x 12 that I got from the utility bin at Menards across the two side shelves to make a back shelf.

Once all the shelving was in, I zip tied the roof on.  
There was a lot of wood left for plenty of other projects.  We made a little hidey-hole tunnel out of a few pieces.

   
This was a fun and easy project.  I have absolutely NO wood building skills and with very little help, was able to build this awesome cage inexpensively.
Hoppy loves his new bunny condo !!  I put the base from his old cage in it and that is what I use for his litter box.  Because Hoppy is not a chewer, I am using polar fleece for his cage liner.  It is nice and soft and gives him the traction he needs for running and hopping (he likes to popcorn back and forth across the back of his cage).
I will do a separate blog on the fleece liners for his cage and also for my Degu's critter nation cage.