Pickle's Thread

[Pebbles82]

Started on shelves. I have these two corner ones that were used for Newt and Nugget. Birchwood ones. Cleaned them and painted them in the same blue plastikote to seal them and make them wipe clean. Neither was marked anyway but just to freshen them up and make sure no hamster odours.

I'm having a few problems fixing one of those shelves in the Plaza. They are quite thin and have an inset hole with a metal fixing in the hole for a screw to go in. There is only one hole on one side and two holes on the other side. But one of the two holes is behind a vertical bar and the shelf isn't stable without both screws and slips down at the front. Working on that. I had to cut a little corner off each shelf so they fit in the corner of the plaza cage as the corners are a bit rounded in the cage. I'd forgotten about that.

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[Pebbles82]

Originally Posted by LunaTheHamster1

Looks good Serendipity, I get what you do with your houses on legs now. Also makes it more stable. I think that is why I didn't like the heavy glass sand bath dish I put on top of Twinkle's house, it's not on legs so it becomes uneven as he burrows about under there. Your way, that can't happen. I will remember that one for the future. I like the little hide on top of his house too.

Edit: Ohh i have a piece of cardboard on top of that fantastic personalise hide I had made, but I like your idea of the hemp mat, looks so much nicer, I am sure I have a bit somewhere from when I cut it for the marrakesh cage. Now if only I could remember where I put it.

Ria, yes that was very sad re the dwarf hamster, something I would never have thought of having had only syrians.

Posted at the same time Thanks Luna! It was your Plaza video with mats at the side and end of the plaza that gave me the idea! I've had the labyrinth house without legs as well, at floor level on the base of the cage with substrate inside. So it's a subterranean house. But when it's higher up it increases the interior height for them as they can burrow down a bit. That particular house is too heavy to sit on the substrate without support really in case they tunnel under and it subsides on them.

Higher up it also doubles up as a shelf

[Pebbles82]

Just for comparison this was when I stuck dowel legs on for Charlie - but that was for the Barney cage which is 54cm deep so the legs don't catch the sides as much and the back and one side of the house rested on the deep lip of the cage base. However Charlie chewed through one of the dowel legs and it was on the point of snapping!

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[Ria P]

Oh wow! That house looks great and i like the hemp all around the cage.
You've have given me a lot of inspiration and ideas to work with. Thank you for showing and explaining which is ever so helpful. I'll be able to use my labyrinth house now once i've raised it on legs.
I'm really looking forward to see your set up once finished.

[Pebbles82]

You're welcome If it ever gets finished! Fitting it in between a lot of other things. My set ups end up nothing like as creative as some on here who have a flair for it! More practical (and symmetrical - I can't get past that).

[Ria P]

Symmetrical. I know what it means but is that a good thing or a bad thing? Not something i've ever connected with hamster set ups.

Thanks to you i have the plastikote bug now. I like toadstools but found the p@h wooden ones boring until i plastikoted one. Needs a second coat of clear yet. So simple and so effective.

[Pebbles82]

That looks really nice I've only normally used the clear one for waterproofing houses/shelves etc but the coloured ones do brighten things up.

So I gave up on the corner shelves I'd plastikoted - fixing problems after a few uses and they don't work so well with the wider bar spacing. I had a pine shelf from a while back but it was cut to fit the Barney. So OH cut 4cm or so off and I cut the corners off again and sanded it and it fits perfectly.

The measurement for inside the bars is 46.2cm. I cut it to 46 cm. It fitted in perfectly although there is a couple of mm gap - but once screwed in that kind of pulled the bars in 2mm. So it fits right up to the edges.

I got a bit carried away yesterday and used up the blue plastikote to paint the front of the silent spinner. I am not sure that was a good idea. It's not the same on plastic as on wood. First coat didn't cover well at all. Second coat did but the finish isn't very good and the brush marks show. I wouldn't do it again. Anyway it's done now.

So semi set up. Apart from all the things from the old cage to move over and some tweaking. Another shelf and the roof coconut from the old cage, the roof tube etc and some floor toys.

But this is how it's looking at the moment. The orange "pig" house is a bit small really. The entrance is big enough but it's a bit small for a large syrian. I might not leave it in. The salt pig is just the right size though.

I thought I'd let Pickle have an explore but chose the wrong time of day It was about 6pm and I got him out and put him in the Plaza thinking he'd enjoy exploring. Wrong. He is a sleepyhead who normally sleeps till about 10 or 11pm. Still a bit sleepy. So he has disappeared! I think he has burrowed under the house and gone to sleep. I'll leave him there and see if he comes out later.

It's probably going to end up looking just like Moo's Same layout basically.

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[LunaTheHamster1]

Looking good Serendipity. Did you paint the whole wheel, if just the front you can buy just the front part, no idea if you can buy it in the uk - paint stripper???

[Pebbles82]

Yes I just painted the front part . It’s ok . As long as you don’t look too closely.

[Pebbles82]

Now Moo’s house is on legs and he doesn’t dig or tunnel and just uses it as a house. I think because I lifted the roof when Pickle was in the house he decided to dig down and go to sleep. I’ll see if he emerges later and put him back in his old cage. There is still slightly more space above the house before the roof than in his old cage and his squinty eyed reaction to the light when he popped his head out if the top makes me think some hemp mat round the inside bars there might be an idea.