Starplate Large Outdoor Cage
This is what they call a "starplate" cage. You can purchase these starplates
from Stromberg's Chicks & Gamebirds (1-800-720-1134) and they cost about $50.
The photo below, which was taken during construction, clearly shows the steel
starplates at the corners of this cage. You
must supply the wood which connects them - the boards are 2" x 's ("two-bys" -
these are 2" x 1"'s but you can also use 2" x 2"'s or 2" x 4"'s)
and you can use any length you desire. The longer the boards, the larger the
cage. The starplates bolt onto the boards. From this point, you can do a number
of things. We chose to paint the boards green and to staple on some thinnish
green cage wire we bought from the local hardware store.The door was probably the most difficult part about constructing this otherwise easy to build cage. We chose to use three 2" x 1"'s which we glued together, and then we stapled cage wire onto it just like the rest of the cage. Hinges were used along the right side and there is a latch in the upper left hand corner. The only other thing which made this cage more difficult to build than it had to be was that we wanted to cover up the sharp edges of the cage wire on the inside of the cage. We knew that iguanas would be climbing all over the inside, and we didn't want them hurting themselves. So, we nailed some thin 2" x 's (probably 2" x 1/2"'s) to the inside of each board. This covered up the rough edges of the cage wire.
