Building Pet Cages

lowpolyjoe · March 02, 2015, 10:50:59 AM

Hey Everybody.

I'm in the market to buy or build a large cage for our pet flying squirrel. He's already in a pretty big cage but I want to give him more room. I don't like the fact that he's a pet to begin with - I don't believe in keeping such an animal in a cage. But I wasn't consulted... he just 'appeared' one day.

I would like to buy an all-metal cage, but it's difficult to find one with the dimensions I'm looking for, and they get expensive.

My wife found a custom cage building site online that builds a wooden frame and attaches wire mesh to it. The products are pretty nice looking and we may order one - but I feel as though I might be able to make one just as nice myself. Considering the cage is shipped disassembled, I would have to pretty much 'build it' when it arrives anyway. I'm also not thrilled with the attachment method of the screen to the wood. Judging from some pics, I think it's just stapled on the inside and the cut ends of the screening are exposed.

If I was going to build one myself, I'm having a hard time deciding on the screening material to use. We need 1/2" spacing in one dimension to prevent the little guy from escaping. I was set on 1/2" x 1" or 1/2" x 2" galvanized-after-weld steel mesh. I could get enough for a large cage for maybe $200. However, I've since read that the zinc from the galvanization is toxic if your critter chews the bars. And I also read that for some reason the smell of urine will soak into the zinc coating and the cage will retain odor. One alternative is stainless steel, but it is really expensive... like $800 for a roll that *might* be big enough to cover the cage I want to build. That's a bit much.

Does anyone have experience building a nice looking pet bird or rodent cage? I'm looking for suggestions as to what materials to use and where to buy them. Advice on construction techniques would be welcome too. I'm a little worried that the little guy might chew through the wood framing so the screen would have to cover as much of the interior of the cage as possible. I don't like the idea of fixing the mesh in place with staples but I'm having a hard time thinking of a good alternative. I thought about routing a slot in the wooden frame pieces and making the screen slide into place. That would hide the ends, but it would still need to be held in place somehow and it would leave some wood unprotected from the little guy to chew from the inside.

One alternative to this project is that I just buy a second all-metal cage, identical to the one he's currently in, and cut both of them up and stick them together. I'm unsure if I'd want to expand it higher (so he can climb) or wider (so he can jump side to side).

Thanks,
Joe

beenthere · March 02, 2015, 11:28:19 AM

Best solution, IMO, is to let him escape from his existing cage. Don't make the little guy put up with being captive... i.e. Live Free

Be it a "he" or a "she", life without a partner to share it doesn't sound like much fun. Now I'm not a PETA member or a non-hunter or "animal" lover... but just thinking of the poor squirrel locked up.

lowpolyjoe · March 02, 2015, 12:00:13 PM

Quote from: beenthere on March 02, 2015, 11:28:19 AM
Best solution, IMO, is to let him escape from his existing cage. Don't make the little guy put up with being captive... i.e. Live Free

Be it a "he" or a "she", life without a partner to share it doesn't sound like much fun. Now I'm not a PETA member or a non-hunter or "animal" lover... but just thinking of the poor squirrel locked up.

I couldn't agree more and it made me really sad when he arrived :(. I wanted to return him to the breeder but I worried someone else would get him and stuff him in a tiny cage for his whole life. We gave him a big cage and take him out to play fairly regularly. He was too young to survive on his own when we got him and now he's lived in captivity so long that he probably wouldn't last a day outside trying to gather his own food and evade the owls in my woods.

The best I can bring myself to do at this point is give him as big a play area as possible so that's my current goal.

I do not like the idea of anyone breeding any animals for sale as pets. It seems an awful industry on the whole.

WV Sawmiller · March 02, 2015, 12:31:02 PM

Lowpo,

You mention a breeder. Is this a wild flying squirrel or a sugar glider? Northern Flying squirrels are endangered and protected in many areas. As far as I know the southern flying squirrel is not protected. I think we have both here but could not tell the difference. If a wild squirrel I'd highly recommend releasing him when the weather permits and he can find food. They are often found in people's livestock barns where they have shelter and food. My housecleaner thinks she has one in her attic and they will move in there. If he was born in captivity he will not survive in the wild. You might build a den box and let him get used to it then move it to a likely tree in the spring with food there for him but his chances still remain poor if not born wild.

When I was a kid I had several for pets. They are neat animals but not very good pets especially since they are nocturnal. I caught one in a deer feeder last year. Fox squirrel had cut a hole in the top and the little guy got in and could not get out. I found him when I took the feeder down and let him jump out into a mesh bag then took him back there with my wife to take pictures when we released it a few minutes later.

As to cages - I used half inch hardware cloth and never had problems with it. A 2'X2'X4' cage is simple to build. Build the frame with 2" lumber stock then wrap the hardware cloth around it. A 12'X2' piece wrapped around makes the bottom, top and both ends. A 4'X2' piece on the back. 2-2'X2' pieces on the front with a 2X2 piece of 1/2" or 3/4" piece of plywood for a door in the center. I used about 9/16" staples to attach the hardware cloth to the frame. All the edges and staples were on the outside so the animal could not hurt himself on them. I used this for short term housing for skunks (that was a mistake), raccoons, possums, squirrels, and kept flying squirrels for a good while in them. I'd build a small plywood box for a den. I'd attach this to 2"X4"s to make a frame/legs.

Make sure he has plenty of hard nuts and such to chew or his teeth will grow so long he can't eat. Good luck.

Jeff · March 02, 2015, 01:28:42 PM

Beenthere, you don't want to just let a friend escape...

http://youtu.be/1VyQipO4miw

loggah · March 02, 2015, 01:53:26 PM

I had one years ago and got where i would just leave the cage open with food there.During the day it would just climb up the curtain and sleep in the fold on top , at night i would make sure to put it back in the cage,thats when they want to raise hell !!! ;D i had it trained to run and leap into a hat i held in my hand, and play hide and seek under a couch cover. They made short work of flies if you caught one and handed it to them grab both wings and eat the middle. they loved any kind of smaller cones like spruce or hemlock.One day i had the house door open and it tried to glide to the side of the car in the driveway .Then i had a small funeral for it. :'( Your better off letting it go and not getting attached to it. Don

beenthere · March 02, 2015, 04:55:05 PM

Hawks gotta eat too... ;D

lowpolyjoe · March 02, 2015, 06:36:55 PM

WV - my wife got him from someone who I believe breeds them for sale as pets. He is a flying squirrel, not a sugar glider. My wife told me she researched both. I can't remember if he's a northern or southern. The event that triggered the pet purchase was us discovering 'something' was living in one of our bird houses a while back. We thought it was an escaped sugar glider pet, so we caught it. We called sugar-glider rescue and they told us it was wild flying squirrel so we released it. But the critter was so cute I guess my wife couldn't resist tracking down one as a pet. We give him all different types of nuts (with the shell) and seeds, so I think his teeth are healthy but thank you for the tip and thanks for the cage advice

Loggah - Sorry to hear about your little buddy. Our little guy loves the curtains too. We used to let him run all over the place but he got himself stuck inside a floor standing air conditioner unit and almost drowned himself once... now we're a little more cautious when we have him out to play. He runs up and down each of us and jumps from person to person.

I really would like to let him loose but we have quite a few birds of prey in our neighborhood and he would not last long. He's also fairly friendly and may end up approaching random people. My worst fear is that the neighbors' kids get ahold of him :'(.

I remember that mouse/hawk video from a while back. What a bummer. We just caught a mouse in our kitchen a while back... in a non-kill trap. We had planned to let her free in the yard when the weather warmed up. Guess what.... she popped out 4 little mice shortly after we caged her. Now we have 5 critters waiting for spring to run free in the woods. The squirrel is gonna stay though.

WV Sawmiller · March 02, 2015, 10:12:01 PM

Many years ago my son caught a chipmunk and kept it in the house for a pet. Alvin would escape but we had a small live trap my son would use to recapture him. All was good until one morning our Finnish exchange student, Kati, got up and went to the bathroom. Whatever English she knew she forgot and came screaming into the kitchen yelling "Sean's ruh ruh ruh, that rat thing is in the toilet." It was a sad day but Alvin had gone for a swim and drowned. Kati was pretty traumatized too.

Another time my wife opened the front door and the screen door bumped into Ugly, our calico cat, who dropped a chipmunk she had caught. It immediately ran up my wife's pants leg and we had our own version of Ray Steven's Mississippi Squirrel revival. Unfortunately in the melee my wife accidently stepped on the chipmunk and it died. It made her physically ill as she loves animals.

Still later we came home one day in October and I spotted Ugly with a chipmunk in her mouth. I rescued it apparently unharmed. We kept it in a bird cage a few days to be sure it was okay. I was working overseas so the day I was to return I went to release Simon but found he was out of his cage loose in the house. I had to listen to my wife for 2 hours on the way to the airport about how Simon was going to die in the house and stink up the place and I would not be there to put up with it. A couple days later my son caught him downstairs. They put him back in the cage but before they could release him he escaped again. Winter came before they found him. Simon was free in the house with one full time dog and cat and over Christmas my daughter and SIL were there with their cat and 2 dogs. After they had been gone several days my wife and son were watching TV and spotted an obese Simon squeeze out of our portable dishwasher then he ran over to the dogs dish and stuffed his cheeks full of dry dog food then he ran back to his refuge. My son made a grab and captured him before he could get in the dishwasher and put him back in the bird cage. They took the back off the dishwasher where Simon had evidently spent the last couple months and found approximately 25 lbs of dry dog food Simon had stored there. It is hard to believe he went undetected that long. My wife handed Simon to a friend who kept him through the winter then released him in the Spring when he could fend for himself again.

We also raised a pet deer whose mother was killed by a car. I'd milk our goats and feed her. She was free to come and go and would go play with the wild deer then come back for an apple or fortune cookie or such. She hung around a little over a year then disappeared. I suspect wild dogs got her or someone shot her for meanness as was summer and not deer season plus she wore a bright orange color to show she was tame. She was one of the neatest pets we had.

Jeff · March 03, 2015, 11:40:49 AM

How about a picture of the flying squirrel?

lowpolyjoe · March 03, 2015, 03:56:34 PM

You got some good stories Howard. The older I get, the more empathy I have for little critters and their demise really bums me out.

I got some pics for you Jeff

. They're from a while back when we used to give him free roam over the downstairs family room pretty regularly. Since he almost drowned himself we're more cautious now. It was fun watching him tear around the room and run up and down the curtains. He doesn't get to play as much now a days so I've been feeling guilty and want a bigger cage for him.

My wife found a good deal on a large metal cage last night. The dimensions aren't exactly what i wanted, but it'll give him a good deal more room so we ordered it. I've been putting it off too long already.

loggah · March 03, 2015, 05:12:09 PM

;D Mine would only drink Budweiser!! ;D they do make fun little pets ! Heres one we had out back ,there was a family of them living in a hollow maple. Don

lowpolyjoe · March 03, 2015, 05:34:56 PM

:D

Great pic Don!

boscojmb · March 03, 2015, 06:57:40 PM

Glad you found a cage that will keep your squirrel happy.
I hate to see animals stuck in small cages.

Here is a cage that I built a few years ago.

I was trying to get this little guy used to the outdoors so that he could go back to the wild.

beenthere · March 03, 2015, 07:39:39 PM

john b.

And how did it turn out? Did it fly off into the wild?

boscojmb · March 03, 2015, 08:51:18 PM

Quote from: beenthere on March 03, 2015, 07:39:39 PM
john b.

And how did it turn out? Did it fly off into the wild?

Yes, and came back the next spring.
Hopefully "Buddy" will be back again this year, but stay outside. :D :D :D

lowpolyjoe · March 08, 2015, 08:17:26 AM

Cage upgrade. All dimensions are a bit bigger resulting in a lot more interior space. Need to get some longer sticks to go from floor to ceiling. Still a bummer he's in a cage, but he's got more room to play now

WV Sawmiller · March 08, 2015, 10:11:58 AM

My son had a flying squirrel several years ago and we put a bunch of pecans, black walnuts, acorns and peanuts and such in there for him to eat. He ate all but the pecans. I finally realized as a WV resident he had never seen a pecan so I cracked a couple. After that he ate all of the rest in real short order.