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This weekend I built a C&C cage for my two cavies. It’s 2x5 with a 2x2 loft (in grids, not feet.) The base is approx. 13 sq. ft. I used kits from the C&C store for the cage itself, because I couldn’t find grids with appropriately sized holes in white and at a good price locally. I figured if I have to order the grids, I might as well order the coroplast too.

The base was built from 2 boxes of Closet Maid cubes from Target for about $40. I wanted it to be secure, inexpensive, and maximize storage space. Particularly, I wanted to be able to store at least half a bale of hay, and also a bag of litter underneath. A lot of designs I saw wasted space in the back (if the cage was against a wall.)

Here is the cage assembled and attached to the stand (with zip ties and connectors.) On the side, you can see I attached a wire cabinet rack with zip ties to keep cleaning supplies in easy reach.

Here is how the cage was zip tied to the front dowel:

Also, there is a hinged door in the back in case I need an easier reach under the loft. I hold the door open with a carabiner.

I’m using the loft as a kitchen area. There’s a hay rack made out of coroplast, based on this pattern but modified to be smaller for just two pigs. Under the hay rack is a coroplast tray filled with Yesterday’s News cat litter. Their food bowls sit in there too. It keeps the hay contained to the loft.

Most of the cage uses fleece bedding. There are 2 layers of u-haul pads on the bottom. I hemmed the edges of the fleece, sewed corners, and also velcro onto the corners. Then I glued velcro to the corners of the coroplast base. A lot of people sew the absorbent layer to their fleece, but that seems like it could be wasteful if one fabric wears out sooner than the other. I simply cut pads to fit and lay them down.

So far it seems like most of the poo gets contained in the litter box. For the small amounts of poo elsewhere, I’ve found an odd but very useful tool: a soup ladle. I use a stainless steel one, and it just glides along the fleece and you can just scoop the poo (and hay) right up. Much easier than using a dustpan/brush, and quieter than a hand vac. For stubborn bits of hay (and seed), a FurBGone brush is particularly useful (you can find it in the cat aisle.)

Also, because everyone asks - the white edging on the coroplast are slide on binding spines. I bought mine from the C&C store when I ordered the kits. You probably will not be able to find them in a brick and mortar store these days, but they are available online at Amazon, etc.

I finally got around to porting pygeoip to python 3 today (v0.2):

http://code.google.com/p/pygeoip/