Small Pet Playhouse + Sand Bath

If you have some small animals that love to chew on stuff, climb, and sleep. This is perfect for all of those things. It has two huts that are perfect for chewing or sleeping, a swing, and a bridge. We put it in our gerbil's cage pretty late at night and the next morning it was all gone. So if you have very active pets, this would be great for enrichment. So, without further ado, lets get on with the project!

For this project you will need:

• Willow Branches or other non-toxic woods
• Hot glue gun
  • Hot Glue sticks (non-toxic)
• Dry sand (optional for sand bath)
• Non-toxic string or twine
• Cardboard box (we used a cracker box)
• Scissors
• A ruler or tape
• Half circle object (optional for measuring doorways)
• Small saw

Once you have all of your materials ready to go, it's time to start working!

Template:

1. Mark the Measurements onto a piece of cardboard of your choice (we used a cracker box).
2. Cut out your cardboard. Make sure to cut a door that your pet can fit through. For cutting the door you can use a small bowl or anything that's circle and draw around it like a stencil. If you're really good at drawing circles though, you could just do it freehand .
3. Okay! Now just hot glue the two edges of your box together and you're ready for step 2!

After you’ve created your main house, it’s time for the cute swing and bridge.

Bridge:

1. For the outer edges of the bridge you want to cut two pieces of willow about 8 inches to one foot in length (Image 1 & 2).
2. Now you need the center of the bridge, which isn’t too complicated either. You’ll want around eleven 4-inch (Image 1 & 2) pieces of willow to glue in the middle. However, if you want a more dense bridge, I recommend using about 15 to 18 pieces of willow.
   1. Leave some space in the middle of your bridge to tie the swing.

Swing:

1. For the swing you'll want to cut three to four 1-inch pieces of willow.
2. Cut 1 foot non-toxic string and loop the middle of it through the bridge. (image 3)
3. Glue the string to the bottom of the swing, leave two or three inches of string on the other side.
4. Tie each piece left over string to the string that's coming down from the bridge, with two simple overhand knots.
5. Cut off the excess and you're good to go!

Now for the other hut!

Template:

1. Mark and cutout the measurements on a piece of cardboard (image 1).
2. Use your half circle to mark out another small door and cut along the line
3. If you want, you can cut out an extra piece of cardboard for the top of the ramp so you can't see the inside of the hut. If so, see the instructions below.
   1. Mark and cut a 4 x 6 piece of cardboard
   2. Glue the cardboard onto your ramp, and bam! You've made a ramp with cardboard on top of it (img. 2).

The ramp:

1. Okay! Now, Mark and cut a template stick that's a smidge over 4 inches.
2. Do as before and use your template stick to measure and cut more sticks (img. 2).
3. Cut sticks until you have enough to either fill up the whole ramp or to make footholds.
4. Glue them onto your ramp and admire your work.

Now that we've finished all of the other steps, let's finish up!

Glue it together:

1. Line up both huts on either sides with the bridge in the middle
2. Glue the bridge on top of both huts and you're done!

If you have gerbils, love sand baths. You should definitely consider letting them have some every once in a while to get cleaned.

Sand Bath:

1. Grab a bowl or something that your animal can fit in and pour dry in some dry sand.
2. For extra fun add some of their food for them to find!

We have finished this project once and for all. I hope you enjoyed this Instructable as much as our gerbils did. Hope you have a great day!