P
PapaDean
Guest
Papa builds a cage (how piggy learned some new words!)
MamaDean's little piggy, Gerta, spent her first week (wheek?) at our house in the old hamster cage, a 2 ft. x 3 ft. plexiglas-sided thing I built over two years ago for Mama's 2 dwarf hamsters.
In the meantime, I studied this web site and collected the parts for building a Cube Cage. The new Target store right up the road had a 6 cube set and a local wholesale (to the public) banner company had a 4 ft. by 8 ft. sheet of white Coroplast for $12.
I assembled a cube fence of 2 squares by 5 squares on the living room floor and Mama put little Gerta (I call her "Miss Piggy") in it for some floor play time. The first thing the little rascal did was to put her head most of the way thru a grid square. Mama hollered and piggy ran! Into the hamster cage with her (piggy, not Mama).
Next I took measurements with my trusty carpenter's rule and jotted down dimensions of the inside of the cube fence. [/b] WARNING: be sure to figure in some clearance for the coroplast to fit inside the fencing! I thought I had, but later, to my chagrin, I was just a little long on my length measurement. Anyway, I laid out the coro so that I would use the whole 4 x 8 sheet on this project, centered inside the cube fence.
Instead of using the suggested method of cutting thru one layer of the coro and then folding with that to the outside, I used the rounded end of an old bottle opener to score (not cut) the coro on the inside and then folded the flaps up. To keep from bending the plastic in a wrong place, I put the edge of a piece of board along the seam, held it down with one hand, while bending up the plastic with the other. It was easy doing this WITH the grain of the coro, but very difficult doing it ACROSS the grain. Still, I was able to fold it to my satisfaction. By centering the cube fence inside the 4' x 8' sheet, I wound up with high sides and ends so that Miss Piggy wouldn't be putting her nose thru the fence.
Upon trying to install the coro inside the grid fence, I learned that I was about 1/4" too long on the end-to-end measurement. Oops. Still, we were able to "jam it" down in there, popping off a couple of the plastic connectors along the way. Thank goodness I had the sense to buy some plastic tie wraps at the hardware store before starting the assembly. Using these, I secured many of the grids that wanted to become disconnected.
Alls well that ends well. When Mama put Gerta inside the new cage, she made like it was Saturday night at the sprint car races by doing several hot laps around the place. "Wheek, wheek, wheek" told us she was one happy little piggy-camper.
As it is now, the circumferential flaps of coro are 10 inches high on the long sides and 13 inches high on the ends. This serves several purposed for the time being: it keeps piggy's head out of the grid openings; keeps bedding scatter off the living room rug; and keeps a skitterish young piggy a little more isolated from seeing major movement in the room. When I modify the sides to be shorter, I will cut off one end at the fold, shorten the bottom and sides by about a half inch and reattach the end by using heavy duty clear plastic shipping tape.
PapaDean (my grandaughter calls me that)
Glendale, Arizona
MamaDean's little piggy, Gerta, spent her first week (wheek?) at our house in the old hamster cage, a 2 ft. x 3 ft. plexiglas-sided thing I built over two years ago for Mama's 2 dwarf hamsters.
In the meantime, I studied this web site and collected the parts for building a Cube Cage. The new Target store right up the road had a 6 cube set and a local wholesale (to the public) banner company had a 4 ft. by 8 ft. sheet of white Coroplast for $12.
I assembled a cube fence of 2 squares by 5 squares on the living room floor and Mama put little Gerta (I call her "Miss Piggy") in it for some floor play time. The first thing the little rascal did was to put her head most of the way thru a grid square. Mama hollered and piggy ran! Into the hamster cage with her (piggy, not Mama).
Next I took measurements with my trusty carpenter's rule and jotted down dimensions of the inside of the cube fence. [/b] WARNING: be sure to figure in some clearance for the coroplast to fit inside the fencing! I thought I had, but later, to my chagrin, I was just a little long on my length measurement. Anyway, I laid out the coro so that I would use the whole 4 x 8 sheet on this project, centered inside the cube fence.
Instead of using the suggested method of cutting thru one layer of the coro and then folding with that to the outside, I used the rounded end of an old bottle opener to score (not cut) the coro on the inside and then folded the flaps up. To keep from bending the plastic in a wrong place, I put the edge of a piece of board along the seam, held it down with one hand, while bending up the plastic with the other. It was easy doing this WITH the grain of the coro, but very difficult doing it ACROSS the grain. Still, I was able to fold it to my satisfaction. By centering the cube fence inside the 4' x 8' sheet, I wound up with high sides and ends so that Miss Piggy wouldn't be putting her nose thru the fence.
Upon trying to install the coro inside the grid fence, I learned that I was about 1/4" too long on the end-to-end measurement. Oops. Still, we were able to "jam it" down in there, popping off a couple of the plastic connectors along the way. Thank goodness I had the sense to buy some plastic tie wraps at the hardware store before starting the assembly. Using these, I secured many of the grids that wanted to become disconnected.
Alls well that ends well. When Mama put Gerta inside the new cage, she made like it was Saturday night at the sprint car races by doing several hot laps around the place. "Wheek, wheek, wheek" told us she was one happy little piggy-camper.
As it is now, the circumferential flaps of coro are 10 inches high on the long sides and 13 inches high on the ends. This serves several purposed for the time being: it keeps piggy's head out of the grid openings; keeps bedding scatter off the living room rug; and keeps a skitterish young piggy a little more isolated from seeing major movement in the room. When I modify the sides to be shorter, I will cut off one end at the fold, shorten the bottom and sides by about a half inch and reattach the end by using heavy duty clear plastic shipping tape.
PapaDean (my grandaughter calls me that)
Glendale, Arizona
