Fig. 6.—Hutches.
Squirrels’ and rats’ cages are easily made, and a good deal of amusement can be got out of these animals if they are well treated and have plenty of room. Both rats and squirrels like a dark retiring or sleeping compartment; this should have a door behind. Personally, I think the ordinary wheel arrangement is cruel. I do not like to see an animal that contributes to our amusement condemned to penal servitude and the treadmill.
Different kinds of birds require differently arranged cages, but whenever you make up your mind to keep any kind of bird as a pet, go boldly to work and make a cage for it, if needs be, borrowing one as a pattern for the purpose.
CHAPTER XLVII.—HOW TO MAKE A CAGE FOR WHITE MICE.
By W. G. Campbell.
To make a cage with sleeping-boxes in the upper part, and a ladder for the mice to ascend and descend by, is by no means a difficult operation, nor does it cost an exorbitant price; and it is very pleasant to watch the inhabitants climbing up and down, and running in and out of the holes in their upstairs rooms, and also to see the small animals swinging about in their boat-swings; nor, after one or two days, do they seem at all to wish to get out, or to gnaw their bars, as many mice do if confined in a narrow space.
I will first give a list of the materials and their cost, and after that proceed to describe how the cage is to be made:—
| s. | d. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Thick wire | 0 | 5 | |
| Thin do. | 0 | 1 | |
| Zinc | 0 | 8 | |
| Perforated ditto | 0 | 1 | |
| Hinges | 0 | 2 | 1⁄2 |
| Screws for ditto | 0 | 2 | |
| Staples | 0 | 1 | |
| Brads | 0 | 3 | |
| Tacks | 0 | 2 | |
| Emery-paper | 0 | 1 | |
| Handle | 0 | 3 | |
| Screws for ditto | 0 | 0 | 1⁄2 |
| Iron bar | 0 | 6 | |
| Screws for ditto | 0 | 0 | 1⁄2 |
| 3 | 0 | 1⁄2 | |
| Without handle and bar | 2 | 3 | 1⁄2 |