C&C Build; Phew! We are pretty much done!

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KimberleysWheekers

KimberleysWheekers

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It has taken some time to construct, but my bf has done a great job! We now have a four storey 5x2 C&C cage to house our three trios - The only bit we have left to do is to put the final trio into their new home, we are just waiting for their bedding to dry.

I'll do some step by step pics, please bear with me!

This cage was pretty much made up as we went along and there were problems which we had to overcome because of this. But it has turned out well and I am expecting it to be easier to clean than their indoor cage set up (yay!). It has also meant that the piggies are now upstairs in the spare room. This room, although a mess at the moment, will be piggy proofed so I can let them out on the floor without worrying that they will get stuck under the furniture.

So here we go!

We started with a 12mm MDF board cut to size. We attached six castor wheels to the underside of it;

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We then attached the corner posts which are 50mm x 47mm lengths of wood;

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Supporting bars on the left and right hand sides were also made from the 50mm x 47mm lengths.

The batons and cross supports holding the floors up were made from 38mm x 19mm lengths of wood;

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The doors are hinged from the front corner posts; 3 panels open to the left and 2 panels open to the right. The wood used on the sides and bottoms of the doors are skirting boards;

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The C&C panels are held in place with metal brackets;

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The doors were hung from all levels of the cage;

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I wanted two areas for my piggies in the cage, one with inco pads and fleece and another with some sort of bedding they can dig about in. I cut two correx trays for each floor;

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Here are some more pics of the doors;

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We then painted the front of the doors with Protek wood stain, although because it is cream, it hasn't made much of a difference to the original colour, if has just covered over the filled a little bit. We also tacked down 3mm hardboard for the floors of the cage;

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Next was the addition of the rest of the C&C panels;

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I have used mesh panels on the back wall to prevent spillages and grids around the rest of the cage. The side and back panels have been held in to place by horse shoe shaped tacks.
 
Latches were added to hold the doors in place.

The first floor cage has been mini-pig proofed with some additional correx because Hermione is still quite small. This will be removed once she's a bit bigger.

We put the correx trays/bedding in place and filled the external hay racks with Oxbow;

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Although I'm bending over a little, you can see the size of the cage, it is pretty huge! (I'm 5ft 6in btw!)

And all that was left is for some piggies to move in!

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Henry, Nala and Hermione are on the first floor. Audrey, Seymour and Mushnik are on the second. Sasha, Mabelle and Penelope will be on the third floor later tonight once the bedding is dry. The ground floor will be used for storage, it will have all their bits and pieces stored in there.

Problems we came across;

  • The door latches on the front didn't actually work. Because there is no stationary point, the doors could be pulled open with easy. A piggy leaning on them would have made them swing open and the piggy would have fallen out. We've had to add another latch to the back of the left hand door to hold that one in place. This makes latch on the front of the door work.
  • I cut all of the correx the wrong size. This was because I cut it before all the panels were in place so I assumed that it would fit. It didn't.
  • The water bottle doesn't fit next to the hay rack (on the right hand side). We'll drill a hole through the correx for the spout another day. This will correct the problem. I'd rather not have it attached to the door.

All in all, we used 20 mesh panels and 36 grid panels (4 boxes of storage cubes), MDF, hardboard, 50mm x 47mm lengths of wood, 38mm x 19mm lengths of wood, hinges, brackets, paint, correx, various screws and tacks. I haven't worked out the total cost as yet. I think I'll leave that for another day! rolleyes


Soooooo! It's done! Phewwwww!
 
that is just fabulous. Would you like to do a husband swap? :))

I would love something like that... I'd use the bottom tier for storage, though and put a nice little curtain (home sewn of course) in front, for frills!
 
Looks fantastic! would * build me 1 please? :)):)) (only joking!) looks brilliant,bet the piggies love it!x)
 
wow this is fantastic! you have some extremely lucky piggies!
 
doglovinpiggylover said:
can we see it full??
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, in the last pic, there are actually 6 piggies in there! The bottom made up cage has the new piggies in so they are still hiding a bit. Although they had been running about earlier when we first popped them in. Audrey, Seymour and Mushik one floor up all hid in the pigaloo! Scaredy pigs.
 
I commented on the homemade cage thread and then realised I probably shouldn't. ")

Your new cage is wonderful, really impressive It looks bright too on the lower levels. Some stacked cages I think look dark, but yours looks so good. :)
 
KimberleysWheekers said:
We've had a lot of rather colourful language and he's told me never to ask for such a thing again! You'd have to do a LOT of sweet talking!
Click to expand...

in fact I'd love to make one myself but I have a woman's brain, I'd just need someone to help me along the way!
 
I'm so jealous... Now Kimberley will it fit out the door?

Hmm, Back to my cage planning, were there is a will, there is a way!
 
It's completely fabulous. I love it. Well done to both of you for all your efforts. I can see this one being used as an example in may future threads. :)
 
it looks awesome, Kimberley! I bet you and the pigs are super happy! I understand your husbands feelings too... after finishing my cage I was sure I would NEVER do another cage again, but it's been a few months now and I'm feeling kinda ready... :)

Bottom used for storage... Then why is is fitted with cage doors, I wonder...? :))
 
This is absolutely fabulous. The construction photos were so helpful and the finished product is brilliant. I love the way you have thought about easy access and cleaning with the huge doors and the way you have left enough room at the side for the hayracks. droolx)droolx)droolx)
 
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