How to cover wire shelving?

mockingbird · 10-27-2016, 04:37 PM

Hi there! I've been browsing through the forum and found lots of information on how wire shelving is bad for hammies as it can cause bumblefoot. I'm really surprised I Hadn't come across this earlier! P@H never mentioned anything, neither did websites I looked at. So glad I found this forum. My Syrian hamster Jane has 2 wire shelves in her cage that I would now like to cover somehow so she doesn't injure herself.

What sorts of material are good for that? I thought about weaving cardboard through it but she might pee on that and it would be too much upkeep. How about putting plastic on top? I also don't know what kind of glue to use to make sure she is safe.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

chesca_27 · 10-27-2016, 05:41 PM

It would probably be easiest to just bin the shelves and replace them with wooden or plastic ones.

Cardboard wouldn't cover it completely and as you said would get easily destroyed. I have heard of people using hay mats (seagrass etc) which I have certainly purchased from P@H before.

Could you find a link to the shelves (or cage if it was included with the cage) as that would be more helpful with what the best solution is. In the meantime, it would be best to just remove the shelves, if possible.

Other risks involve trapped limbs or broken limbs if their feet get stuck between the bars.

cypher · 10-27-2016, 09:38 PM

I agree replacing the shelves would be your best option if you can, you can buy wooden shelves that will fit in most cages & also get some free standing shelves, use houses with flat tops in place of shelves, there are quite a lot of options.
If you think she may pee on it then cardboard wouldn't last long but is easily replaceable, I would just lay a sheet on top & maybe tie it in in a couple of places with cable ties if need be, hemp mat is another option but does collect a lot of small bits of food etc which can be hard to get out of the fibres.
Grass mats are ok too if you can get them to stay in place.
Not sure what safe glue would be strong enough to attach plastic to metal bars tbh.

mockingbird · 10-28-2016, 04:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chesca_27

It would probably be easiest to just bin the shelves and replace them with wooden or plastic ones.

Cardboard wouldn't cover it completely and as you said would get easily destroyed. I have heard of people using hay mats (seagrass etc) which I have certainly purchased from P@H before.

Could you find a link to the shelves (or cage if it was included with the cage) as that would be more helpful with what the best solution is. In the meantime, it would be best to just remove the shelves, if possible.

Other risks involve trapped limbs or broken limbs if their feet get stuck between the bars.

This is the cage I have: Gerbilarium | Pets At Home

The dimensions are 52.5 x 26 x 52 cm. I think that's below what she should have. Believe it or not, it was one of the biggest hamster cages in my local P@H. The wire shelves, along with the small size make me think she needs an upgrade. I don't have the receipt for the cage but have the box still, and only bought it 18 days ago. Should I try bringing it back to P@H to see if they give me a refund? I'm disappointed with myself for buying an unsuitable cage but also disappointed with them for selling me one!

In terms of a new cage, it would probably have to be a bin cage as it needs to be easy to move and relatively cheap. What minimum size do woule you recommend? I also remember reading that hamsters love wire to climb on, and Jane does love it. Will she be okay in plastic as long as she has other climbing opportunities?

AmityvilleHams · 10-28-2016, 04:23 AM

Could you do several bins together and cut the sides off some to attach them directly to have one huge cage?If so,bins are a much better idea than buying a cage as for the value you end up getting far more space.A good example of a pet store cage would be something around 80 cm x 50 cm that ends up costing twice or more than a bin setup that has three times the actual floor space!

Hamsters should not climb on wire ladders or floors and wire cage sides can be risky.In fact,hamsters aren't really climbing animals to begin with and with wire cages and climbing in general there is a huge risk of a hamster falling which can lead to severe injury or worse

mockingbird · 10-28-2016, 04:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AmityvilleHams

Could you do several bins together and cut the sides off some to attach them directly to have one huge cage?If so,bins are a much better idea than buying a cage as for the value you end up getting far more space.A good example of a pet store cage would be something around 80 cm x 50 cm that ends up costing twice or more than a bin setup that has three times the actual floor space!

Hamsters should not climb on wire ladders or floors and wire cage sides can be risky.In fact,hamsters aren't really climbing animals to begin with and with wire cages and climbing in general there is a huge risk of a hamster falling which can lead to severe injury or worse

I'd prefer one big box over a couple of smaller ones as that makes it easier to move (the hamster lives in the living room but sometimes we have guests staying over and then her cage has to be moved so she doesn't wake people up). Again, because she's in the living room and I live with my parents, it can't be the world's most massive cage. I could get one that's big enough for the hammy and then add shelves and stuff. Do you think that would be okay?

AmityvilleHams · 10-28-2016, 05:13 AM

It might work depending on your hamster's personality,but you could always try and add an extra bin or two later and just start with an 80 x 50 or so bin for now!

Shelves won't change the floor space,but they can be very useful with deep substrate to keep things from getting buried.

pinkneon · 10-28-2016, 05:32 AM

Mockingbird, a bin cage sounds good! Or, take a look at Pet Supplies at zooplus Online Pet Shop, Pet Food & Pet Accessories. ... They have some nice options for cages and some aren't too expensive. They deliver from Germany so it does take a week or so to arrive but their cages are really good!

Amber_x · 10-28-2016, 08:13 AM

For a minimum 80cm x 50cm is a good guideline but it depends on the individual hamster as some are more active and may need a 100cm x 50cm cage or more and some are more nervous of big spaces and do better in smaller cages such as a 60 x 40cm cage. However considering you have a Syrian you would probably be best with either an 80 x 50 or 100 x 50 cage. I have an 80 x 50 cage but I now wish I had done more research and gone for 100 x 50 so it may be better to buy bigger now instead of having to upgrade again in the future.

Hamsterita · 10-28-2016, 11:09 AM

I feel you

I had the same problem. I bought an unsuitable cage (50x28x32) and now I have to change it.

I was doing a lot of research, and If you want, I can show you my conclusions.

As far as I know:

the most affordable price-quality related cage that I can get is the alaska cage (85x48x44)
HamsterkÃ¤fig Alaska gÃ¼nstig bei zooplus
But maybe if you're from the uk or usa you can get anything else (I heard about the zoozone 1 and 2 or something like that, but I can't get them where I live, so I really don't know if they're better or no). Anyway be very careful and compare several sites, because prices may vary, even with the SAME distributor, for instance, the shipping cost to Spain are the same on zooplus.de and zooplus.es but on .de the alaska costs 39.99 € and on .es it costs 49.99 € (in general, the spanish site is more expensive and the products are the same, and the shipping cost are the same, so obviosly it's not worth it to buy on the spanish site).

If you're looking for a diy bin cage, i couldn't find anything cheaper than ikea samla 78x 56 and 15 €
SAMLA Caja - IKEA
but If you had to add the wire mesh, the plastic things that you need to attach the mesh to the bin (sorry i don't know how you call it), the top of the bin, and so on... you end up expending about 25 - 30 €, and a lot of effort, so maybe you can consider other options.

you can use ikea hacks. The detolf is a common one (43 x 163 +- 50 €)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQXI8pgRhmA
but maybe it's too big for you.
The billy cage is a good option too if you don't have enough space for other options (80x 28 +-35 € ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy-GKabRQdY but you should know that for some people that cage isn't enough anymore.
I was trying to win some cm with the same idea of the billy cage using a metod cabinet (80x 37 +-35 €)METOD Estructura armario de pared - blanco, 60x37x80 cm - IKEA
and an utrusta shelve UTRUSTA Balda - 80x37 cm - IKEA but the problem is that the background is too thin. If you can replace it easily with a wooden shelve it would be a great option.
you could play with this too, but is a little bit more expensive http://www.ikea.com/es/es/catalog/products/S09919859/
And finally i was thinking about use this http://www.ikea.com/es/es/catalog/products/S99047659/ withouth the wood on the middle, but again maybe too big for you (120 x 40 and 80€)

Finally, you can buy some planks and glass and try to assemble one of your own, but at least were I leave It was more expensive than the ikea hacks.

AND ANSWERING your question... you can buy wood/plastic shelves/planks and cut them how you want and put them over the wire. where I live on some big specialized craft stores you buy the wood there and they cut them for you for free. I'm sure that there's something like that where you live. But as people said before, maybe you shouldn't waste more money trying to fix a small cage, maybe it would be better to remove the shelves and try to save money for a better cage.

I hope you understand me as i wrote this very fast and maybe i didn't explain it well