FINCHforum

We took the idea of the simple DIY cage I saw here, and changed it up a bit. Originally, I had planned it to be a taller-than-wide oval, but once we got it put together, we decided it should be a wider than tall oval, and rigged it up on its side. It fits the top of one of our mammal cages this way, if we rearrange and it ends up on top of the parakeet double-flight cage, the taller, narrower orientation fits that better.

I cut cardboard templates for the ends, then we cut them out of hardware cloth as well, and laced it all together with wire. Cut doorways in either end only, if we decide we really need middle access, will cut one more door.

Put down a sheet of clear, hard plastic ("Banister Guard") to line the bottom, then puppy pads on top of that (had them left over from other pets). Since I decided I didn't like the bright blue of the puppy pad showing out the bottom, I then added brown packaging paper under the plastic, so I see brown, not blue, at the bottom.

Shoved/wired in some paper birch branches (baked dry in the oven first), and shoved the leaves of a whole lot of silk plants through the wire. Branches in the bottom are just laying there, so are easily moved when it's time to roll up the puppy pad. Food tray is a glass corn-on-the-cob dish. Cut slots in wire for tube waterers. Right now fluorescent grow light is resting on top, hope to make a bracket for it soon.

Very cool! Turned out really good!

Thanks! We impressed ourselves. Now we want to make more, for the zebras, separate the spices, maybe, then for the...oh wait, we don't have more yet...don't tell hubby I said "yet"....

Very nice

You really got creative with your cages....very neat! I see you have a marked white Society that looks just like mine.

Do you have an idea of what the "price per cage" amount would be at all? Just curious!

It took about 12-13 feet of 36"wide 1/2x1/2" hardware cloth. We ended up buying two rolls of 10'long, because we bought the first roll before we made our plan. If you made it a little smaller diameter, you could get by with one 10' roll.

The roll came bound with a very long strand of wire, we used that to sew the ends on, so it was free. Otherwise, one roll of wire from the craft store (like you use for flower arranging) would be needed.

A few springs and clips to secure the doors. You have to cut the doors bigger than the holes you make so the overlap for security. But since the ends aren't the full 36" width, there's extra screen there to use.

We already had the clear plastic sheet, leftover from something else. Not necessary, a thicker layer of newspaper would also work, just thick enough so it won't soak through.

So, you could probably do one this size for $30-35 or so, having to buy a bigger roll of wire than we started with, or a bit more if you buy two rolls (of course, now we have extra to start the next cage).

Ours is 36" long, 26" wide, and 21" high.

Very nice and so simple, you did a great job!

Nerien.....thank you for the information. That sounds like a real good price per cage for doing it yourself. I thought the cost would be a lot higer . Have fun making more in the future!

Tonight I rolled up the puppy pad liner and removed it to replace it with a clean one. Worked like a charm! Taped the new ones together, rolled them lightly longways, slid in through end doorway, unrolled, all done!

However, after removing the old one, there was some seed and chaff on the plastic liner underneath the puppy pads. Looking in, wondering how best to get it out without scaring birds too much. We had the cage down on a table to make it easy to reach and work in. So...I held a little hand-vac at my end, outside of the cage, and hubby went to the other end, and just blew...and all the stray seed and chaff just flew along the plastic liner and out my end and mostly right into the vacuum. Rather funny, and worked rather well. Then it was just a bit of wiping to finalize, and putting the new liner in.

It look great, you did awesome!

Thanks!

You sure are creative! Glad you found a way to clean the cage. Now if the wire material would just come in decorator colors!

I know it comes in hideous bright green....and I think black, also. One of those should fit anyone's fashion needs, right?