Close up pictures of shelves??? Help

[Jenalynn]

Hello,

I am working on Making my 56″x56″x28″ NIC condo for sophie. I am just starting to make the walls of the cage. Before I start anything else I wanted to know if anyone has or can take pictures of their shelves….. close up pictures…… of how you supported it with dowels…. how you connected carpet or plywood or cloroplast or whatever you chose to the shelves…… I looked at the Cool habitats page and tons of condos but no one has really good cose ups of the under the shelving or around the shelfs.  Also some people run a dowel along the top of the cage for support…. is that just tip tied all the way across???

I would feel much more comfortable if i had some back up piictures – if possible.

Is it a good idea to put the back and sides of the cage together and leave the front open and then insert the shelves….??? I am not sure when you are building that you put the shelves or other levels in the cage…

It all seemed sooo easy looking at the Condos but now I am uneasy– maybe I am over thinking everything but any help would be great!!!!

Thanks!

[Beka27]

hmmm. i’ve never built a condo, but hopefully some folks should be along soon to guide you thru the process a bit.

[Dave]

I have tried both inside and outside the cage coroplast trays.  I like the outside much better for the sturcture of the cage itself, however it adds a different issue when cleaning it. 

I use binder clips to hold the coroplast on to the cage for the exterior tray, and use binder clips to hold together an interior tray.  They are metal and my rabbit doesn’t like to chew on them so it works out well.

I have a small rabbit so the shelves don’t need to be very big.  Dowels can be good, but I have found turning a grid 45 degrees makes a large section strong (look at the lid in the third picture).  I like using the grids more then dowels to add strength, but I have yet to build a large 4 story condo.    I like the cage to be fairly open so it’s easy to clean.  That’s just personal preference. 

12353364071.jpg
123533610254.jpg
123533614958.jpg

[Jenalynn]

Thank you for the help! I will have a roof of grids as well….. but have seen some people have had a dowel underneath the roof area – i figured for extra support

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I made (well ok, my boyfriend made ) the floors out of the cubes as well. That way they are totally reinfoced. So my floors consist of cubes all the way accross, covered in ‘anti fatique’ matts, then coroplast. This is how I made them at the shelter as well

The coroplast over the matts keeps them from eating them!

 

You can sort of see the roof of my condo in this pic, that we made the floors out of cubes

[Beka27]

are you planning on putting stuff on top of the condo? if you will be using the top as a shelf for storage, you might want to run some dowels across the top for added support, otherwise, just the connectors and zipties like K&K’s should suffice.

[Jenalynn]

Id like to put a coupe little baskets up there full of toys and hay… so nothing heavier than 5-10 pounds……. how many dowels should i put through one or 2?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I like dowels where the door will be So one should be fine!

[MarkBun]

The way the dowels are secured under the grids is similiar to the way you secure the grids themselves. Have the dowel stick out about 1/8th of an inch through the side grids, in the grid at the corner, under the level. Useing a zip tie, pull the dowel up against the the platform grid and connect it to the side grid. You can also simply just connect it to the bottom of he platform grid without attaching it to the wall grid. The attachments that already hold the platform up will keep it up. Attaching the dowel to the edge of the platform will keep it from bowing.

I put in one dowel per grid deep the platform is.

[Jenalynn]

Do you have a picture handy???

[Author]

Messages