Bin cage plan

[tiger_lily]

Does this sound ok for a syrian? I'm planning on buying these three storage boxes to make a three tier set-up with tunnels connecting each tier and wooden shelves in the top two boxes too.

I'm thinking of meshing the front and sides of each box, the lid of the top box and putting ventilation holes around all three boxes too. Will this be enough?

[mezier]

How big are the boxes? The base area is more important than the number of storeys of boxes. I think the minimum size for a syrian is 80cm by 50cm (not too sure as i don't have a syrian). The bigger the better of course.

Meshing the front and the sides is enough to me. However, i suggest that you do not cut the hole for the mesh too big since you are cutting the front and the sides. Or not it will weaken the structure of the box.

Hope I've been some help to you :)

[tiger_lily]

Oh sorry, I meant to put a link to the boxes! It is these: 80 Litre Plastic Storage Boxes: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home (http://www.amazon.co.uk/80-Litre-Plastic-Storage-Boxes/dp/B003YKNTC4/ref=pd_sim_kh_3)

They are 60x40cm so I'm guessing that is a bit too small as a base size. Hmmm, do you know what the recommended height is?

I never thought about weakening the box, maybe I will only have either the front of the sides for each!

[Kissa]

Recommended height is high enough for a Syrian sized wheel, so 30/40 cm depending how deep you're wanting the substrate to be, but hamsters are more ground-dwelling and burrowing than climbing, so height is less of an issue than floorspace. If it comes to a tall box with medium floorspace or a flat box that isn't big enough for a wheel, I'd get the flat box and either add a separate chamber with the wheel in or use a flying saucer :)

[tiger_lily]

Great, thank you Kissa. Where would be best to get boxes from? I've seen the really big ones you can get from Ikea, but they don't deliver and I don't have a car :(

[Charley101]

I was going to say Ikea but obviously that isn't an option... When i had my bin cages, i used the Really Useful boxes as it was the only decent sized ones near me. Homebase has a really nice, large box in at the moment for £19.99 but it is not high enough :( It's about a meter long though! It's a shame cos I would have snapped it up!

Hopefully someone else will be able to help :)

[kyrilliondaemon]

Those boxes should actually work really well :)

The rule is for total base space - including full levels. We use those for our syrian bin cages and they work fine alone. Ours are mostly holiday cages but I'd have no problem at all with using them full time for a syrian if I didn't have an obsessive issue with oversized cages lol

We mesh the two longer sides and it works really well for us so I'm sure your ham will love a bin from those if you choose to make it :)

[tiger_lily]

That's great! It would be three full boxes for her, so 3 x 60 x 40cm base, then hopefully a couple of levels inside it too to break it up a bit giving lots of running space!

[kyrilliondaemon]

That sounds great to me, its kind of like a cheaper imac fantasy really :)

[tiger_lily]

Great! Off to order the things now, hopefully they arrive soon so I can start making it!

[kyrilliondaemon]

Good luck! We need to start making one again soon. We have the boxes and mesh and stuff, just haven't done it yet.

[Charley101]

Oo keep us updated tiger lily and would love to see pics of the finished cage :)

[tiger_lily]

Will do! I'm excited about making it now, still have some mesh left over from making our degu's cage so that shouldn't be a problem...

[Charley101]

Good luck :)

[kyrilliondaemon]

Can I make one suggestion? Don't do the entire three tier thing in one day... We spent most of yesterday making one and are both suffering for it today lol. It'll be finished tomorrow and hopefully the blisters and achy limbs will have calmed down a bit then. We suffered making Scamp's too in the end so yeah... Learn from our mistake and take your time over a few days lol

[Charley101]

Have you made another for Fwirl, Sam?

And i found if i take on too much at once, i start getting really frustrated and end up making mistakes and then get even more frustrated because i have made the mistakes :lol:

[kyrilliondaemon]

Nearly. We're fine with the amount of work to make them but piercing all the holes for mesh and cable ties and stuff has just left me sore lol. My OH did loads of sawing and stuff and he's achy too. Would've finished it last night but called it quits at about midnight in favour of getting some dinner lol

We have about 54 more holes to pierce if I remember right, hopefully the blister on my hand has cleared before I do those tomorrow lol. Then my OH has to use his penknife to get the edges of the holes smooth inside the bins. Then we add mesh before moving it through to here, setting it up and adding the tube connector so we can join it to Fwirl's cage after we managed to scrape together the 40cm length we needed on her wall lol

We're also changing the bottom box on Scamp's bin and thats adding to the work. As I've said, the work is fine, its just the pain thats not ideal lol

Would anyone want photos? I can't get them of the boxes before we touched them but thats no help anyway. I can get them before the mesh is added and before all the holes are done and stuff though. And I can get some to show the smaller boxes we use to connect them and the holes for that more easily before the bin is in use if anyone would want them.

[Charley101]

Ooo photos would be good. It can show members who are thinking about making a bin cage how it is done. Always a good thing :)

[kyrilliondaemon]

There're loads of threads on bin cages already though. The only part thats particuarly unique is that we make them with literally a pair of penknives and some wire cutting pliers rather than other tools. That and how we connect the levels together which now I think about it I do actually want photos of :)

[Charley101]

I think the photos will be a good idea especially if you have used basic tools as it can show people what to do ;)

[kyrilliondaemon]

I'll take some tomorrow then :)

[Charley101]

Looking forward to them :)

[tiger_lily]

Oh, photos would be great, thank you! And thanks for the advice, I think I will do it over a few evenings and weekends.

[kyrilliondaemon]

No problem. And thanks for reminding me lol
Its mostly sorted but I've got it without one panel of mesh and the main thing is how we connect them which I'll get photos of soon. Just about to eat so will do them after that :)

Edit - I have photos. What I don't have is a laptop behaving itself and recognising the SD card so it may be an hour or two before I get them up. At worst I'll have to add them after we've got it finalised and built for Fwirl but I wanted how we built it up before then :(

[tiger_lily]

Awww no, that sucks, technology is so infuriating! At least it is nearly finished though.

My storage boxes came today so I'm going to start making this weekend :D

[kyrilliondaemon]

Sorry these are late my laptop then decided it wasn't working at all anymore. Today I'm borrowing my OHs old laptop so am using that to get the photos here :)
Am just putting them all in a photobucket album and will link to that once they're up. Then I don't wreck your thread with loads of photos lol

Edit - All photos of her bin being made and her exploring it can be found here (http://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g5/kyrilliondaemon/Hamster%20stuff/Making%20Fwirls%20bin%20and%20Fwirl%20in%20it/).

[Charley101]

Very nice Sam! And it looks really neat considering you used basic tools.

That is a cat statue in the bin isn't it that Fwirl's stood on?

[Charley101]

Oh and i've just noticed a dragon one too :lol:

[kyrilliondaemon]

Yup. We went to the local garden centre to spend £4(ish) on the tube connectors as we needed one more than we had. Had a look around while there, saw those and realised Fwirl would like climbing on them and one could be a way between the two taller bins. The photos show we were right (she has climbed on the dragon too, I just didn't photo it).
I swear she's part squirrel with how much she loves climbing, but those are big, strong, too heavy to be knocked over and work well for someone as insane as Fwirl to play with :)

It meant the visit cost considerably more than £4 but it was worth it :)

[tiger_lily]

@kyrilliondaemon, that looks great! Thank you for sharing the photos :) Fwirl looks very happy in there :)

What did you use to line the holes between the different boxes?

[kyrilliondaemon]

The smaller boxes. I think I had a photo of them with the bottom cut out? We literally cut the bottom out of smaller boxes and then put those between them. Both of our syrians can climb up them really easily and then theres even a low lip to help keep substrate in the right levels of the bin :)