How to build a hayloft?

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annaliese

not even so much a hayloft as an upper level, i'm sure the girls would enjoy it and it would be a cool project for me... I just dont know how or where to start, what to use or where to position it as both the cages have wire tops. Any suggestions greatly appreciated
 
clairelove has done it with her cages, I am sure she would be able to help, its something I would like to do as well.
 
I think it will depend upon the type of cage you have, but this is how I made mine in a rabbit 120...

I wanted to make the upper floor as big as possible (as the cage turned out to not be as big as it looked in the shop!) My upper floor is half as big as the cage.

The floor itself is made from mdf (I wasn't 100% sure what wood to use and was initially going to go for ply, but I figured the girls will never actually get to it as it's covered in fleece. MDF is strong and cheap so it won). Anyway, the floor is screwed onto two support pieces made from inch wide flat dowel. These supports sit on the bars of the cage and hold the floor in place. They stick out about 3/4 inch at either side, but this is ideal so there's no way the floor can fall down. I was going to use cable ties for added security, but I'm glad I didn't now as it's completley removable and makes cleaning out so much easier :) I made a little 'fence' from some extra wood to stop any kamikaze jumps off the side.

I can't take credit for the ramp, it was 'borrowed' from their summer hutch. Since these photos were taken, I've made a couple of small changes, as they were taken pretty much as soon as it went in. I've added a little tunnel over the ramp made out of two lots of the bendy twig thingys. They've got vetbed on the lower 'landing' (the landing came with the cage) to make a softer landing pad. They initially had a little ramp up to here but they never used it and always jumped up so I just got rid of it

I'm pleased how it's turned out as they have almost half a cage extra floor space and the cage without just isn't big enough for three (well, two and a half ;) )

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Looking down the cage to Pixel snoozing (only one twiggy tunnel here - Pixel has taken to climbing on them rolleyes

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I hope that makes sense, I can get pics of the floor out of the cage if that's help - it's clean out time later tonight anyway ;)
 
I have a rabbit 150 cage and I built a 2nd layer ..........

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It's just two strips of wood (forming the runners that sit on the bars of the cage) attached to a piece of plywood (to form the base of the 2nd level). I simply cut notches out of the strips of wood so that they sat on the bars and didn't move or slip and Bob's your Uncle. The ramp is screwed to the 2nd floor as well so the whole thing is very stable and doesn't move. Bear in mind though that the Trixie Rabbit 150 cage is very sturdy and the bars of the cage have little or no 'give' in them. I've seen plenty of other shop bought cages with wire tops that would bend in a light breeze! They may not be suitable for adding a second level.
 
the pictures and descriptions you guys gave are excellent :D I'm gonna start planning straight away. gonna have to take away use of one of the doors though as the whole of the front of my cage opens up via the use of two massive wire doors. Excited :D ^_^
 
Hi Annaliese, my cage is the same with the two big doors.

You should be okay though sweeping may be a little awkward. I have a corner litter tray filled with hay in the far bottom corner, so poops are kept to a minimum over there ;)
 
They have a serial pooping corner so i'm thinking maybe if i put the loft on the opposite side of the cage to that i will have full access to that corner and ill just have to pull my arm out of its socket to get to the other bit, unless i only fix it to two parts of the cage as in the back and side cage wall and then i can still open the two front doors equally, also when making the loft is wood glue safe?
 
thanks for the pics - getting 2 new hutches for my shed next week - may be stealing ideas :))

love the pics!
 
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