Drilled holes instead of mesh?

[cowgirlskipper]

I wouldn't just drill holes. The reason I'm saying this is for lack of ventilation, yes, but also, the more holes you have in that lid, the easier the plastic is going to crack. I had to get an entire new lid for one of my bins because when we tried to drill into it, it cracked the entire length

[dave123791]

I have done holes before in my bin cage. I wouldn't recommend tbh. The inside gets hot very quickly, there is a high chance of the lid cracking with so many holes in, hamster can easily escape just by chewing his way out, takes ages to do if you want to not crack the lid. I did 0.7cm spacing between holes. The holes just a bit smaller than your pinky finger.

[humfry]

If you know anyone with an electric jigsaw ask them to cut sections out of the lid & or side of the bin. I don't think that however many holes you make with a drill it will create enough air circulation. You could use a hole saw attachment for a drill & cut out large circles (up to 2 inch diameter, & spaced up to 2 inches apart to retain strength) then mesh behind them. Meshing also gives better visibility of your hams.

Fix the mesh with either nuts & bolts or stitch it on with wire. I did 2 panels with plastic ties & humfry kept chewing them off so had to refix with wire & seems OK now.

[Hekomi]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll see what tools we could get our hands on from my SO's mums workshop. That might make things a bit easier... And maybe it can be his task, he he

[Hekomi]

Okay got to think a bit more on what we wanted to do. My SO is handy, much more than I, so I figure we can try. No harm in trying!

Nancy, do you mesh just the top lid? I figure we will need two panels of mesh on the top... I'm right with that? I don't want to mesh the side and encourage bar chewing or make it o hams could chew around the mesh.

For all those in America - where did you get the mesh, and what size? If I just go into Home Depot and ask for small gauge mesh, will they know what I'm talking about?

The plan right now is to have two large samla bins (the largest) - one for mum while she has her babies and then once the babies are weaned, for the separate sexes. Then two smaller samla bins (the tall, next largest one) to separate any trouble makers as temporary houses. Ideally I'd want to build up a good amount of these smaller bins in case of large litters, but we are going to start with the four right now.

I have one lid at home already I bought a while back, so I could trace some places to mesh on that perhaps. Any tips? I figure drilling a small hole, then taking a knife to cut the rest of the plastic will work best. Making holes will have to be step one, then I'll deal with getting the mesh cut and placed secondly.

Any idea how much mesh I should use? What would be the best knife to use, if I can't get my hands on a jig saw?

[SprinkleHamster]

Our bin cage has 50 1/2 inch holes at the top. 25 on each side

[kyrilliondaemon]

We've just done a single large mesh panel on the top of ours, if you want I can take a photo later? (I've got to go to work now but can easily take a photo of Nellys lid afterwards)

[Hekomi]

That would be awesome Kyrilldaemon! Also I reread the posts and see Nancy said where her mesh was, and what size. I'll go looking for that. Any difference between meshing the sides and the lid? Pros/cons?

MIL has a jig saw so I just need to get my hands on it...

[Esmy]

Careful about the jigsaw! I read here that it cracks the plastic. Not sure if anyone has been successful with it, but I was under the impression it wasn't an option.

We used a hand saw for our last two. My Husband cracked one of the lids just going too fast with that, but overall it worked.

[Hekomi]

Handsaw could work. I'm sure we could even buy a cheap one at Home Depot, right? Esmy, what mesh did you use? How did you but it?