**BIGGER CAGE!!** Guinea Pig C&C Cage Tour! New and improved Guinea Pig Cage!!
Like 5 Dislike 0 Published on 4 Mar 2010
Guinea Pig C&C Cage - How it was built and what supplies you will need - please read on for a full list!
Here is my new and improved Guinea Pig Cage. I've added to it to make it nearly twice the size!
I thought i'd write about how it was built as a lot of people here in the UK find it really hard to source the materials. Hope this helps for the people thinking of building one, it has made such a difference to the happiness of my pigs. They LOVE it!
Before sourcing my materials I searched through many different guinea pig forums and it seems that here in the UK materials are hard to source.
I checked with B&Q, Screwfix, Wilkinsons, Argos, Homebase, Wickes, Home Bargains, B&M Bargains, JTF (wholesales) and other local random hardware shops but could not find the actual cubes anywhere.
I found a few on the internet (see list below)
Modular Wire Cube Displays from http://www.displaysense.co.uk/Wire-Cu...
£1.76 exc.vat per panel (as of Jan 2010 special offer with 10% off all cube systems)
Postage is £7.95 for 3 day service.
Safco Wire Cubes Storage System from buy-stationery.co.uk
£40.89 inc. vat delivery is an additional £4.99 (20 x 14" panels)
Wire Mini Grid Panel System from http://www.shopfittingsonline.co.uk/a...
£22 + vat@ £3.85 delivery is an additional £10 (17 x 14" panels)
Chrome Plated Mesh Cube System from caranco.co.uk
£2.45 per 14" panel
This site has a good selection of sizes to choose from and you can buy individual grids.
When I was looking to purchase I priced mine up on all of these websites and found Displaysense.co.uk to be the cheapest.
You can sometimes find them on ebay too.
I nearly ordered from the displaysense site but by chance I happened to visit a local garden centre and found some grids which would suit a C&C cage perfectly. (for those living in Nottingham, UK it was Greenhills Garden Centre in Kirkby-in-Ashfield)
I purchased what I would describe as a retaining wall metal cube system but I think they go by the name of Gabions. I have found a link on a website which shows a picture of what have bought.
http://www.japangarden.co.uk/Gabions-...
These are the same as I have purchased although I didnt get mine off the internet. Also mine were 50% off They are sold as single cubes (6 grids) and the ones I have measure 14 X 14. I paid £8.50 per cube and I bought 8 cubes. They are VERY strong as you can imagine as they are solid metal. I just took them apart, gave them a clean and built my own cage with them. They were attached by metal clips which you can prise open with a screwdriver.
I have used small cable ties to attach my grids together which have worked fine. I got a pack of 500 for £5 at B&Q. My piggies dont seem to try and bite them so they should last a while.
For the base I purchased some Corolene/Correx equivalent from B&Q. It is called Corotherm here in the UK. They dont have it on their website but is shows on the receipt as Polysheet 1M and was £7.28 for 1 sheet. They do larger sizes also - another one I have purchased is £10 and is twice the size. The small sheets were about 4 foot long and about 2 foot wide. Mine is a clear frosted plastic and was easy to score the edges and bend to create sides to the cages.
I did use some heavy duty clear tape to seal the edges of the plastic and to attach pieces together as they werent long enough for my cage (mine is 7 foot long). The tape seems to have worked fine and doesnt let any leakages out. This was £4 from Wickes.
On the upper tier I have used some Lino which is easy to wipe clean and very hygenic.
The ramps are actually cat scratching posts! I got these on sale for 50p each from JTF Wholesalers. Im sure you could get them from pet shops too but these were a bargain price! They come on an MDF base which I have drilled and attached with cable ties to my upper tier. They have a really good surface and give a lot of grip which means my piggies can literally run up and down them at speed! (which they love to do) The fleece lining which I have recently added instead of sawdust (soooo much tidier in their room!) I got from Primark - £2 a fleece! They have lots of colours to choose from!
A great website to check out is http://guineapigcages.com/ as they have instructions on how to build these cages.