We recently purchased this cage for our two chinchillas. Overall, we love the appearance, the natural wood finish, and the extra space it provides. Our “kids” absolutely love their new home, which is why it’s disappointing that the product has so many quality and design issues.
Unfortunately, our cage arrived with a broken part right out of the box. The wooden magnetic latch for the lower storage compartment was split in half inside the packaging. Because of this, the storage doors cannot close properly, making the storage compartment unusable without repairing or replacing the part.
Assembly was also far more difficult than it should have been( took 2 hours and the sides were hard to identify as no left or right were marked, etc)
Some of the screw holes were missing, requiring us to improvise during assembly. The instruction manual was not very clear—the orientation of several parts wasn’t properly identified, and some assembly steps were confusing.
There are also several design flaws that should be improved. The upper and lower sections of the cage have no locking or securing mechanism to connect them together, so the entire structure doesn’t feel as stable or secure as it should. The brackets for the ramps are too short to reach the wooden platforms, forcing us to screw them into the metal frame instead. This damaged our own tools, and the screws don’t sit securely because they were clearly designed for wood rather than metal.
Another frustrating issue is the tray. We couldn’t install it anywhere as shown in the instructions. Whenever we placed it inside the cage, the doors would no longer close, making the tray unusable.
The materials are also more fragile than expected. One of the legs broke almost immediately after assembly when we carefully lifted the cage from a horizontal position to stand it upright on its wheels. For a cage of this size and weight, the legs should be much stronger.
That said, we genuinely like the overall concept. The cage is attractive, spacious, and our chinchillas seem much happier with the upgrade. I do wish it were a little wider, and the wood is fairly soft, so chinchillas can chew through it quite easily.
This product has a lot of potential, but the quality control and engineering need significant improvement. Better materials, clearer instructions, proper pre-drilled holes, stronger hardware, and more thorough quality inspection before shipping would make this cage well worth the price.
At its current price point, I expected much better craftsmanship and quality control.
