My grandparents are going to build me a cage for my first glider and i was wondering if it is ok to make it with wood and to have the hardware cloth which is 1/2" x 1/2" spacing. please let me know what you guys think. thank you.

The 1/2 inch is great but at the very least the full cage should be 3 ft by 3ft by 4ft tall...

Wood needs to be sealed to be used for a glider cage. It will absorb urine and smells if it is not sealed.

The plastic hardware cloth is safer for suggies. Metal/galvanized hardware cloth is coated with zink and can be hazardous for suggies. The metal often has small sharp points on it as well that can scratch or cut suggies climbing on it. Coated wire is safer than plain galvanized wire.

if i painted the hardware cloth would that be better because i do not know where to get plastic hardware cloth.

Painting can be dangerous because of the residual chemicals in the paint. If you have it powder-coated (painted) that should be safe but probably expensive. Lowe's carries the Hardware net which is all plastic but they might chew thru it. Try looking at Lowe's, The Home Depot, etc. on-line to see if you can find it. Candy is correct about the zinc being toxic. Check some of the topics thru out the site, I know there are several others who have made their cages. Most have used PVC pipe and Hardware cloth or net. I do not use wood in our cage as it does soak up the pee and smells bad!

The plastic cloth just doesnt hold up with use and they can literally bite through it if they want to. For your homemade cage, I recommend your galvanized hardware cloth as you have access to and wood should be fine. You could put the cloth on the inside of the wooden frame to limit exposure to the wood itself. You can buy those little j clips and special pliers for them on ebay or at your local feed store for assembling cages.

People are right that urine can break down the coatings on the metal, but it's a long process and critters have lived ages inside of galvanized cages.

You could build the cage and then remove the cloth to be powder coated if you have a painting professional nearby.