Oh, it's a 24 inch square. I have two screen door handles to put on the top of it to make it easy to carry.

randy

It looks great, Randy - so neatly put together!
Are there any aluminum wire ends sticking out where it was cut around the edges that the cats could crawl on? They're very soft bodied, and anything needle-like could puncture them.
MissSherry

Randy,
I think it looks very nice. It was nice that you and your daughter could work on it together. One thing I want to mention is that when I was talking about making my butterfly cage some people suggested that I put screen on both sides. I forget who said that she had built a cat cage with the screen on just the inside or the outside (forget which) and the wasps were able to sting the caterpillars through the screen. I guess there has to be that distance in between so they can't reach the cats. I really do like your cage though!
Cathy

Hi MissSherry

Thanks. I made nice clean cuts. I can run my fingers back and forth over the ends and I don't feel wires jabbing me.

Hi Cathy

Thanks. You mean the cats won't stay on the plants in the middle of the cage and eat like I want them to? :-) Hadn't thought about that happening. If they do crawl on the wire a lot, I bought enough material to build a few cages. Might alter my design a little on the next one to fix that problem.

randy

Ladies,

Thought about what both of you noticed in my design and both issues can be solved fairly easy, so I'm going to modify this cage now while it's east to do to take care those potential problems.

It makes perfectly good sense not to have "any" edges inside the cage, clean cut or not and one can't have meandering cats offering themselves through the screen to just any all wasp that drops in. :-)

Just a little more material. Thanks very much for the input.

randy

Randy, I think that's a good idea to take care of any potential problems now rather than discovering the problem somewhere down the road and lose cats. I didn't like hearing that I'd have to go buy more screen, but then I thought what if I didn't and then end up losing cats because of it. I know I'd feel bad then, so I just decided to put screen on both sides of the cage. I didn't actually put it on yet because I have to give the cage another coat of paint yet. It doesn't look like that's going to happen too soon, though, because of our cold temps that came back. Just when I thought we were putting winter behind us, along come the 30 and 40 deg. temps again. It's 44° today and raining, really miserable. A week from now it's supposed to get up to about 50°, so that's better. I was enjoying those 70°+ temps we had for two days though. I guess the butterflies won't be around for awhile now. I did see my first one of the year though last week, a Cabbage White.

What kind(s) of cats do you plan on raising in your cage? I've only raised Monarchs and don't actually know too much about the other ones, like what to do and if they do the same things as the Monarchs. I hope I get other kinds of butterflies and cats this year in addition to the ones that I had here last year. I'm going to plant various types of host and nectar plants outside in an attempt to make this place irresistable to them. :)
Cathy

Cathy

Monarchs! We are watching a number of milkweed plants in the pasture that have eggs on them.

Here is the updated cage. Double walled except for the floor and no exsposed edges of wire on the inside of the cage. Going to buy hinges for the door tomorrow.

{{gwi:454526}}

Good luck attracting more varieties of butterflies this year. That is a goal for us too.

randy

That looks wonderful, Randy! On behalf of the monarchs, I thank you for protecting the cats - monarchs always prime wasp food around here!
I bet Amber is really looking forward to raising them!
MissSherry

Great job, Randy. That will house some nice sized potted milkweed plants in there. You will enjoy having the side door, as the Monarchs love to climb to the top to pupate.

You might consider finding some kind of a plastic tray that will fit inside on the bottom to line with paper towels to help with cleanup of the frass that drops.

You will find that you will be enjoying it as much as Amber. :)

Thanks Linda.

I was thinking using a heavy 4-6 mm plastic sheet cut to fit, but a tray might be better. Need to look around and see what we can find.

randy

Thanks MissSherry

I think both of us are looking forward to using it. :-)

randy

You and Cathy are so creative and talented at building your own cages. I finally decided to just order mine from E-bay. It's a paintball tent, with mesh on all 4 sides, and two zipper openings so you can step inside. It's pretty big, 6x6x6, but when I opened it up, it seems even bigger than that. Comes with a carrying case to store it in and pegs to put in the ground to stabilize it.

I plan to put a two-level shelf in on both sides so I can put potted plants on them with cats - hopefully. I haven't put it outside yet because of our weather. Plus I'm waiting on butterfly eggs and cats, too.

Susan

Susan

Thanks. I looked at those paintball tents and was tempted to try one. The one drawback to it was wondering how to put a lock on it to keep Amber from living in it. The cage is small, so she's forced to only looking at them from the outside now. :-)

You'll have to let us know how it works out.

randy

Well here is the finished cage. Should last us for a very long time.

{{gwi:454524}}

randy

Randy, Now that is one FANTASTIC-looking cage! Now it definitely has my seal of approval! :) Not that I'm an expert, but I can't think of anything that it needs. There will be enough air, adequate protection from wasps and flies and other nasty things. I forget if you said how high it is? I was just wondering.

I've been wanting to get mine done but I'm either sick, Amber's not here (she wants to help with it), or else the weather doesn't cooperate. I had been hoping to get it done before the garden planting starts because once I start doing that, I'll probably be busy through June. I hope it's nice next weekend so we can give it another coat of paint.

I should have known that you built it for the Monarchs just like me. :) I hope to get about 200 this year, more than double of last year. Yes, you know that I'm also like you in that I'd like to try to get more butterfly species around here this year. Of course, I suppose that's the goal of all of us. I figure the more flowers the better, and I might be going overboard and get stalled midstream, but at least I'll have them and just have to work up the energy to plant all of them. Ha.
Cathy

Amber would live in it......LOL! That's pretty funny. Last year, and you're probably going to think I'm bonkers, I raised some of mine in the kitchen cabinets! Yep! I would take them out daily for fresh food, changing of the paper towels (the guards), and they would crawl everywhere. Let me tell you, THEY ARE VERY FAST! They are also too cute. I found one hanging on my t-shirt, one crawling down the hall to the bathroom, and others in various locations in the kitchen. They just get away from you, and can crawl out of their containers very, very quickly. So be on the lookout for escapees! They even have the stripes for it!

But, you get very protective of them - they seem to inspire nurturing especially from us ladies. It's a wonderful experience and I know you and Amber will have so much fun.

Susan

Hi Cathy.

Glad you like it. It's a 2 foot square. Good luck with the weather. Get your Amber over there to help finish it. :-)

Susan

I wanted a large opening for ease of access. Sounds like it may be more room for escapees to make their move.

randy

Oh, that's lovely! I'd buy one if I saw that somewhere. Great job! : )

(You do not want me to even look at tools though, trust me.)

If your cats are on plants, you probably won't have as many problems with them escaping as I did. You should hear about Tdogmom's adventures in raising caterpillars and butterflies. She has found them pupating on the commode before! LOL!

Susan

laurellily

Why, thank you.

Susan

Did you and Tdogsmom have them inside cause of the weather or were you ladies just mothering your babies?

randy

I didn't have enough cage space. You can't have them too crowded as it tends to promote OE. So, I had several in my mesh pop-up containers (not the tent), and more in Glad containers that I punched holes in. I tried to keep the tiny cats in the Glad containers, and the larger ones were moved to the pop-up. Sometimes Monarchs can be unintentionally carnivorous. They will eat the tiny cats thinking they smell and taste like milkweed.

Susan

That's great information Susan. So how many cats hatching at about the same time can safely be kept in a 2 foot area that we will have in this cage?

randy

WOW!!! That's fantastic looking!!! Way to go Randy and Amber!!!

I just got done ordering another 65 gallon reptarium but have been thinking about making smaller cages myself for different instars and species. Something about 16 inches on each side. I had so many different cats inside as 22 gallon reptarium that one of the American Ladies decided to pupate on top of a Black Swallowtail chrysalis :o) Have no idea how the BST emerged but the AL was still attached to the spent chrysalis.

I do like your cage Randy. Now I just have to get off my duff and make some too.

I still use all my plastic gladware containers, rubbermaid bins etc. but mainly keep a stash of them in the truck...that way when I'm out at the ranch or on the road and find a caterpillar I can transport it home safely.

Oh...and monarch and queen cats can be cannibalistic. I had a caterpillar munch a huge hole in a chrysalis last year.

~ Cat

In a 24x24x24? Probably about 24 Monarchs, I'd guess.

You might want to use something smaller for the infants. I tried to make sure I lumped approx. same size cats together with the larger ones in the mesh containers (2.5' tall and about 18" round, maybe a bit more). I had medium size cats in larger Glad containers, and hatchlings in smaller containers. This was at peak Monarch cat stage when I was gathering close to 5 cats a day on average.

Others may do it differently, but I recall reading somewhere to try to keep the same sizes together and not mix them up.

Susan

Cat and Susan,

Thanks! Nice to get ideas and pointers from experienced cat ladies. :-)

randy

From Cat Woman to Cat-man-do, you're doing a fine job!

Susan