I recently spent time cleaning and replacing the floor on a few cages and when I was finished I walked around the barn and noticed how much I liked some of what I had done. I thought I'd share a few things that have really worked out well for me.
I was fortunate to have a friend who has a work horse of a power washer. When he loaned it to me the last time He made the mistake of saying, "Keep it as long as you want." Well I did. I kept it so long that I finally called him to ask if he'd like to sell it to me. Well, "No." He'd actually like to have it back to clean his deck... Oh well, so much for "Keep it as long..." So this time that several of the grimier buck cages REALLY needed help I was talking to my DH about what I could do since I no longer had the power washer and he suggested that I buy A CRIMPED WIRE TOOL that fits into the drill socket space in one of the battery operated drills. I started out with the 2" one and bought the 3" one "just in case"... Well I liked the larger one so well that I went back and got the 4" one and will be using that exclusively from now on.
Here's how I do it:
1. Spray the whole cage with full strength distilled vinegar to begin softening up the "gunk" and then [wearing mask and eye protection] start one one side of the cage with the drill/wire brush combo. It's really nice if your drill has the switch so that you can make it spin in either direction. I experimented with both ways and found that it depends upon which way you are "traveling" so you can check this out for yourself.
2. Once I had the major gunk off of the cage I rinsed it off and then spray painted the whole thing with a can of silver/pewter/aluminum [whichever you can find] RUSTOLEUM paint. This has really brightened up the areas of the bunny barn where I've done it. Of course I move the cage outside away from the bunnies to do it. But it has made things look so much better and it seems like it will really extend the life of the cage wire because it will slow down the rust. I only wish that I had thought of doing it sooner when I was cleaning cages.
Another thing I discovered by "accident" was a way to get "baby saver" cages without the extra expense of buying the special wire. It only requires that you build your cages in non-standard sizes. I did this on some 24x24 cages that I got used for $5. They looked pretty bad. I removed the bottoms and cleaned the rest of the cage. I spray painted them silver. They looked BETTER ALREADY. Then I took my standard 30" floor wire and, instead of cutting off the excess, I FOLDED IT UP ALONG THE SIDES OF THE CAGE SO THAT THERE IS A 2" STRIP OF IT ALL THE WAY AROUND the bottom of the cage. This would keep any tiny kits from crawling out and falling to the ground like some of my poor ones have done in the past. [What I can't believe is that they usually survive the fall if I find them before they get chilled] These cages are actually too small for my standard Rex mommas to raise a litter in but when I need more cages I plan to build 24x48 brood doe cages using this technique and I am excited about doing it.
I was fortunate to have a friend who has a work horse of a power washer. When he loaned it to me the last time He made the mistake of saying, "Keep it as long as you want." Well I did. I kept it so long that I finally called him to ask if he'd like to sell it to me. Well, "No." He'd actually like to have it back to clean his deck... Oh well, so much for "Keep it as long..." So this time that several of the grimier buck cages REALLY needed help I was talking to my DH about what I could do since I no longer had the power washer and he suggested that I buy A CRIMPED WIRE TOOL that fits into the drill socket space in one of the battery operated drills. I started out with the 2" one and bought the 3" one "just in case"... Well I liked the larger one so well that I went back and got the 4" one and will be using that exclusively from now on.
Here's how I do it:
1. Spray the whole cage with full strength distilled vinegar to begin softening up the "gunk" and then [wearing mask and eye protection] start one one side of the cage with the drill/wire brush combo. It's really nice if your drill has the switch so that you can make it spin in either direction. I experimented with both ways and found that it depends upon which way you are "traveling" so you can check this out for yourself.
2. Once I had the major gunk off of the cage I rinsed it off and then spray painted the whole thing with a can of silver/pewter/aluminum [whichever you can find] RUSTOLEUM paint. This has really brightened up the areas of the bunny barn where I've done it. Of course I move the cage outside away from the bunnies to do it. But it has made things look so much better and it seems like it will really extend the life of the cage wire because it will slow down the rust. I only wish that I had thought of doing it sooner when I was cleaning cages.
Another thing I discovered by "accident" was a way to get "baby saver" cages without the extra expense of buying the special wire. It only requires that you build your cages in non-standard sizes. I did this on some 24x24 cages that I got used for $5. They looked pretty bad. I removed the bottoms and cleaned the rest of the cage. I spray painted them silver. They looked BETTER ALREADY. Then I took my standard 30" floor wire and, instead of cutting off the excess, I FOLDED IT UP ALONG THE SIDES OF THE CAGE SO THAT THERE IS A 2" STRIP OF IT ALL THE WAY AROUND the bottom of the cage. This would keep any tiny kits from crawling out and falling to the ground like some of my poor ones have done in the past. [What I can't believe is that they usually survive the fall if I find them before they get chilled] These cages are actually too small for my standard Rex mommas to raise a litter in but when I need more cages I plan to build 24x48 brood doe cages using this technique and I am excited about doing it.
