Our aviary
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| Our aviary started life as a 6" x 4" shed. But after considerable modification, it seems to be a home our chipmunks like, and thrive in. After modifying the area for the chipmunks is 5" x 4". |
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| This page shows how we converted the shed in to the aviary we have at the moment (a further extension is planed), and the lessens we have learnt as well as the thing we may have done differently if we had know then what we do now. |
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| A picture of the inside of the finished item |
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| 1) New window location where cut out of the shed to increase the amount of light in the shed, new plastic sheets were put in to make the windows watertite |
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| 2) first we covered the inside of the shed with a thin flexible polystyrene type sheet. This is the first part of the insulation but it also help to reduce the drafts in the enclosure. |
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| 3) insulation was then added all over the insade of the walls, we used some polistirean sheats and some foam. What wever we could get cheap at the time of the build. |
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| 4) The inner walles were then coved in hard bourd and painted with a marean water proof paint. |
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| 5) Battens where added to keep the wire mesh off the hard board so that the chipmunks could run over the mesh and get their claws around the bars. |
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| 6) The wire mesh was then added over the battens but at every point in witch the wire was scroowed to the battens a washer was used on both sides of the wire to reduce the chance that the chipmunks could not grip and to help keep the wire in place. |
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| hints: when putting in the wire don't forget to sort out some way of cleaning behind it I didn't and I have to remove the wire a couple of time a year to clean behind it as stuff get every where in the cage. Going in late at night (late at night as at this time the chipmunks are less likely to want to get out of bed) with cordless screw driver and removing all the screws on a panel to clean means it takes a long time this is not the best think to be doing. |
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| You must also consider how to feed and water the chipmunks when you can't go in, eg you may not have time as it can tack along time to do anything in the aviary if your chipmunks are very friendly as some of ours are. So we have a wire hatch so we can access the main feeding area without going in. This hatch is not shown in the above diagram but it is below the nest boxes about 20cm off the floor. We don't use the hatch often as we prefer to go in with the chipmunks but when we are on holidays the family that help look after them for us are not so keen to have the chipmunk on them so use the hatch. |
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