Where People & Piggies Thrive

Newbie or Guinea Guru? Popcorn in!

Register for free to enjoy the full benefits.
Find out more about the NEW, drastically improved site and forum!

Register
  • If you need a specific country prefix that isn't listed, please contact the staff.

Australia C & C Cages or DIY in NZ

Renee Smith

Member
Cavy Gazer
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Posts
4
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
4
Hi, I have decided (after a year of my son feeding and caring for the cat) that he's ready for the responsibility (of course i'll be helping, he's 6) of having his own pet.
We have decided on a guinea pig(s).

We have just started looking at all the things we need, and of course housing is top priority.
After much research it seems the DIY cages are the better idea. But I've tried and tried looking but I don't seem to find anywhere that has the supplies.
Can anyone point me in the right direction? We are located in Hamilton NZ. We have a cat so we will be needing it to have a top.
Also i'm not a skilled DIY'er. So I'm not keen to do anything that requires to much skill.
 

Soecara

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Aug 18, 2012
Posts
1,985
Joined
Aug 18, 2012
Messages
1,985
I live over in Australia, C&C parts can be hard to come by here as well. I personally have the sides of my cages made from closet shelving from bunnings, looking at bunnings NZ website they also stock the same brand of closet shelving over in NZ. https://www.bunnings.co.nz/search/products?q=clever closet 335&redirectFrom=Any
They also sell corflute, which is just another name for coroplast, but you would need more then one sheet so taping would be necessary, just keep in mind to cover all tape as guinea pigs will seek out and eat any exposed tape. https://www.bunnings.co.nz/search/products?q=corflute

The best size to also have a lid on is 66.6cm wide by 184cm long, that gives you 1.2 square meters of space for the guinea pigs which is the size required for either two boars or three sows. As the panels are 33.5cm tall if you had the 66.6cm as your ends you can have two extra panels of the 184cm size you can have them as the lid, if you also made it so that all of the lips of the other panels were at the top you may not even need any other support for the lid. If that doesn't make sense I can try and make an image to explain it if you like.

Also personally to stop my guinea pigs from being tempted to nibble the top of the corflute sides I have capped the top of all of my sides with 6mm PVC cap mould, and the corners have 6mm PVC internal corner mould just to make it look nice and so the cap mould fits snuggly so the guinea pigs can't knock it off as the capping is 1mm bigger than the corflute. In theory you could also use the PVC H mould for the sides of the corflute box where two different sheets of coroplast meet rather than tape, so that it looks nice and there is no exposed tape, I would still stick to tape for the bottom though so it is one smooth flat surface. I can't find them on the New Zealand bunnings website, but I will link them on the Australian bunnings website so everyone can see what I am talking about.

https://www.bunnings.com.au/bgc-fibre-cement-6mm-x-3m-pvc-cap-mould_p0710276
https://www.bunnings.com.au/bgc-fibre-cement-6mm-x-2-4m-pvc-internal-corner-mould_p0710284
https://www.bunnings.com.au/bgc-fibre-cement-6-0mm-x-2-4m-pvc-h-mould_p0710280
 

Renee Smith

Member
Cavy Gazer
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Posts
4
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
Messages
4
Thanks so much for the advice Soecara. Unfortunately my landlord is not so keen on indoor Guinea pigs, but is letting me show that it will be okay. So I think I have better chance with store brought then home made to convince him. Hopefully once he's happy I can wait a bit and then build one :D. But atleast he's letting me on a trial basis have an inside cage. But I appreciate the help!
 

Cathey191

Active Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Aug 21, 2016
Posts
26
Joined
Aug 21, 2016
Messages
26
Go on Facebook and look up Auckland Cavy Care. You can get the cages sent to you. They are a lot cheaper than over seas. For the coroplast I got mine from bunnings.

Sent from my GT-I8190 using Tapatalk
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.

Similar threads

Top