Build A Cage (or Room to Run on a Shoestring)
You can give your cats three times the space for the same cost as using chain link by using cattle panels. These panels are 8 feet high and 20 feet long, with four inch openings and are made of 6 gauge, galvanized steel. For twice the money you can get them double galvanized. The biggest benefit is that by using cattle panels you can think creatively in the formation of your cage and are not limited to straight lines. The uses and combinations of cattle panels are limited only by your imagination. These panels far exceed strength requirements for large carnivores and yet are flexible enough to be easily maneuvered into the desired shape of the cage. We buy our panels from Bob Barker at 319-293-3548; however, there is a minimum order of 150 panels at a cost of $45 each as of 1/1/05. The panels are assembled by using 9 gauge galvanized hog rings that are obtainable at a local farm supply store.
Depending on your needs, some of these steps can be
eliminated. We are in a low area and before each cage is built, we bring in tons
of fill dirt to raise the floor level of the cage. Many germs and parasites that
live in the soil are fairly innocuous when it is dry, but become dangerous to
the cats when rain pools in the cage. We are subject to extreme heat and for
that reason we bury the dens in the dirt to keep them cool. This would work in
reverse in very cold climates. We dump the dirt and spread it, then position the
big plastic dog houses. The dog houses have had holes drilled in the floors so
that they can be sprayed clean. We plant a pipe at the door to the dog house
because after the dirt is dumped, we want to be able to dig out to the door. You
can see the opening in the photo to the right. We then cover the entire dog
house with dirt and let it settle while we build the cage. We will dig the hole
to the door out later and landscape around the opening so that the cat's running
up and down the hill doesn't erode the façade. We have a stock pile of trees
that were uprooted when the nearby mall was built and we drop one on its side in
the center of the cage area. Anything you will be putting in the cage that 
is
too big to fit through the door, needs to go inside now. The photo above left is
the back side of a den mound and you can see the cougar on top of the mound.
This den is 8 feet by ten feet underground and is far larger than needed.
At right is the opening to the underground den and by landscaping and digging a tunnel back to the opening, the cat has a naturally safe place to live.
Our cages are built into the existing terrain to the greatest extent possible. Before you begin, lay the panel on the ground and cut it into two 8' x 9'8” sections. You now have the starting point for a cage that will be 9'8” tall.
First piece of cattle panel: Two men can easily walk the
panel into place. The horizontal bars should be on the outside of each piece.
This makes it easier to bend the panels into a peanut shape and you will be
bending with the welds and not against them. This will extend the life of your
cage and make your job much easier. A shovel propped against one end and a rake
propped up against the other is sufficient to hold this piece in place until you
bring the second panel.
The second panel is brought into place with the horizontal
wires on the outside and is overlapped to the first piece by one square (4
inches). This is hog ringed into place. A hog ring is a 9 gauge "C" shaped piece
of metal that can be squeezed into an "O" with a special pair of hog ring
pliers. The second piece is curved into the general direction that you want your
cage to go. We will drag it into the exact shape after we have come full circle.
The third, fourth and fifth panels are hooked together similarly, continuing in
the general circular path. You only need to put a few rings in to steady the
walls at this point.
You may have to 
pull and push to
bring the fifth piece back to the end of the first panel and it may come at a
sharp angle, but that's okay. Overlap the four inches just like before and ring
the far end of the last panel to the inside of the second vertical row of the
first panel. Once that is secure, then you can put some serious pressure on the
wall to pull it out into a gentle curve, rather than a point and then ring the
outside vertical of the first panel to the second vertical row of the fifth (or
last) panel. Now you have a free standing circle. The red pliers in the photo at
right are commonly called fence pliers and have a special head that makes it
easy to un-ring a hog ring if it turns out to be placed wrong.
Push and pull
to shape it into a peanut or kidney shape. The object of this is to make sure
that at no point in your cage that you cannot reach across the top to the other
side in 20 feet or less. The reason for this is that the panels only come in
lengths of up to 20 feet. The longest support "bridge" that you will be able to
fashion will then only be 20 feet. ( Patching them together doesn't work very
well. ) Use a tape measurer to check all intervals to be sure that you will be
able to span in 20 feet or less. You could make the cage literally hundreds of
feet long, but only 20 feet wide. From the air it will look like a fat, silver
snake. The smallest we have ever built used four panels on the ground level and
even that small it won't tip over. The larger the cage, the more stable,
provided again, that you do not exceed 20 feet across.
There is a way to make the cages more than 20 feet wide by creating a juncture of 20 foot wide supported walls and then cutting out the bottom for the cats to have the benefit of the entire area, but this takes a familiarity with the process.
Here I should note that we use no support posts. If
you were installing support posts, you could dramatically alter the shapes of
the cage. (Like go in straight lines) We don't use them because cats tend to
spray the posts, whereas on the post-less cage, they spray the plants and logs,
thus saving on the life expectancy of the wire. The photo at right shows how we
notch around any trees that are inside the cage so that the cat gets the benefit
of using the lower limbs. Most of our cages are built 10 feet high to 16 feet
high and have a roof. If your animal is terrestrial and your authorities allow
it you can stop at 8 feet high and install a double row of hot wire around the
top. We have had no problem in housing Servals and Caracals 
this way. We
use a solar powered system that is good for five days of total darkness because
most hurricanes pass thorough in less time than that and when we have bad
weather we have no electricity. In the photo at below and left, you can see the
solar power panel attached to the outside wall of the cage and the two rows of
silver stand offs that hold the wire near the top. Be sure to position the box
to receive the ultimate amount of sunlight through out the day. This cage is
eight feet tall and houses a Serval.
The photo at below right shows just how much enjoyment your
cats will get from having branches to snooze in. If you elect for an open top
cage be sure that the cat cannot climb a tree in the center and leap out of the
cage. They are amazing high wire artists.
Go back to your first panel and in
the top corner notch out
a square that is 8 inches by 8 inches. Your second row will be overlapping four
inches vertically and horizontally and if you do not notch this out, you will
have four rows of wire in these corners and it is very near impossible to clamp
a hog ring around all four. Your second row will be attached from inside the
cage so be careful which side is notched out to make the seam as smooth as
possible. If you don't understand this step don't do it.
When it comes time to overlap, you will see the problem and can snip away the excess portions then.
I
f you are going to install a second row it is critical that
your bottom row is level. You can tell by looking at the outside curve of the
panel. 
If the cage is leaning in at the bottom, then the bottom needs to be
dug out until the panel is straight up and down. If the panel is leaning out at
the top, then the bottom of the panel needs to be jacked up a bit on some rocks
or sticks until it appears straight up and down. Check each curve and dig it out
or jack it up accordingly. Once it is level, you can cut pieces of scrap wire
and hog ring it to the bottom in the areas that you jacked up to give extra
support and to fill any gaps at ground level.
Using bolt cutters, cut your door into the cage. Keep in
mind that this will be where your safety gate area will have to go so that you
allow plenty of room. Also bear in mind that you will be carrying pet taxis
through this hole and plan accordingly. We leave a lip of 6 to 8 inches at the
bottom so that the door can be better secured and we only make the opening 56
inches tall as it gives us the most security and stability in the door. The door
will be larger than the opening, in every direction, and will be mounted on the
inside, swinging in, so that if the cat were to throw himself against it, there
is no danger of it coming through the hole. We mount it using hog rings all the
way down one side and then we fasten it with snaps at the top, bottom and two on
the side. A lock can then be attached to insure the safety of the
animal.
To bring the cage to 10 feet of height (or 12) we cut the
panels lengthwise into strips. If you want the advantage of a full 16 foot cage
to encompass a tree, then use a whole panel. The bottom corner (8 inches by 8
inches) of the first piece of the second row should be notched out because the
overlap would have caused four layers of wire at the corner joints and this is
very hard to get a hog ring around. Ladders are strategically positioned inside
the cage so that two people can carry the strips into place and then with the
horizontal wires facing out we begin at the beginning of the first panel and
continue around the circle in the same direction as the bottom row. As each
piece of the second row is attached, we fill in all of the rings that we will be
using rather than just "tacking" it together. You are already up there on a
ladder and the roofing is heavy and stressful on the top row so it needs to be
secure.
Two poles, as would be used on chain link caging, are cut
to lengths of 30 feet and a hook is bent into one end of each pipe. These will
be used to lay across the roof so that the panels for the roof can be slid into
position. See below. The hooks and the extra length are so that they don't
fall out. Eleven foot pipes (for a ten foot cage) are also cut with a notch cut
across the hole in the end. These are used to support the roof until it is
ringed in place. See above. Ladders are set up along the path the roof
panel will be going. One outside the cage and two inside at both
walls.
At above left you can see the two silver poles supporting the roof while the two men ring it and the bridges in place. Vern is measuring the distance across the top for the next bridge (or brace) piece to be cut.
The roof panel is carried overhead by two men. One climbs
the outside ladder and the roof panel is fed, hand over hand, up over the wall
and then slid across the cage on the two pipes. Once most of the weight is
laying on top of the cage, the man on the ground runs inside and up the ladder
at the far wall and helps position the wire into place. The roof should be
started at one end and piece by piece go down the length of the cage. Once it is
adjusted to cover the most space, with the least amount
of waste, it is then hog
ringed into place. Later you will come back and cut off the excess. This can be
done with two people, but three makes it much easier.
Up and over, sliding on the poles that are laying across the top.
Bracing the roof: 
Twenty feet is
too far to go without bracing. It may look okay for a while, but then the cage
will start to sag in the center and bow the walls. It is in no danger of
collapse, but looks awful and can be cured with just a few moments effort. We
cut the 20 panels into strips that are three squares (12 inches) wide down the
full length of the panel. At the end of each attached roof panel, these are
attached, perpendicular, to the roof panel and anchored to the walls at both
ends. This keeps the roof level and the walls straight.
The lockout is a multipurpose component that serves as a
feeding and watering area, a lock out area, a removable transport cage in an
emergency, an easily modified squeeze cage using the "Cat-A-Comb". Each lockout
is built to accommodate the size cat that will be using the cage. They are
easily removed and can be switched around as needed. They are cut from the same
size panel wire so that the spaces match up. They are equipped with a water bowl
(see at this end of box with white shade lid) that is boxed in and elevated so
that the cats can't urinate in their water. The box housing the bowl should be
large enough that the bowl can be tipped over, cleaned and refilled every day.
By setting the bowl down in this box, most cats will leave it there. If you have
one that is insistent on running off with the dish, you can modify it to have a
half lid inside that keeps the bowl from coming out unless the keeper unsnaps it
from outside. In the photo you can see the white piece of slate that we use for
the door, hanging from a rope attached to a pulley. The pulley is fastened to
the back of the lockout with a snap so that the keeper can easily drop the door
when the cat comes in to eat. The vertical white pipe is the sprinkler system
which runs up the side and across the top of the cages. This can be used in the
event of fire, or just to water the cat-a-tat and cool off the cat. There is a
shut off valve 4 feet off the ground for easy use.
We use stepping stones of the slickest variety as food blocks
inside so that they are easily scrubbed and disinfected every day. The doors can
be pieces of thin cutting board in metal tracks or chain link posts covered in
panel wire (see the photo at right). Either can have a long rope attached to the
top and a pulley system so that you can shut the door while the cat is eating
from a distance away. 
At right you
can see the double guillotine doors. This would be for joining two cages
together without the risk of the animals being able to snag one another when
they were separated. This would be the preferred method for larger
cats.
With small cat species we use the safety gate area as the common hall between the two adjoining cages. The doors to the individual cages can be shut from the outside before the keeper ever enters the area.
The cage at the left is a "tri-plex" and is perfect for
introductions of hard to mix species. The cage is separated into three
completely separate compartments, each having safety doors, dens, logs and
landscaping. The units on the ends each have their own separate lockouts for
feeding and water. None of the cages actually shares a wall, so you don't have
to worry about bitten paws and tails, but they are close enough that the cats
get to know each other very well. Every day the center cage is left open to one
side or the other so that the cats alternated in the safe area. When an
introduction is made, it will be into this common area.
These cages are very sturdy. We had a full grown pine tree
fall and hit a chain link cage and this cage at right. The chain link cage was
entirely destroyed. Fortunately the cat had been moved out the night before the
storm. The top half of the pine tree landed squarely on the cage at right and we
had to cut it into pieces to remove it. The damage in the one curved 4 inch
space that you see is all the damage that the cage suffered as a result of the
impact. The top had bowed, but was easily pushed back into shape. The best part
is that the two cats that share this cage were in no danger of escape or of
being crushed because of the strength of this cage design.
We utilize a lot of concrete work in our dens and
pools. Vern uses the concrete mix that you would get at any home building
supply store and mixes it one pan at a time and applies it one handful at a
time. He builds the form out of the 4 x 4 wire and then molds diamond wire
lathe (like you use for stucco) into the rock like shapes he wants and then
smoothes the concrete over this creation. He then uses a paint brush and a
can of water to smooth out the cracks. You will need to wear gloves when
handling the wet concrete as it dries out your hands and will cause them to
crack and bleed. Vern mixes each batch a slightly different colour and
patches them together to give the natural rock effect.
Still not sure you can do it? Order the movie by calling 813 323-3263. For $30.00 including shipping and handling we will mail you a video or CD with film footage of how to build "Room to Run on a Shoestring".