Repairing A Leaky C&C Cage

Ellen, the rescue's board secretary and occasional foster mom to rescue pigs, was telling me the other day that she had to do some repairs on her C&C cage to deal with a leaky spot.

Now, I've never had any delusions that these cages are indestructible but do know they're tough stuff. Makes me wonder what those pigs of Ellen's are doing in there all day. Must be some rowdy pigs!

[Just kidding]

Anyhoo, she tells me she fixed the cage as follows:

• gave the coroplast a thorough cleaning and drying
• put packing tape on the outside where the pigs couldn't chew at it (I imagine that 3M's super-strength clear packing tape would be a good choice)
• spread non-toxic Elmer's Glue on the inside of each corner
• allowed the cage to dry a full 24 hours before putting bedding and pigs back in

It's certainly a low-cost repair. I'll be interested to hear from Ellen how long that glue holds up, or from anyone else who's tried this kind of repair. Especially someone whose pigs tend to use one or two corners as their "designated bathrooms."

[Thanks for the tip, Ellen.]

Comments

[David Bennett]

One thing I have found, is that all kinds of plastic become brittle if they are left in direct sunlight.

Also, I used to up-end the bottom of our cage and beat it against the ground to dislodge the last of the bedding.

I learned that this can crack the plastic, so I made a scraper from wood and use that to loosen whatever is sticking to the inside of the cage before I tipped out the contents.

Hope this helps.

[Whitney]

Hi Anne--
I've also found Clean Cage to be really good at getting rid of the white residue (http://guineapigconnection.typepad.com/pig_notes/2007/05/easy_cage_clean.html).

You might try looking at Bed, Bath & Beyond (store or online), as I've been told they often have the cubes. Sometimes the big bricks-and-mortar stores sell things online that they don't sell in the stores. eBay and Half.com could also be a place to check.

Hope this helps. Thanks for stopping in!
Whitney

[Anne]

Even though i have them on like 5 layers of towels/fleece i still get urine stains in my corners.
A dilution of white vinegar usually does the trick to get rid of the white residue.
I've never had the coroplast fall apart on me (now if i can just get my dang 50lb puppy to stop jumping on the cage and bending the cubes, i'll be happy.)

Speaking of C & C cages, i had an adoption customer tell me the other day that they were not able to find cubes at target in store- only online (which are the bigger, not safe version).
Has anyone else heard/know of this? I've been thinking of getting a new package of cubes (puppy destruction) and will be way bummed if they're not available any more