Safe wood?

[Emzlou09]

Hi all,
I hopefully will be starting building a wooden hamster cage soon with perspex sliding doors.. What types of wood are safe to use and won't smell.. edible to the hamsters :P What wood treatment is hamster safe so I can reduce risk of urine soaking through etc... Also what's the best way of getting ventilation into a wooden cage?
Thank you for any answers you can give me :) x

[wofunny]

This should help you with the woods: http://www.hamstercentral.com/community/housing/1650-what-wood-use.html

For the treatment, Use clear plastikote as it's safe for hamsters and works very well.

For vents it depends on what your cages will be like, but what ivd done for my ikea Expedit cage is cut a rectangle on both sides of the cage and cover with a metal vent on both sides (brought from B&Q) Make sure the vents are metal because you don't want your ham chewing his way out!
Or you could drill lots of bigish holes on the sides instead of cut out a full rectangle.

[Emzlou09]

Thank you for the answers :) just saw your expedia design looks nice :) will the vents produce enough air flow in the cage?

[KatiePillow]

In my home made cage I used 3 vents, one in each end and at the back, i bought mine from screwfix for £2 each
I bought my acrilic from wickes for about £15 a sheet, (one sheet did 1 20cmx110cm substrate keeper inner thing, and two doors (able to fit in 110x50(high) space, with ovelap)
Although You'd need a circular saw to cut it ideally, or a similar power tool.
Perspex is much more expensive than acrilic, I used 18mm thick clear acrilic, but in future would go for thicker
Hope this helps :)

[Emzlou09]

In my home made cage I used 3 vents, one in each end and at the back, i bought mine from screwfix for £2 each
I bought my acrilic from wickes for about £15 a sheet, (one sheet did 1 20cmx110cm substrate keeper inner thing, and two doors (able to fit in 110x50(high) space, with ovelap)
Although You'd need a circular saw to cut it ideally, or a similar power tool.
Perspex is much more expensive than acrilic, I used 18mm thick clear acrilic, but in future would go for thicker
Hope this helps :)

Sounds good how have you done the doors because talking to my grandad today he said hamster could open the sliding doors. Plus tools not a problem my grandad's got pro stuff :D

[KatiePillow]

I'm actually a bit worried about her being able to open the door..I think as long as they cant get in at the end it'll be ok,
But I want to use one of those vivarium locks, so if you looked into how those are made, might be easier.
Hope it goes well :)

[wofunny]

For my doors I will be using Sliding door rubber wedges, for vivariums.

You can find them cheap on eBay!

[Emzlou09]

Cool, never heard of vivariums :P Thank you, my grandad is trying to get me to make it into wire mesh with wooden frame so lots of ventilation and climbing because he read on a website about someone moaning about wooden cages.. Very annoying because that won't be very stable and its hard to find thick wire mesh and it will look... rubbish.. One of the main reasons of building a wooden cage is because they are a lot more aesthetically pleasing to a plastic cage plus I can save a lot of space in my room.

[neily]

I know this is an old thread, but do you reckon this: B&Q Value Pine Corner Shelf (H)36 x (W)400 x (D)400mm, 7008 (http://www.diy.com/nav/rooms/storage-shelving/shelving/shelves/-specificproducttype-wooden_shelves/B-and-Q-Value-Pine-Corner-Shelf-H-36-x-W-400-x-D-400mm-9297168?skuId=9306864) would be safe to make a shelf/platform from?