So I sat at home for two weeks with this half built box occupying a huge space in the lounge and my bemused fiancee looking at a Biro scribble on a piece of paper and three sides of MDF that meant the lounge was, after a whopping couple of weeks of bliss, back in chaos.
But as they say on The Crow (the original, not the remake slated to feature my least favourite actor Bradley Cooper) It Can't Rain All The Time.
Sure enough the sun eventually came out and it was all systems go to start turning the vision on the paper into reality.
The next major task was to put shelves in place.
Due to a slightly wacky idea about a hinged top section I decided to build up from the bottom treating each level individually.
The first thing I had to do was remove the front I had put on for the digging pit as it was typically in the way...
Level 1
The ground floor is to be the digging pit.
As Degus are burrowing animals I wanted to create a pit that could take a hefty amount of bedding so we can add stones, branches and of course the terracotta tunnel so they can root and play around in a relatively darkened area.
This presented a problem - with Level 1 standing 40cm above the base it left a decent viewing gap to the bottom but not enough space to perform maintenance tasks like removing the terracotta tunnel easily.
But more on this issue later.
Sandbath
Degus keep their coats free of grease and clean by rolling in sand or Chinchilla dust in our girls case.
We have a sandbath available all the time in the cage, but in order to preserve what CARA we have at the moment we use a small pet bowl. This is fine for one of them to have a quick roll, but it isn't ideal and twice a week we give them a few hours access to the large metal dish where the sand is deeper and they can get a full body roll.
Part of my dream was to have enough space that the large bath could remain in the cage full time.
And it's destination was Level 1.
First off I needed the basic shelf. In order to view into the digging pit this shelf was to be shorter than the others at 95cm W x 45cm D.
I then traced the sandbath shape on the MDF and had at it with the jigsaw.
This took a bit of fine tuning but it fit like a glove.
Next up was to make an entrance to the pit.
I wanted this to be smaller than the others and give the impression of the Goos disappearing underground.
As such the initial dimensions were 10cm x 10cm.
With my base shelf prepped it was time to start planning on an ingenious idea that came to me one afternoon watching football.
Taking four bolts I counter sunk them into the shelf at the edges where the pine strips were going to form runners around the level. Having drilled the holes, countersunk the screws and hollowed a bit out of the strip that would go over the top I glued the bolts into position, G clamped the pine edging strip over it and screwed it into place.
Once this was done the G clamps were removed.
As you might just make out this now meant I have sturdy 'pegs' in the shelf that can hold it in place and fit into larger brackets on the sides of the box so the level can be lifted in and out or angled up to get at the area underneath.
Rinse and repeat
Owners of Degus will know that they love to chew things they shouldn't and as such whilst MDF is great to build things cheaply it is not ggod for the Goos to eat. As such any exposed edges need to be lined with Degu safe wood such as Kiln Dried Pine.
As an aside, due to all the Degu projects I have a box in the shed of 'Miscellaneous Degu Safe Wood' utilising bits of left over pine etc. My friends find this incredibly amusing...
So I set about proofing the shelf.
I am aware that the Goos will chew their way through the pine eventually and it will have to be replaced so I wanted to design each level so I can easily replace the pine sections as need, hence more devious planning.
Front edge (this edge is likely to be reached from below and the front so I dropped the ledge down to cover the shelf bottom).
The entrance to The Pit
Those of you who have read the Double Decker build should know what comes next.
Once the edges have been covered it is a case of protecting the shelf from the effects of the extremely corrosive Degu urine. This was solved by self adhesive vinyl tiling.
Then it was the moment of truth.
Brackets were attached to the box
The shelf then nestled into it's peg holes perfectly and began to add rigidity to the build.
Level 2
Level 2 and 3 aren't quite as special and so for your sanity I have skipped the shelf building process.
If you are really dying to see how I build my shelves this post and the Double Decker cage posts should have enough blow by blow pictures!
Because this one won't obscure any viewing space I was able to extend it to 95cm W x 55cm D to maximise the CARA potential.
However due to wanting a variety of different methods of traveling between levels I needed the entrances to be bigger so this time I opted for 20cm x 20cm. The entrance was made on the opposite side as even agile Degus can be clumsy and fall. This way none can fall more than one level height (40cm) although with the ledges that will be added later this is even more unlikely they will fall more than 20cm.
Other than those details the construction was the same as the previous shelf.
Then my partner and I fitted the shelf.
The key difference here is that the shelf is mounted on L shaped metal brackets. Because the second level will not obscure access to the cage it does not need to be moved on a regular basis like the first.
However I was keen to have the ability to remove the shelf with relative ease should the need arrive for servicing, which let's face it will happen at some point.
The answer was to find bolts that can be unscrewed to stop the fatigue of removal weakening the box.
Note: When the box is ready these bolts will be the other way round for aesthetics.
At this point (as evidenced by the penultimate shot) we lost the light.
The next day was Goo cleaning day so I thought I'd grab a chance for a perspective update.
Ground Floor
At some point I will have to put the front back on the box, but before that I needed to proof the floor which required more tiles. Due to an error in selecting the tiles we didn't get the same as were in the Double Decker so we do have two odd tiles on the ground floor, however in order to satisfy my OCD this will be buried under about 4" of Finacard!
Level 3
Again rather than bore you stupid with shelf making, this is mirror of level two - all the sizes and processes are identical but the entrance is back on the other side.
Not only will this prevent long falls but it will mean that the Degus have to take a Zig Zagging path to get from top to bottom and vice versa which will increase the amount of running they will have to do, hopefully benefiting them in the long run.
The shelf was fixed in place in exactly the same method as Level 2 which means that all three main levels can be removed fairly easily (provided I construct the front right) and all are 40cm vertically between which means that I can comfortably add ledges and toys at 20cm to increase their activities around each level.
Which just about brings us up to date...
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