PVC Cage

The summer of 1999 brought some experimentation in cage building.  Borrowing a basic design from my friends Cat and Paul, I started looking for new PVC fittings.  After a few internet searches I found furniture grade fittings.  To make things even better, I found them on a site for a local store called Patios To Go. 

There are a number of fittings that I found useful:

• Three way elbows - I used these for the top corners of the cage.  If your cage bottom is on the ground, then you can use these for all 8 corners.  They allow 3 pieces of 1.5" pvc pipe to meet at 90 degree angles to form a corner.
• Five way elbows - I used these for the bottom corners of Fred's cage.  You can attach 5 pieces of pvc at 90 degree angles to form a corner.  The reason for using this was so that I could put legs on her cage.  One of the places you can have a piece of pvc goes unused.
• Slip Tees - I used these for both door and the door frame. These  slide over a piece of pvc and allow one piece of pvc to be attached at a right angle. Four of these make up the door and four more make up the door frame.

Links to Furniture Grade PVC fittings sellers

• www.dpainc.com/ptg/index.htm#PVC
• www.savko.com/product.html

Other things used for the cage:

• Thick wall pvc pipe
• PVC glue
• Hardware cloth
• Sheet metal screws
• Washers - they must be large enough to hold the hardware cloth.  Or they need to be larger than the squares of the hardware cloth.
• Hinges
• Clasp

To date this is the easiest cage to make.   Probably the biggest time saver was no 3 coats of paint.  The furniture fittings are simply the best thing to use for this type of cage.  I'd use this type of cage for larger animals.  The reason for this that there are gaps between the door and the cage.

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Revised: March 18, 2000.