Covers Lid for a 3 cube by 3 cube cage?

[mekat]

Has anyone made a lid for this size cage? Can it be done? I really want to make the cage 3x3 but am afraid that I might have to do a 2 x 4 if I can't get a lid to work on the 3x3. This will be for two sister pigs. They are two months old. I looked in the photo galleries and couldn't find anything pictured for a 3x3 but maybe I missed something.

No animals have access to the cage but I have a 5 year old with developmental disabilities who is obsessed with fabric. If I don't put a lid on the cage he is going to yank the fleece & towel bedding out without a doubt. He could care less about animals though and never bugs them. He won't pet or touch them or anything but he will sometimes watch them from a distance but if I should give someone other then him a blankie.... :crazy:

 

[bpatters]

You could use closet shelving. A 3x3 is roughly 42 inches, I think, so you could do 2 lengths of 16 inch shelving and a length of 12 inch and just overlap them. They might even make 10 inch depths, which would fit perfectly, but they didn't have it at the store where I bought mine. There are all sorts of clips available that you'd be able to open easily for cleaning that should be too hard for your son, or you could lock it closed.

Home supply stores, like Home Depot or Lowe's, will cut the shelving to the lengths you want, for free.

One thing you might want to think about -- if your cage is on a table, it's going to be hard to reach the back of it to clean it. So either make sure it's accessible from all sides, or go with the 2x4. If it's on the floor, it's not as much of a problem since you can step in it if you need to.

 

[mekat]

Good insight on the cleaning. I think I will make it a 2x4 c&c cage instead. I plan to put it on a one cube high stand and if it had been a 3x3 it would be in a corner so 2 sides of the cage would be backed by walls. The back corner will definitely be hard to reach using that configuration. I prefer not to put them on the floor because I am really concerned about protecting my back whenever possible. If I were to blow out my back there would be no one capable of lifting my son and his equipment.

 

[mekat]

Update - I may not have to do a lid after all. I don't think my son can reach into the cage. He is physically handicapped and can't do more then a very low tall kneel. I will rejudge the situation tomorrow when I build the Coroplast tray but I am pretty sure he won't have the ability or the physical strength to reach the fleece. I will buy binder clips to secure it to the cage but his pincher grip is too weak to pull material through such small openings. Reminds me I need to get the paperwork moving so he can get started with occupational therapy on fine motor strengthening. He is still wheeling his wheelchair crooked due to uneven motor strength in his hands.