Simple and Large Wooden DIY Cage from Germany

[Sturek]

Hello everyone! I promised to share our cage in another thread and I guess this is the right place. I'm from Germany, so the measurements are wonky in inch and I probably mess up many of the names of materials. This is, I guess, a German-style cage, but we are Germans, so that makes sense.

It started out as just a very simple box 100x70cm (39.4x27.5") and 50cm (19.7") high. I drilled the holes, screwed the whole thing together and sealed the edges with aquarium silicone sealant. The whole thing is made out of particle board with a non-toxic plastic coating. I got the pieces cut to the correct size at the store (a Home Depot type deal), so it was really easy. The only problem is that the board is pretty thick (1.5cm or 0.6"), I later realized that was unnecessary and just makes the box really, really heavy.



This is our first hamster Ginny (for whom I built the box) on her first day in it. She loved it (we rescued her out of a tiny 1145cm2 "fish" tank, so this new cage is almost seven times the size), but it was really just quickly improvised because we needed to make her a new home in a day. I later changed the wire mesh to a finer, square, aluminum mesh (she would have been able to stick her head through the type of mesh in the picture), for example.



Most of all she needed a proper house, so I had a look at one of the Rodipet houses for Goldies and basically stole their idea. It's really simple, I used a powered jigsaw, a fretsaw is probably better for the openings and slits, though (and a circular saw on a proper work bench for the large cuts). Everything is a bit crooked, but with a bit of sanding it fit together well enough and is really stable (we still use it). The material is poplar/aspen plywood about 6mm (about a quarter inch) thick. Ginny absolutely loved it!




Unfortunately, Ginny was pretty old when we got her and she only stayed with us for five months. When she died, we decided after a week or so, that we still wanted a new hamster. We also decided to expand the cage, so our new furball would have more space to run and finally some space to burrow in. I simply got three pieces of wood cut for a box 40x70cm (15.7x27.5") and the same height, with one wall left out, obviously. I chose board that was a bit thinner this time, made everything easier. The front wall was not particle board, but acrylic glass, however. I screwed that box together, and used plain, non-toxic wood glue to attach it to the existing cage (that is enough to keep it together). I then sealed the box with aquarium silicone sealant and also glued the acrylic glass pane in with that (really easy). Finally, I cut holes in the side of the olde cage with a hole saw to form a connection between the two. Meanwhile, my girlfriend had build three boxes and a "race track" that would go along the entire back of the cage. That's all made out of poplar/aspen plywood and beech dowel pins, glued together with wood glue.




This is the final state. The bedding is 20cm (7.9") deep on the left and up to 30cm (11.8") on the right side for burrowing. It now is 140cm (55.1") wide and as you can see the race track goes along the whole back wall. The bedding is standard hamster bedding from the pet store, mixed with some hay and in the boxes are chinchilla sand, granulated corn cob (without the actual corn) and hemp bedding. Our new hamster Bobby loves to dig in there and usually sleeps under the hay in the right compartment right now.




tl;dr: Everything was made by us, except for the wheel and a few of the small things (e.g. willow bridge, bowls etc.).

And this is our hybrid dwarf Bobby who lives in there now: