Repairing/restoring/renovating guinea pig/rabbit hutch

smithyjules

Hi there. After keeping piggies in my teens i am about to embark on the adventure once again now i am married with a lo of 2.

We have "re-homed" a lovely sized hutch from free-cycle and I'm going to set about my project of restoring/renovating/repairing this little home for my yet to be bought Piggie. I am going to replace some of the wood on the door as it's been thoroughly chewed and replace the broken wire on the door.it also needs a blinkin good clean and a sand down and the wood needs re-treating for outside.

So my questions are!!!

what wood is safe/best for the job?
What should i use to clean it up?
What size mesh should i get?
what is safe to use to treat the wood?

any help would be much appreciated!!!

clutterydrawer

Hi,

I just use pine stripwood for building my hutches....is the bit you're replacing, the frame around the mesh, or a solid panel?

I clean up old hutches with disinfectant and water or vinegar for dissolving wee stains and sand off any old paint/coating with coarse sandpaper then repaint with wilkinsons own brand woodstain, because it says it's animal safe.

The standard mesh for hutches is weldmesh with holes about 2cm x 1cm. You can find it in homebase etc in big rolls. BUT if possible I would recommend you hunt for something more heavy duty as a fox chewed through this mesh and killed my rabbits last year. It was a bit of a freak occurrence but its better to be safe than sorry so get the strongest you can source...there are some sites online that specialise in wire mesh I think

have fun!

smithyjules

oh thank you CD that is really helpful.the hutch itself is sound it is just the wood that surrounds the mesh door. and maybe the other door as it's a bit thin.thank you for the advice about the mesh too as i have cats and although i don't think they'd be too bothered I'm not going to give them the opportunity!also do you know of any fairly secure locks for hutches with regards to the cats?

clutterydrawer

I always go with a hasp and staple with a padlock to fasten it. the next best thing would be a bolt. definitely don't bother with those red swivel latches that come as standard cos a cat could under them in seconds.

having said that, my cat was terrified of my rabbits and would take a big detour round the garden to avoid them!

you can get pine stripwood thats something like 4cm by 2cm cross section...i used to use that for framing the mesh and sometimes have a metal corner plate thingy at the corner for extra strength.

sorry its a bit vague, it's been a while since i did any of this! hope it goes well though

Sirbendy

agreed on the swivel catches...our cage has 4, and the cats have never even touched them. I do tighten them nightly mind.

It's one of those "I'll get round to changing it" jobs..to be fair, the piggies bully the cats!