With the girls all having bird names, it seemed fitting that they should live in an aviary. They had two corner shelves and two litter trays suspended from the corners, together with an assortment of parrot toys and climbing ropes. I made a big hammock which stretched across the full width and depth of the cage, so they couldn't fall all the way down. They also had room for a ferret boat and a wheel in the bottom.
I bought this cage from eBay, where it was much cheaper than similar ones elsewhere. The cage came with a sloping metal roof, but I used the grill which was intended to go in the base to make a flat roof, to which I can attach toys and hammocks. It has wheels too, which are great because I can wheel it up to the table so they can come out to play.
Because I can't resist getting more ratties, I ended up with too many girls for the aviary. According to the
cage calculator it was big enough for eight, but I didn't have enough shelves in there for that many
and I ended up with nine girls anyway. My solution
was to contact the vendor and get another identical aviary. I bolted the two together and made some perspex
shelves to fit. This makes a fantastic cage which the girls can happily cavort around in.
Because the aviary is made of hollow metal tubes, the urine gets inside the tubes through the holes
drilled for the side panels. Eventually it got smelly and rusty on the inside, so when it got to the stage
where I could no longer remove the smell, I gave up on the aviary. I've kept all of the side panels, though,
as they are coming in very useful for making shelves for other cages, making a chew proof playpen (when covered with cardboard to stop climbing) and probably for other projects in the future.
Current Cages |
Past Cages |
Last modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2008 22:49:38 GMT
