Materials: EXPEDIT 2×4 shelf, ANEBODA back panel, BENNO shelf leftovers, RILL small rolls, roof battens, wire rack, drill and additional part for drilling large holes, jigsaw
Description: We already had a large cage but it wasn’t as nice as a part of furniture so we decided to turn an EXPEDIT into a more stylish cage. Now we have only one ratty left but want to give another 3 mademoiselles a new home so it had to be big enough for at least 4-5 rats.
So we got a 2×4 storage unit and all additional stuff for a door and to make it moveable.
First we built one outside and the top, then drilled the holes, the ways from one ‘room’ to the other, and built it all together. When drilling the holes you should make sure not to drill it all way through but turn the board before it breaks and becomes chippy, as happened with our first hole.
Next we screwed the RILL rolls under the shelf and stuck the ANEBODA back with nails to it. We got all way round with the nails at the back, then measured where the boards run and stuck them too. Until now it wasn’t more than an hour to an hour and a half of pure work.
The door took more of our time.. We started with trimming the roof battens, which we screwed together with angular metal parts. There wasn’t the right wire rack at the hardware store, it was not wide enough, so we had to pick up another roof batten to make the wire fit. We put this part in the middle of the door, so we were able to make two rows of wire rack. Next it was trimmed to fit between the battens, by cutting it down to the right size there were really sharp edges which we bent down, beat them into the wood and fixed it with tiny cramps.
When the door was screwed on we screwed the BENNO leftovers into the cage and fixed them with nails through the back.
Finally we screwed little crotchets into the wood to fix different furniture pieces for our little ones.
We bought a deadlock to close the cage, but it didn’t fit in well so we had to improvise. We took a crotchet, a screw and a hairtie. The crotchet is screwed into the door, the screw into the storage unit and the hair tie holds the door in place.
Let’s hope their little castle will last long..
Total: 150$
~ Sacki