Correx With Wooden Surrounds

Status
Not open for further replies.
RexandGizmo

RexandGizmo

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Jan 1, 2015
Messages
69
Reaction score
58
Points
170
Location
uk
Dear all,

I am new to the community and to guinea pig ownership, whilst our piggins Rex and Gizmo currently have a standard cage I was hoping to build something for them with a little bit more area and of a custom design to fit our home appropriately.

I've already ordered correx suitable to give a six inch wall on all sides, however as our piggins are eager jumpers, they should easily vault that (and have done) so I was going to extend this upwards by placing the correx base inside a wooden built frame of 12 inches. I was also intending to cannibalise their previous cage to use for the front of the enclosure so they would have 1 wall that was made of cage, and therefore they can still see out and get ventilation.

My question is that I was wondering as to what wood to use, although many people say that mdf or chipwood is bad for them to chew on, they should not be able to get up to the height required to do so, also I have seen people who have built their entire cage out of plywood or balsawood advocating that method.

What do people think here and is this something anyone has done and can advise me of.

Obviously I want something suitable but without the bill for wood running up fast, so something as cheap as possible whilst remaining suitable for them. Dimensions are going to be 1.47m x 0.92 metres which gives 15sq ft almost for our 2 happy piggins to live in.
 
Hello, welcome to the forum :)

Hopefully someone with some cage building experience may be along shortly. Will try and keep this thread bumped up for a few days so it is seen.

Looking forward to hearing more about Rex & Gizmo

Lee
 
could you not use the grids aswell to make the c+c cage? if not, then i would think plywood would be ok to use. :)
 
Hi, thanks for the supportive answers so far, I'd be keen to hear more people's experience with wooden cage building.

The cage they are in at the moment is a standard cage from a pet shop, which was only ever intended as a temporary measure until we could get something more suitable. The top of the cage is the usual type you get on those cages, so whilst I could cannibalise it to make a sufficient front, it would be nowhere near big enough to make an entire surround, and it's not the usual cube grids you get.

As I'm from the UK I've only been able to find suitable square grids in the USA and it seemed to be a large cost to get them sent over. If anyone knows anywhere in the UK you can get the grids cheap I'd appreciate the information.
 
I've managed to sort it all out now and have finished building everything. I'm going to upload some pictures too. It's not quite perfect and I'm going to adapt it and make ongoing modifications to ensure that it works as I want it (although my partner insists that I am being OCD about it all) I like it to be aesthetically pleasing as well as piggin safe.

It's a bit Spartan at the moment too, we are going to get them more toys and another log hut to sleep in. They seem to be enjoying exploring round it so far though and it took me less than 2 days to construct.

The doors will have little bolt locks on them eventually and I'm not happy with one of the planks of pine stripwood on the front so I'm going to do it again.

For anyone interested all it took was:

4mm thick 1430x920 correx (dimensions when folded for 150mm and 170mm sides)
18mm thick 2440x1220 sheet of MDF B&Q cut this for me for free (I have plenty left too)
15mm thick 3300x68 pine strip
15mm thick 900x25 pine strip
4 hinges
2 bolt locks

The cage wire bits were taken off the pet store cage we already had and modified to fit. I may modify them again as it is still a bit of an overlap between the cages so come payday I might well chuck another few pieces of pine stripwood at it and re-do the front to make it more inkeeping with what I originally had planned.

Anyway, here's what we have for them so far.

DSC_0430.webp
DSC_0436.webp DSC_0430.webp
DSC_0431.webp DSC_0434.webp
 
RexandGizmo said:
I've managed to sort it all out now and have finished building everything. I'm going to upload some pictures too. It's not quite perfect and I'm going to adapt it and make ongoing modifications to ensure that it works as I want it (although my partner insists that I am being OCD about it all) I like it to be aesthetically pleasing as well as piggin safe.

It's a bit Spartan at the moment too, we are going to get them more toys and another log hut to sleep in. They seem to be enjoying exploring round it so far though and it took me less than 2 days to construct.

The doors will have little bolt locks on them eventually and I'm not happy with one of the planks of pine stripwood on the front so I'm going to do it again.

For anyone interested all it took was:

4mm thick 1430x920 correx (dimensions when folded for 150mm and 170mm sides)
18mm thick 2440x1220 sheet of MDF B&Q cut this for me for free (I have plenty left too)
15mm thick 3300x68 pine strip
15mm thick 900x25 pine strip
4 hinges
2 bolt locks

The cage wire bits were taken off the pet store cage we already had and modified to fit. I may modify them again as it is still a bit of an overlap between the cages so come payday I might well chuck another few pieces of pine stripwood at it and re-do the front to make it more inkeeping with what I originally had planned.

Anyway, here's what we have for them so far.

View attachment 21321
View attachment 21324 View attachment 21321
View attachment 21322 View attachment 21323
Click to expand...
Wow, very clean cage! What bedding do you use?
 
That was pretty much 5 minutes after they went in there, if it's still like that tomorrow I will eat my hat!

We use woodshavings over newspaper for now, however we have ordered some cage liners which should hopefully be here soon from Ziggys piggies. Mainly owing to the cage being so big shavings are going to end up costing a fortune.

We try and keep it as fresh as possible and replace the shavings and newspaper every few days.
 
We just went in to check on them (Becky my partner has been in and out talking to them most of the night) and Gizmo was completely sound asleep, like I've never seen him before, eyes fully shut and everything.
 
It's 1.43m x 0.92 metres. or 4 foot 8 inches x 3 foot pretty much.

Takes up a quarter of the room!
 
Wow! you've done amazing job! I've just made a real hash of cutting the correx for our piggies new C&C cage, but they don't care and they're really happy in their new 4x2 after living in a 100cm cage (don't even go there with that one - was BADLY advised!). Yay! nothing like having happy piggies. :yahoo:
 
Yeah well we didn't exactly do a bang up job ourselves, it ended up that we collected it but the car couldn't fit it in so we had to cut and bend it to shape in the car park of the place we got it from :)
 
Mine was rolled and bashed up, had a 30cm ruler and an 8 year old to help me! Came up with the brainwave of using the built cage as the template. Doh! :mal: Then ended up having to re-shape it! It's piggy fine though ;)
 
Cage looks amazing, glad your getting liners from Ziggy, they are great! Also, shavings I believe are bad for there health :) so it's good your getting liners!
 
We got ours from a place called GJ Plastics in Manchester near us, was going to be couriered for £8 but we went to collect instead, was packaged between 2 sheets of hardboard, was no way it was getting damaged. I'd recommend them, was only £13 for the actual correx sheet itself :) They do custom sizes cut to any size up to 240 x 120 cm
 
That is a cool looking cage. I like how you incorporated the old cage front into the design.
 
RexandGizmo said:
I've managed to sort it all out now and have finished building everything. I'm going to upload some pictures too. It's not quite perfect and I'm going to adapt it and make ongoing modifications to ensure that it works as I want it (although my partner insists that I am being OCD about it all) I like it to be aesthetically pleasing as well as piggin safe.

It's a bit Spartan at the moment too, we are going to get them more toys and another log hut to sleep in. They seem to be enjoying exploring round it so far though and it took me less than 2 days to construct.

The doors will have little bolt locks on them eventually and I'm not happy with one of the planks of pine stripwood on the front so I'm going to do it again.

For anyone interested all it took was:

4mm thick 1430x920 correx (dimensions when folded for 150mm and 170mm sides)
18mm thick 2440x1220 sheet of MDF B&Q cut this for me for free (I have plenty left too)
15mm thick 3300x68 pine strip
15mm thick 900x25 pine strip
4 hinges
2 bolt locks

The cage wire bits were taken off the pet store cage we already had and modified to fit. I may modify them again as it is still a bit of an overlap between the cages so come payday I might well chuck another few pieces of pine stripwood at it and re-do the front to make it more inkeeping with what I originally had planned.

Anyway, here's what we have for them so far.

View attachment 21321
View attachment 21324 View attachment 21321
View attachment 21322 View attachment 21323
Click to expand...
looks like a well built run for them :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top