I like your questions so i'm going to break them down and attempt to answer as best I can.
I'm really good at playing the Devil's Advocate role, so just have to ask.........have you ever actually owned cavies?
yup got 5 at the minute all boys and all crazy as hell lol and had two boys prior to having to move countries and being unable to take them with me.
[/QUOTE]I see someone who may be building from purely a design aspect? If you have been owned by cavies for any length of time, your design ideas might be quite different. That's why so many of us love the C&C-type cages because they are relatively easy to redesign based on our experiences.....and the size of the piggy family. The personalities and needs of your cavies also can often dictate that redesign/renovation.[/QUOTE]
Now having a C&C cage is great due to the ability of redesigning the cage as per needs and unfortunately the cavy owners whims perhaps they become bored with the design or due to family needs need to move or alter the cage as is necessary or as you say have to separate due to illness fighting or recovery needs.
A custom cage would have some constraints but as I am planning on making at least 2 of these cages to sit one on top of the other (no higher than 1.5m from the deck to allow for cleaning and access and general observation but also to plan for such a contingency (heaven forbid) that i need to separate for whatever reason hence the multiple floors which will allow for either splitting in half by level to maintain a safe distance due to illness or down the middle to allow the piggies to still see and talk and smell one another due to recovery or fighting but also to give them thier own area that will remain theirs and theirs alone with the usual clean and interior redesign to prevent boredom and the customary floor time to provide ample exercise room despite the fact that having such a large custom cage would provide anyway.
[/QUOTE]For instance, with your design, have you considered what you will use as bedding and how much it will require? The odd-shaped cage will need a very talented tailor/seamstress to create custom fleece liners.[/QUOTE]
with the design of the cage I plan to have a correx cube to house the interior of the cage and a second correx sheet to fit snugly inside of the cube which will have the towels and fleece wrapped around and secured underneath with velcro so the only tailoring requirements would be to sew on the velcro to the fleece and stick the apposing side to the sheet of correx.
[/QUOTE] How will you plan to divide a level should one of your cavies become ill or need a smaller area for surgery recovery? What happens if someone has made an error in sexing the piggies and you end up with a sow and babies? [/QUOTE]
Dividing a level becomes easy thanks to having rolls of chicken wire (at 2.5cm spaces not too small to prevent seeing or smelling one another) or by level removing the 'ladders' and boarding up the remaining holes in the event of illness or total separation as required.
[/QUOTE]Who will take care of your cavies when you have to go away? Few cavy sitters will want to clean your piggy palace unless you have a system and/or pay them well. [/QUOTE]
It's a good job that I have neighbours that actually like me otherwise there I would have to admit that I would be in trouble however the cage is designed to be able to move about the house as the base sit's on wheels and the 2nd' level is removable allowing for the unit to be transported as necessary and as i'm sure everyone here will agree nothing would cost too much for our piggies happiness.
[/QUOTE]I would suggest that perhaps you plan to have a separate kitchen area to contain the hay, litter box, and food, especially if you are using fleece. And, DO invest in a good hand vacuum to tidy the cage and remove hair from the fleece.
Maybe you have thought of these issues and have contingency plans? Again, kudos on the elaborate design plans, but the bottom line is........will it work in practicality? Your turn.......^_^[/QUOTE]
and as you can see the cage has a 'Kitchen' designed into the top floor with the main run area being on the bottom floor and I do agree having a handy wet and dry handheld wireless vacuum cleaner is a must as well as having a mains powered monster hoover for the weekly deep cleans of the cage both of which i have and use far to frequently that the wife is determined that either I buy her another hoover or get my own (in otherwords buy her a hoover and make do with our old one lol.)
I do hope that i've managed to assuage your fears and comments and perhaps swayed your thoughts towards contemplating building your own custom cage.
This is my current cage at 12 square feet per main level (ie the bottom 2) and 9 square feet on the 'Kitchen level' the top one and it works a treat for 5 piggies i've seen more popcorning on these 3 floors alone than i ever did when they were on a single level 4' x 5' C&C build so i'm determined that not only will they love it but so will I.
Ok so this is the largest cage at 48 square feet on the bottom floor alone
the medium cage at 37.7 square feet on the bottom floor alone
and the smallest of the 3 at 32.3 square feet on the bottom floor
