C&C Cage building - some questions

I'm just trying to price up the approximate cost of building Bandit his condo (which I'm very excited about). I'm just wondering about cable tie size, I've seen a lot of people build with the smaller ones, but I worry that they might be a little easy for bunny teeth to nip through if he felt inclined. The size I'm looking at is 150 x 3.6mm and seems to be a good inbetween from tiny to large.

What size have other people used, and what do you recommend, or recommend against given experience?

I think I've also estimated up to around 250/300 cable ties max for a 5x3x2 condo. Any thoughts on quantities as well?

the ones i used in the end say 7.5in/19cm i originally bought the shorter ones that i think you are mentioning and i found them a major pain to use i actually ended up throwing them out and buying the longer ones (7.5in) which were much easier for me to work with an i just trimmed the excess off the end when i was finished. i ended up buying at lease 300 ties , 2, 6 shelf wire storage cube sets, 5 dowels and 3 carpet remnants (the carpet from a dollar store i scored there lol ) i paid about $55 total and here is the condo i made and loki loves it

I used the big ones for Clem and Felix's cage, but accidentally got the smaller ones to add Bigby's part to it. I think I preferred working with the thin ones, but the bigger ones did feel a tad sturdier. Clem and Felix haven't shown any interest in chewing theirs, so I wouldn't be able to tell you how they stand up to bunny teeth, sorry!

When I was putting together the original 3x2x2 cage I think I used around 200 ties, or a little over. It's always good to buy more than you might need - they're cheap, and it sucks having to wait a day if you're putting it together at 11pm one night and run out of ties with just a few grids left. I speak from experience, unfortunately.

I like the standard 7.5" ones. I do wrap the tie around the grids in a figure 8 type pattern, so the length is good for that.
250-300 sounds like a good amount. It can be nice to have extra, since you may make some mistakes or want to use some extra in some areas.

I would recommend getting some cutters to make it easier to snip off the excess. Wire cutters work well.

Perhaps I'll use the bigger ones for places where it needs to be sturdier such as securing the corners and attaching the second level, and the next size down for everything else.

There's no way mine is going to come out at $55 since the grids alone will be costing me about $120!

Thanks guys

I've used the 4 inch ones and they've worked out fine, though can be a bit flimsy so would be better to use more. The 5 inch ones are sturdier and I think are heavy duty enough to just use two connecters per panel side(this is presuming your ties are pretty much the same as ours). I think if you get into the really big ones, that you won't get as tight a cinch with the ties as with the smaller to medium ones.

That was my main concern with ones that are too big, is they simply don't pull as tight, but the smaller ones did seem too small and flimsy. I suppose I could just start off with 150 x 3.6mm and get some larger or smaller ones if required. Or just buy a bunch of everything and return what I don't use I was planning to do two at each corner connection, and then two along each side, possibly less on the roof since it doesn't really need to support any weight.

Thanks guys I also realised that I needen't have worried about costing up the extras for the cage (plywood, cable ties, vinyl floor etc) because I have a gift card for the store that I'll be buying it all from! Which is nice.

Ok, another question... I thought I'd add it on to my already existing thread and make it a general thread about questions I have for the cage.

I'm going to be using plywood for the base with vinyl on top, and also for the second level (on top of grids). I'm going to be using a decently thick piece of plywood for the base, but do you think I could get away with using 2.7mm plywood on the level, or would I have to go up to 7mm ply? 7mm seems like it could be a touch heavy, but I'm worried the 2.7mm might be a touch too thin. They do have a 4mm in marine grade, but it is a little more expensive. It might be the inbetween I need.

If you used plywood, what thickness did you use on the shelves?

Also, I want to put something non-slip around the edge of the top shelf so he doesn't slide to much when jumping down. You can get edge tape that's kind of like sandpaper on top, but not sure if he would pick at it or not (probably would). Any recommendations?

I'm wondering what everyone here used to stick their vinyl down with? I could buy the quick grip stuff but it's about $35 for the amount I'd need, and I really don't want to spend that much just on glue Can I just use basic craft glue? It's not like it's going to get heavy human traffic, it just needs to hold it relatively in place for bunny feet.

Are you planning on putting the upper level wood on top of a grid shelf? When I made my NIC cages in the past, I made the upper levels with the grids and then just laid a piece of carpet on top of the grids. That was plenty fine without any wood at all.

It sounds like the wood is just going to be for the purpose of having something to stick the vinyl to. If that's the case, then it can be pretty thin. Do you have squares of self-stick vinyl that you can get for on top of the wood? That would be simple. If you aren't picky about the design on the tile, I know our hardware stores usually have some really cheap ones. You wouldn't need glue, then, since it is self stick.

I actually used the self-stick tiles on the walls of my home-made cage but it wouldn't stick on the pressed board since it was on the wall (as opposed to the floor where it can't 'fall'). I ended up using super glue to hold the vinyls in place.