*Building C&C Rat Cages: PLEASE READ 1st POST*Was:Help With Cennecting two Cages

[ratlover_23]

Okay, I just finished building my cages, ony for the males, and one for the females.

Here is the girls' cage:

They toys on the bottom are:
Water Bottle, Basket with pink pillow, chubes tunnel, litter box, water bottle tube with blue cover(I made), ferret tunnel, wheel, a plastic bird perch, and then there is another bird toy with colorful chew sticks and colorful cookies.
The toys on the top(2nd)level are:
A small animal cuddle cup, cardboard tube(hanging), my rats restling and one sleeping(lol), Tropical Fiddle Sticks house, and in the middle is another bird toys with rope and tan chew sticks.  Then on the door theres another basket, and next to the wheel is a dog rope toy used as a ladder until I get them a big parrot lader tonight.
The very top level is their food bowl, blanket to catch crums that I made, and another water bottle, and a parrot ladder to use as a ramp.
The door is closed with some sort of hook and kew chain thing that came with a store bought cage form petsmart made by all living things.




HERE IS THE OLD MESSAGE:
I have a Coast Rat Mansion Cage That looks like this:



and a All Living Things Small Animal Cage that looks like this:



My question is: I would like to combine the coast cage [that houses my three females] with the all living Cage [that houses my four males] and build my boys a new cage out of kids storage cubes.  But how would I combine the cages together by not making any cuts in the wire?  Would I use cable ties and the kids cubes and hook them together? 


I really feel with all the toys I own that my males and females should be able to have a bigger cage, that i can take apart easily for easy cage cleaning.  I have two large superpet ferret cages that were great but they were very heavy and bulky and hard for my, a 14 yr old, to clean.  I own 7 rats...and their cages fit under my loft bed while my guinea pigs cage I made(using cavycages.com)is near my window.  Her cage is very easy to clean, using linoleum as the base.  I would like any help and advice for making my girls cage bigger and easy to clean.

Thanks!
Sasha and the 'gang'

[punkinbritches12]

if your all living things cage is like mine you could pull out the connecting pieces (not sure what theyre called, but the little metal circles holding it together) on the top and use the same pieces to connect them to the coast rat mansion bottom....

or take the door off the top of the coast rat mansion and sit the all living things on top, then find something they can climb for a ladder, that would also give them another full level...

i have no knowledge of the rat mansion other than your pix so sorry if im wrong...

good luck

[ratlover_23]

Thank you.  The rat mansion cage is smaller than the all living things, so the living things cage would not work sitting on top of my coast rat cage.  But I am thinking of using this playpen(too small for my guinea pig)to connect the cages together by the door or something.  So I will be working on that after I make my male rats a cage.  I am still trying to figure out what to use for the cage, for my males.  I do nto know where they sell kids cubes at.  I really would like to make brand new cage for my girls, but I also like the one they have now, and I do not know where the reciept for their coast cage went to...lol. 

[punkinbritches12]

whered you buy the cage?   some stores will take it back without a reciept if you complain enough,lol...try calling ahead and talking to a manager about it, they might let you return it anyways...when i got jelly i made her a homemade cage out of chicken wire (from home depot) and just kept the cage on a water proof pad...it worked great and she liked it..now i have my 2 boys in it...theyre a lot easier to make than most people think...and way cheaper, my total cost for it was about 15$

[ratlover_23]

Oh okay, thank you.  I finally found the receipt...lol.  It was like $90 for the cage, which i will return like tomorrow.  Hopefully tomorrow night I will also get the supplies to build the new cages....one for the boys, one for the girls.  Using storage cubes from target...then doubling htem so the bar spacing is sutible for my rats and using cable ties I will have them really nice, easy to clean(i know because I use it for my guinea pig)brand new cages with lots of space for tubes, bird toys, hammocks, their wheel, igloo, and other toys.  Its their 1 yr old birthday yesterday, so this will be thier late present

[punkinbritches12]

if by cable ties you mean the plastic ones, zip ties, be careful, jelly likes to try to chew through the ones i use on her cube and hammocks

[ratlover_23]

Yeah I mean those.  My guinea pig has never chewed it, don't know bout my rats though.  They really never do chew on their cage bars, only the girls chew their hammocks and the boys chew anythign on the outside of their cage that is fabric, like a sheet over it when I have the lights on at night (I do that so they get plenty hours of dark each day)

I am working on the cage, doing this:



I was going to do the thing and buy kid sized cubes, but they are more expensive so here is another photo:


These are not my photos, these are from cavycages.com...but they are very similar to mine, my cubes are navy blue, not red, though...and I have many colors of cable ties/zip ties.

[punkinbritches12]

thats a cool idea...good luck making it      and make sure to post some pix when youre done, id like to see the end result

[Topaz]

Your cage is gonna look so colorful! Post pics when it's done!!!

[ratlover_23]

I will,  I have started with the leftover cubes I had from Kiwi my guinea pigs cage, and it looks so neat!  I already knwo how to make a door and everything.  The base will be linolium made into a box type shape and the cage will sit inside it so they cannot chew the linolium, though.  I hope they love it.  Its will be plenty room for them and their rope, bird toys, tunnels, igloo, timber hide a way, fiddle sticks, and wheels.  Yep, i hope they like it!

Oh, and it will have 2 full levels with some litter wire levels left over from my friends bird cage and a petsmart level i bought, and then it will have 75% of a level with ramps and everything!

[nerdchick]

That sounds like it's gonna rock. I've seen the cavy cages and it's a great concept. Oh and I second the demand for pics.

-Caty

[ratlover_23]

Pictures will be up Saturday, and Friday/tomorrow will be pictures of their birthday party!   

I have used 16 grids so far and now have 8 completed grids.  That was all leftover from Kiwi(my guinea pig's)cage.  They are all navy blue, too.  The bottom of the cage I hope will be made Friday night, if not, then it will be made Saturday morning so they all can move in their cage by Saturday.   

According to the Cage Calculator:
"Cage dimensions(Inches)
height - 42
width  - 28
depth  - 28

This cage will hold up to 9 rats if the space is used wisely."

 

There you have it.  9 rats, wow....I will have tw cages, 4 in one, 3 in one.  Plenty of room for toys!  Yay!

[lucy]

Do you know where you can buy the kid size cubes?

[ratlover_23]

I have heard they can be bought at some targets, and Linnen and Things or something like that.  You can call your stores to ask if they are instock, but I just double the grids....okay, 18 left to go to be able to build the girls cage....

[Scubbs]

I've actually made a C&C cage before, when I had my lone heart rat, Ichabod (regardless of being neutered, at the time I just couldn't get him intro'd to the other boys in the big cage).  Here's Ichabod's old cage:

[ratlover_23]

couldn't they get out?  All my boys can get out so I am forced to double them, kinda expensive.  I hope four boxes(really 2, cause I double the grids) will be plenty enough for a 2(w)x2(L)x3(high) cage.  I hope it turns out good otherwise I'll be forced to go pick up some more cubes/grids tomorrow or tonight.

[Scubbs]

Ichabod was a big boy, plus he never cared about escaping.  He could get his head between the bars, but that was it.

[chasiti]

I've actually made a C&C cage before, when I had my lone heart rat, Ichabod (regardless of being neutered, at the time I just couldn't get him intro'd to the other boys in the big cage).  Here's Ichabod's old cage:

what did you use in there for the shelf can't tell from the pic

[ratlover_23]

the shelf is actually choroplast, like from c&c cages for guinea pigs.  Mine would be linolium, though.

[ratlover_23]

I have built the frame of the girls cage last night, and all this morning I have been working on getting the grids ready for the boys cage...its so hard to build to cage one piece at a time when you are not using the connectors, only the cable ties, so i do two at a time, much easier that--a--way.

[punkinbritches12]

i dont remember if i saw this on this forum or where...but maybe it can help you in your cage building...
http://www.guineapigcages.com/   

[ratlover_23]

thanks, thats where I got the idea for building my gp Kiwi's cage at.  I posted the site, its also known as cavycages.com, its all the same things, same site.  I finished the base of the boys cage, now I only need the top...then i will have pictures posted.

[ratlover_23]

Okay, I just finished building my cages, ony for the males, and one for the females.

Here is the girls' cage:

They toys on the bottom are:
Water Bottle, Basket with pink pillow, chubes tunnel, litter box, water bottle tube with blue cover(I made), ferret tunnel, wheel, a plastic bird perch, and then there is another bird toy with colorful chew sticks and colorful cookies.
The toys on the top(2nd)level are:
A small animal cuddle cup, cardboard tube(hanging), my rats restling and one sleeping(lol), Tropical Fiddle Sticks house, and in the middle is another bird toys with rope and tan chew sticks.  Then on the door theres another basket, and next to the wheel is a dog rope toy used as a ladder until I get them a big parrot lader tonight.
The very top level is their food bowl, blanket to catch crums that I made, and another water bottle, and a parrot ladder to use as a ramp.
The door is closed with some sort of hook and kew chain thing that came with a store bought cage form petsmart made by all living things.

[nerdchick]

That looks freakin' sweet! I've been in the market for a new cage, but I may have to make one like yours. I have some cubes at home so I might play around with it. If you can give me any hints, post her or PM me. I'd really appreciate it.

-Caty

[Sapphire_Rats]

where's the doors? lol

[ratlover_23]

You can kinda see on the right of the photo theres a little silver hook...that hold the door closed, its one door, that big, big enough for me to climb through it and sit inside the cage.  its attatched on the other side with cable ties.