Share photos of your cat cages

Cat,
Are you making all of those holes with the wood burning tool? Then what? Tulle or screening over the holes? How do you secure it??

Thanks...they look great!

Adrienne

Adrienne,

I use the craft/wood burning tool I purchased on ebay made by Wood Hollow. Michael's Craft stores carry it but heck, I got it for about $12 less on ebay! :o) It has a really neat metal tip that makes slicing through the plastic very easy. I can cut out a hole in a minute or less!!! (I use a CD or one of those old 3.5 floppy disks to draw a hole on there first with a magic marker because I can't draw a straight line!!!)

The tool also has an xacto knife blade tip that also heats up but since the blade is so thin often times the plastic seals back up behind my cuts - hence using the thicker metal tips that come with it.

I used tulle in my earlier cages but it sometimes tears if a branch pokes it...so I started using that screen for windows. It's easy to cut with scissors and isn't metal mesh but some type of nylon ??? I had purchased a roll of it to fix several window screens of my house and had lots left over. What better way to use it than on my cat cages!!!

I use hot glue to hold the window mesh screen in place. Then I go back over the bumpy glue with one of the flat metal tips from the wood burning/craft tool and smooth them out...just to make them look neat and pretty. Frankly the cats seem to prefer the bumpy glue - guess it makes climbing around the cage easier for them.

And if anyone is wondering, yes, I have about a dozen of these in the cargo area of my xterra. I just never know what I'll come across when I'm driving around or at the ranch. They also work wonders for catching tarantulas!!! I stopped and picked up one that was on the highway on the way and let it go in the back field at the ranch.

Yeah, I thought about doing the ebay thing...but they are truly easy to make...doesn't seem right and besides the postage would cost more than it's work.

~ Cat

This thread started back up none too soon! It's just what a newbie needs to get ideas for raising cats! For the last three days, I've tried an aquarium....too hot!, a pet taxi....too confined and still has opened slits and a cage door that boogers can get in. Then this thread shows up! What a relief! I thought about the smaller containers but parsley would have to be changed out too often. I opted for a clothes hamper with a potted parsley plant for my 6 little darlings.

Thank you CAT! Please ask Dave or Terry to make this a sticky!

Here's a picture of the clothes hamper.

I would appreciate all advice on my continued raising of these cats. I did see a "dead" cat but decided maybe that was a sign of an 2nd or 3rd instar thingy-ma-dodger.

There are several twigs and sticks in the basket too for them to hang on when they're ready to form a crystalis(?).

Since the plant is in a pot, how would I clean out the frass? I suppose watering the pot can be done carefully near the bottom of he hamper where the lip of the pot is located.

The top is just another mesh clothes bag wedged over the top.

C-dawg, Not to step on your question, but I need to add one more to it :)

Wat if I had a bunch of netting - the kind frothe fabric store -- and wanted to just wrap some parsley plants with it outside in the garden. It would keep the birds and wasps away, but not the little teeny tiny things. BUT would it work? I could slip a wire form over top so everything isn't smooshed down and the birds couldn't peck through it to get to the cats. Uh, I don't actually have these cats, you understand, just that I want to be prepared.

Suzy

Suzy, that's a good point. The wire form could be a tomatoe cage. It would surely help keep the birds for getting to them. However, frogs and lizards could still crawl from underground into the enclosure. But, ya know, just a small deterrent is better than being completely exposed to the elements.

Deborah

Suzy - Yes, you could do that and some of us here have in the past. But it will keep the mother butterfly from being able to lay additional eggs. (Which is fine if you wind up with too many cats for one host plant.) Some predators might still be able to get to them though. But I agree with Deborah .... any small step to help boost the population is better than none.

Deborah - If you have a dead cat, you need to remove it promptly. If you are not sure, separate it from the others. The frass/poop from all the cats will make them sick if they crawl through it, especially if it is wet from your plant being watered. What I do is wrap a paper towel around the base of the plant to catch the frass. I change it out every day. That way if the cats crawl down onto the paper towel moving from place to place, they are not walking in wet frass. Their respiratory system is very fragile and walking through wet frass can infect them with viruses and other contaminates. Here is a good web link of how a classroom teacher raises her cats:
http://home.neb.rr.com/monarchrose/raising.htm

This message was edited Jun 20, 2007 1:08 PM

Thank you Becky, I'll put in some paper towels around the bottom of the stems and the pot. Checking out the link now.

Suzy and Deborah, That's what I did with the netting and a tomato cage last year as my first cage.I had a few monarch cats and it worked fine until I figured out the cats found a small opening in the netting because the stuff is impossible to form fit it over the cage and not have any tiny opening where it's easy for them to crawl out.And they did!!! Plus when you change pots around to give them more food gaps or new ones open up then.With the time that you spend trying to fit netting over a tomato cage you could be well on your way to building a completely tight enclosed type cage that there wouldn't be any problem with reusing it after clean out and sterlizing with a little bleach and water and drying in the sun.Just my 2 cents from a guys whose wasted alot of time on half assed butterfly cat cages.

Well, here is my first attempt. I used things I could find around the house. Right now I have 2 BST cats in it. Comments are welcome!

That's a good set up too. Is it in the house or on your patio? What kind of netting did you use? Don't forget some sticks for them to attach to when forming crystalis.

Thanks! It's on the patio.I used some old screening. Thanks for the suggestion, i added some little sticks.I put one accross the top, and stuck a couple little ones in the florist's foam.

Here's my cage which I made out of plywood, 2 by 4s, 1 by 2s, netting, and some castor wheels that I got on ebay. The front is a door that allows easy access to the entire cage. I made it relatively tall so that I could put in some citrus trees in 3 gallon pots. I've used it for 3 summers now, and it has held up fairly well, although I wish I would have painted it. I usually keep it under the covered patio, since the summer temps are probably 10 degrees cooler there than in the yard.

It really was not difficult to make. Although I used my table saw, a hand-held circular saw or even a regular hand saw would have worked for cutting the frame parts. The netting is staple-gunned to the frame.

The photo was taken in the early spring last year, when all I had in it was a milkweed plant. You can see a monarch chrysalis hanging on the pot.

Mark

Great cage Mark!

Excellent cage Mark!!! I keep meaning to make a nice tall one like yours with castors too but just never get around to it :o) I've been using two large reptariums but if it's too windy they get blown over...so I have a 4x4 piece of wood placed inside to hold each down.

Are the sides of yours solid wood or screened like the front and back? How about the top? Screen or wood?

Gotta love that little chrysalis!!! I have many potted plants on my back porch and find an assortment of chrysalids on them all the time. Guess the caterpillars wander over from the larval hosts in the yard and figure it's something they can climb up.

~ Cat

Great cage!!!
I made one out of pine, but the pieces have warped due to the humidity, even though it's kept in the garage all the time. Did you use plywood for all of it? It hasn't warped?

Wonderful cage! In fact, IMO, a wooden screened box is ideal for raising butterflies. What kind of netting did you use, Mark?.

I agree! Very nice cage and I love the castor wheels that makes it easy to move. Tall is good for the very reason you mentioned! Great job! :-)

Thanks everyone! The sides are netting stapled over the frame. The top and bottom are plywood--those are the only parts that are plywood. The netting is regular window screen netting that I got from Home Depot. I have not had any serious warping, but I don't let it get rained on either.

Mark

Mark, what kind of wood, besides the plywood, did you use?

I love using that windown screen for my cages. Not sure whether it's nylon or what it is made of but it sure beats flimsy tulle and that old fashioned screen that used to be made out of metal. :o)

~ Cat

Cat, I believe it's called fiberglass nylon screening.It's the stuff used on the large birdcage swimming pool enclosures.
I've noticed some questions about what kind of wood should be used in making cages.I would suggest using only pressure treated.I worried about using it and after I made one with it and found no more dieases and still born birth's than with regular pine lumber.The pressure treated holds up to the outside so much better.Although the stuff from Home Depot seems to always still so wet and a bit harder to work with(Saw) After it dries out well will hold a coat of paint if you choose to do that. If it's only going to be an inside cage regular pine or what ever you have on hand is fine. Just some thoughts from a guys who has battled warped doors on poorly designed cages.

Don...Thanks for the wood suggestions. It's great to have a man's input - ya'll are born with the Tim the Toolman genes :o)

Since we get a little over 300 species of butterflies down here and I'm usually raising several different species at one time I would really like to make a wooden bookshelf (cubby hole type). Something maybe with four rows of six cubby cages per row (that would make 24 cubby cat cages). I'd like to make each cubby cat cage at least 10" x 10" with screen on the back side and screen doors in front for each cubby hole. Would be keeping it outside on my back porch. Of course, would prefer to have it raised on legs or something so I don't have to bend down to open the bottoms row of cubby cage door. Guess that would end up making it about five or six feet tall and six feet wide.

It's a thought that has been rolling around in my mind for a year or so just haven't gotten around to it :o) Maybe one of ya'll will some something similar and can share photos.

~ Cat

Cat, I have a wooden CD holder that is about that size. One of the kids ran off with my ruler, but the openings are about 6" wide x 8" tall or thereabouts.

Maybe you could take a look at those from the Office Depot or some such store to find somehting closer to 10". I think it would be a simple matter if I were so inclined, to take the back off and replace it with screen with a staple gun. Not sure what I'd do on the front...maybe a series of lengths of screen with thumbtacks?

That's my idea. :))

Suzy

Suzy,

You've got the idea alright!

I got the idea when I bought some cubby hole type bookshelves from an optical store that was remodeling. The cubby holes in that shelf are 5" x 5" and about 8" deep (they used to hold eye glass orders). I bought it to hold tools and other smaller stuff in my garage. Of course, the cubby holes are too smal for raising caterpillars...but that where the idea came from.

~ Cat

Cat - What if you built or bought 4 shelves (however big and tall you want them to be, but they ALL have to the be same size). Then make a base with coasters and mount all 4 of them to the base. That way you could rotate the cabinet around to access the different cages and all the cages are together (but separate compartments).

Here's just an example of a rotating cabinet (this one doesn't have coasters but a rotating base for cd storage):
http://www.homedecorators.com/P/Square_Swivel_Multimedia_Tower/210/

Hi fly-girl,

My cage frame is made from regular pine 2 by 4s and 2 by 2s. I look at the boards carefully when I pick them out, and usually get only rift or quarter sawn 2 by 4s. Sometimes I have to move quite a few boards to get to them (here's a link that explains what rift and quartersawn mean: http://www.lumberpost.com/ArticleID-94.htm). And I try to get boards with lots of growth rings. I also hold one end of the board up to my head and look down the length of the board to check for bowing and warping. This does help, but sometimes the Home Depot just doesn't have any good lumber available. At other times, you can find some really good boards with lots of growth rings. I even found one about 10 years ago with birds eye pattern that was quite spectacular for a $3 board. In my experience the pressure treated wood from the local Home Depot is almost always "wet". I also seem to get a rash from handling pressure treated lumber. So I have not used it for my trellises and other outside projects. Most of my outside projects made from 2 by 4s get painted with 3 coats of a good exterior paint. I will probably paint the next cage I make. I didn't paint this one because at the time I needed it right away, and didn't want my cats to crawl over paint that wasn't fully dry.

Mark

Whoaaaaaaa!!! I didn't realize there was so much to picking out wood boards! I usually just try to get those that aren't bowed or warped...but now I am better informed.

What do the growth rings do? Does it make the board sturdier or just nicer looking?

Is there a certain type of wood one should get...you know, like cedar, pine, oak etc?

~ Cat

Hi Cat,

The rift sawn and quarter sawn boards are more stable dimensionally. If the link above wasn't clear, rift sawn boards will show the growth rings as diagonal lines when viewed from the end of the board. Quarter sawn boards will show the growth rings as vertical lines. Flat sawn boards will show the growth rings as semi-circles, and these boards will usually cup or warp in the direction of what was the tree bark. So those are not as stable. Things like wooden window frames and door frames are always made from quarter sawn lumber. White oak that is quarter sawn has a pleasing grain pattern, and is used in mission style furniture.

For outside projects, redwood and teak are the kings of water/weather resistant wood. But almost any wood that is sealed and/or painted can work for outside projects.

I always check the wood that I buy at Home Depot, including the lowly 2 by 4s, because sometimes it is all junk, and sometimes you can find some really nice slow growth stuff that is rift and quarter sawn. I hope this helps.

Mark

Thanks Mark, I think I can make a better selection now. Normally I just lay the piece on the floor at Lowe's and see how warped it is that way, but your rift and quarter sawn selections seem like a better way to go.

Thanks again for the explanation.

Purchased a Walnut Hollow Crafter's tool about a year or so ago and have been using that to cut through the plastic on the containers - it is electric and the tip heats up to easily melt right through the plastic like a hot knife through butter!!!

Here's a photo of the crafter's tool. Some of the tips are in the following photo.

~ Cat

These are some of the tips I use - the first one is the xacto knife but I prefer to use the last one - not sure what it is called but it melts through the plastic too and leaves a slight gap which helps prevent the pieces from sticking back together. I use the second tip - the flat round one to smooth over the hot glue as well at the last one - both work well to smooth out the glue once the screen is glued into place. I just like smoothing it out for my own - the caterpillars could care less :o)

~ Cat

This message was edited Nov 16, 2008 10:54 AM

Killer tool Cat!
Probably good for cutting styro too. Now I'm going to want one, lol!

That would work well for holes in styrofoam cups for planting too! I heat a nail over a candle now. That looks much safer! lol!