How to make a slope/ladder?

[michyLS]

I have bought a small shelf to add to Arlo's cage but realised he needs a way to get up! It won't be very high but I need to make a little slope for him to climb up. I don't want it to be very steep either. any suggestions please?

[Lala Noma]

Bendy bridge?

[climber008]

I was thinking the same thing as Lala Noma. A bendy bridge would seem like a good idea, as long as you can somehow safely secure it so Arlo won't get hurt.

You could always make a "staircase" out of small boxes that you have lying around the house. Maybe paper-machet them together into "stairs" with a water-flour mixture and wait until they dry?

Mind you, Arlo may chew it up, but it could be worth a try?

[Kodahbear96]

You can find a ton of tutorials on YouTube for Popsicle (I think they might be called lollies in the UK) stick ramps!

[josiah416]

I like to make a lot of my own stuff for money saving purposes. I made a bendy bridge with 4 inch sticks from my yard, drilled two holes in the ends, and threaded cut coat hangers through them. They turned out good and they have lasted so far (4 weeks)!

[cypher]

Bendy bridges are probably the best thing for Russians as they can get a grip on them easily with those furry feet!

[climber008]

I like to make a lot of my own stuff for money saving purposes. I made a bendy bridge with 4 inch sticks from my yard, drilled two holes in the ends, and threaded cut coat hangers through them. They turned out good and they have lasted so far (4 weeks)!

Wow! That is so neat!

[Pebbles82]

It's something I find tricky! Whenever I've tried a bendy bridge as a tunnel I can never get it quite the right height. I'm clearly not good at these things!

What I have for Charlie's low ramp up to his shelf now is one of the bendy bridges from Ranchouse cages - it comes with screw attachments so you can screw it to the bars at whatever angle you want and it won't fall over :-)

BRIDGE HOUSE SHELF RAMP CHIPMUNK,HAMSTER,RAT,DEGU CAGE | eBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300499955820?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT)

At the other side I have steps using these mini ledges Ranch house cages sell - they also screw to the bars. You could do the same thing with lava ledges. I have no gap between them so they could't get stuck between the shelves and it's a shallow rise. I reckon you'd need 3 or 4. I just have two because I have them over deep substrate at one end.

Their site seems to be offline right now so here are the lava ledges - they can help with keeping nails short as well

£6 each is a bit steep for them though - they could be cheaper elsewhere

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kaytee-Was-Superpet-Lava-Ledge/dp/B00176F466/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1463752131&sr=8-1&keywords=lava+ledge

Here's a pic of the bendy bridge screwed to the bars in charlie's cage (left of photo). The ledges/steps are on the right - I could do with a third one but don't want to move his water bottle so I just made the substrate deeper next to the steps.

http://i1373.photobucket.com/albums/ag389/charliethehamster/69d703f7-d08e-49df-93cc-45193527e053_zps0rumxlqf.jpg

[michyLS]

I do actually have a bendy bridge thing in his cage, I thought he'd like it curved right over like as cave as his nest but he's adopted one of those plastic igloos as his nest which I just popped in there for playing. (I know plasic igloos aren't great but he's filled it with bedding now and loves it!) so as he's not using the bendy bridge as a nest I reckon it'll be the right height as a ramp to get up to the shelf, I'll move it over and hope he doesn't mind!