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The Big Degu Cage Build - Part Nine

I only have one day left to try and get my cage complete if I want to get my degus on Friday. My helper (brother) has urgent work to do for clients so I've been left on my own to finish it off.

Shelf covered with ceramic tiles to help keep degus cool

Despite being on my own I got quite a lot done today. I made a chiller shelf from an old pine shelf, timber offcuts and a few ceramic floor tiles. This will help keep the degus cool as the room they will be in is a few degrees warmer than the rest of the house.

I also managed to lightly sand and varnish the interior one last time. This will help protect from anything that might get on the walls and it'll be wipe clean. The outside of the cage is also a lovely shade of 'sand' and purple to match the room.

Vinyl tiles on shelf to help protect MDF from degu pee

I also managed to to lay all of my vinyl tiles on the base and shelves but annoyingly I'm 2 tiles short so I'm going to have to buy some more of them tomorrow.

Ironically I have pretty much all of the accessories and essentials to go in the cage. I bought a huge 20kg bag of horse wood shavings, a bag of degu pellets, and a reptile branch earlier today. I've already got a water bottle, wheel, tunnels, hammocks, grass balls, and other play things. There's only Timothy Hay and a few other bits and bobs to get.

Just hoping I get finished in time. Tomorrow I have to attach the brackets to support the shelves, fix the mess guards to the fronts of the shelves and to holes between levels, hang the doors, attach bolts to the doors, screw in loads of eyelets so that I can attach the water bottle, bridges and ladders, tidy up the painting on the outside, and then fill it with wood shavings, bedding and all the accessories!

Wish me luck!

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  1. Anonymous30 September 2013 at 20:21

    I have to ask what type of sealant did you use to lay the tiles onto the wood? I've been trying to think of a good solution, but have been getting mixed opinions and results. Any insight would be appreciated! This blog has been so ver helpful.

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  2. Unknown2 October 2013 at 16:17

    Hi, sorry for the delay in replying.

    I used an ordinary pva based wood glue to stick the ceramic tiles down and only put it in the center of the tile, I didn't put anything between. I've since removed the tiles though and turned it back into a normal shelf. They were using it to wee on rather than as a 'chill' shelf... it was starting to gathering wee and wet straw between the tiles and was hard to clean. Now I just put a tile in the fridge if it's going to be warm and just put it in the cage somewhere.

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