# Cheap wood for a new cage for degus?



## Awaiting_Abyss (Jul 24, 2012)

I couldn't decide if this thread should go here or in Lounge. 

My degus are currently being kept in the bottom half of my double critter nation cage. My rats are not very happy that their cage was made smaller by these new arrivals and they've been nipping at the degus through the bars whenever they can get a chance. Currently I have nothing but the wire over the hole that leads to the second level. The litterpan is in the other corner at the top. I was planning on moving the litterpan over the hole, but my rats have chosen the opposite corner as their potty-spot. So what currently is happening is, one of the degu (its only ever Kuzco that does this) climbs up to the opening and the rats bite his toes.

The degus are also chewing up the bottom half of the critter nation. I'm not as concerned about this since I was planning on buying metal pans for it anyway. I am concerned about them chewing up the whole bottom before I can get them into a new cage though. I don't want either of the degus getting bumble foot.

And for those who may be asking, "why did you get degus when you don't have a proper cage already set up for them?" - These degus have been in a local pet store for months. They were trying to breed them and sell the pups. The degus were living off of rabbit food and a seed mix with little to no timothy hay (which has caused Kuzco to have cataracts and possibly be on his way to having or already have diabetes). I kept telling the pet store about the proper way to care for them, but they wouldn't listen. Eventually they got tired of waiting for pups (obviously they didn't know the gestation period for degus is 90 days), and decided to sell the pair of degus they had. I went in the store and saw they were on sale and my fiance and I both agreed to go ahead and get them. We were afraid of them being split up and/or going to a home where they wouldn't be properly cared for (because this pet store has a habit of misinforming people of how to care for pets they don't know anything about and then selling them one). When we got them home we discovered they are both males. Which made us feel even better about getting them right away. The pet store wasn't even smart enough to realize they were trying to breed a pair of males.

I've had them for about two weeks, and already Kuzco's cataracts seem to be getting smaller. I've named them Incan names since degus come from Chile and the Incas lived in part of Chile. The one with cataracts is called Kuzco (Cusco was the capital of the Incan Empire, and it was spelled Kuzco on The Emperor's New Groove) and the one with a dark colored nose and no cataracts is called Khuno (The Incan god of high altitude weather).

I want to build the degus their own wooden cage, but where is a good place to get cheap wood? I'm on a tight budget this month due to car taxes, so I'd like to make it as cheaply as I can. 

I was planning on making the cage with wood on the bottom, back and both sides. Mesh will be at the top. For about a foot or a foot and a half at the bottom I want glass on the front so I can put deeper bedding and hay in this portion. Then the rest of the front will be mesh (I plan to make the doors out of mesh and wood) and there will be wooden levels (both full floors and half levels) through the mesh part.


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## zurfaces (Jan 16, 2013)

I don't know if this is possible as i Dont know anything about degus but i was considering building a rat cage out of a tall bookshelf. I was going to put a door on the front with mesh and cut holes on each of the shelves for them to go up and down. You can find them used for 20. i found mine in great condition for 5. i ended up using it for books because Im not very diy. Lol

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