C&C Narrow Loft or Wide Loft?

spy9doc said:

I have a 2x2 loft on a 2x5 cage and the loft has become their penthouse apartment. They absolutely love it! The entire loft section of the cage sits back in a space between my desk and the wall. My solution was to create an offset loft with the overhang back in the corner that would otherwise have been wasted space. It is no more difficult to clean than the previous 1x2 loft.

I found that a 1x2 was too small for two cavies at once. And, they seem to want to both use the litter box or eat pellets or hay at once. Now there's lots of room with a medium-size litter box, hay rack, water bottle, pellet dish.........AND a cardboard hidey.

Here's a graphic of the way my cage is presently constructed (but with a different grid stand):

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spy9doc said:

Thank you.......I love it too!

One note about my cage vs. the graphic......I constructed a grid stand that is entirely independent of the cage structure to make the whole setup super sturdy. It is, indeed, sturdy as the cage will easily support both me and the piggies. If your construction is super tight, you won't need the three supporting grids for the overhang of the loft.

My loft is only six grid squares high vs. the usual nine because I felt that the sides of the loft didn't need the entire grid length. I cut the grids and filed the rough edges with a Dremel. The cage looks more esthetic and fits beautifully into the available space......tightly sandwiched between my desk and the wall. In fact, their hay rack is almost adjacent to my printer and they don't bat an eye when it is busy at work.

Also, note that I cut a doorway in a grid for the ramp. That kept the structural integrity of both the grid AND the loft.

The main page of this website lists a 2x5 as being 27" x 71" in grids; the loft is 27" x 27". If my calculations are correct, I have 37 grids in the cage and +/- 30 grids in the stand. You could, of course, use far fewer grids in the stand if you wish. Again, I wanted the structure to be uber sturdy, and my next project is to put wheels on the cage so that I can move it out for a thorough cleaning under it.

The pics below are of the doorway for the ramp, and the cage stand before it was zip-tied to the cage. You'll note that the stand in the pic is only for a 2x4 cage. I just attached another section to the outermost (right) end of the stand when I enlarged the cage. Canvas bins are available in lots of stores......I think mine came from Target.

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spy9doc said:

OK........here's the next installment. I did some research for you and found some of the pics I wanted to show.

Here is a link to a thread......one where people literally let their imaginations run wild in using Google Sketchup to create cage designs:

https://www.guineapigcages.com/forum/threads/53606-Cage-Designs-Plans/page20?highlight=offset+loft


Pics showing ways of supporting a loft or multiple levels...including an offset loft with angled grid support:



Here's a very clever use of a 2x4 cage design:

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