DIY - Making a Pet Home, Some Considerations
From a dog house for a Great Dane, to a rabbit hutch we all want to keep our beloved pets safe and healthy. Unfortunately commercially built pens and runs for pets can cost a lot of money. You can save a fortune by making your own. A few simple tools and materials and you are on your way to building your own pet palace.
The biggest considerations when building an outdoor area for any pet are what exactly their needs are. Different animals need different environments. Chickens need a place to roost. Rabbits need a place to hide. Ferrets need room to climb. All animals need a place to be sheltered from the elements. No plan for any pet is going to be complete without some sort of sheltered area.
The next major concern is your pet's safety. If an animal is kept outside at night or you are not at home every second, and let's face it, who is? they are in danger. Danger comes mostly from other predatory animals, particularly if your pet is of a smaller variety. Danger can also come in the form of wandering neighbors, especially children who may need protecting themselves.
Consider how much space your pet will need. There is no point in building a pet home that is too small. Your pet will be miserable and possibly develop diseases and neuroses.
These things in mind, plan out the space your pet is going to need, and where its home will be situated. For smaller animals it is possible to build an off the ground space that will not only keep them safe from ground predators, but also allow for easy access under and into the pen. You can build your space from scratch, or consider getting your hands on an old table that you can use as the base and then build on from there. For larger animals, especially dogs, preventing digging is going to be a necessity.
There are a number of ways you can go about dealing with the digging problem. You are trying to keep the animal in and other animals out. A trench will be needed all the way around which can then be filled with any material an animal can't dig through. You will need to plan out where any posts will need to go and mark them or place them before filling. Corrugated iron is a good choice and often available fairly cheaply. You can either bend it to form a 'v' or simply submerge it a good 12 " into the ground around your pet's home. Concrete is another option. In fact anything that will prevent a digging animal from gaining access.
Consider your own access to the pet home. You will need at least one door, which will need to be secure. For smaller animals and hen houses consider having two doors. One for quick access to the main area and one for access to the sheltered, bedding area for easy feeding and cleaning. These doors will need to be very secure though. Good hinges are not expensive.
Timber, plywood and chicken wire are the main materials you will need to build the shelter and run area. Smaller pet homes can also be successfully made with found bits of old iron fencing, or PVC piping. Although perhaps not as attractive they can be found cheaply and serve the purpose.
There are a myriad of instruction booklets available for making a home for you pet available either cheaply or free online. For the real DIY person though, there is nothing to stop you building your own unique home for your pet. Just remember the basic requirements and think like your pet.