Charlie's in his Barney Cage

[Pebbles82]

I am so exhausted. Hours and hours I messed about lol. Never again. But it's all done now - except a couple of little areas that need thinking about.

I gave up with hammocks, grass ones and chill n chew mat ones and decided they're not for me really. So I decided to raise Charlie's house instead, putting it on stilts, to reduce the fall height. Except I didn't have any stilts so I used his old guinea pig house upside down, filled it with substrate and sat his normal house on top - which supported it well. No mean feat as I used the house roof to slide under his normal house to keep his nest, hoards and potty area in tact!

That worked much better and the layout is now more like his old cage, height wise. I still need something to put over the bendy bridge house entrance in case he falls on it. For now I've hung the second sputnik over it (with the back tab unattached as it goes under the top door) then realised he can't actually get up the bendy bridge to get on the house roof then, so moved the sputnik along a bit. So at some point I need a better solution to hang over the bendy bridge, and also I think his water bottle might be a bit low for him now, but apart from that all went well.

I got him out of the pet carrier and put him in the cage. He was a bit cautious for a few minutes, went in his house, came out again, then in a very laid back kind of way, explored the whole cage, nibbling things along the way - I reckon he's got it all sussed out now. He then stuffed his pouches mega full and went to bed.

So this is Charlie's old house, upside down on the base of the cage at the far end, and his current house in the foreground with his nest in tact



His current house sat on top of it, high-ish up in the cage, with his nest still in tact inside



Big mess in our living room while I'm setting up the cage and transferring everything over Fitch everywhere (and all up the stairs as well as it kept dropping off me



Almost finished - just the bendy bridge to hang something over and an area down the side of the house to block off with something



Top view - the right hand end is just about identical to what he had before, except for the new long shelf along the back.

[Pebbles82]

Finished - added second sputnik over bendy bridge and second lava ledge to block high gap down side of house



His Savic rat tube was a bit longer than the boredom breaker tubes, so it's tied to the roof, either side of the big door and extends over to the back shelf from his main sputnik. He can access the main sputnik from the left shelf and gets up to the left shelf on a cork log/tunnel which goes partly under the left shelf and he can go through the cork tunnel as well.



He can access his small sputnik from the back shelf and his house roof as before, which is where his veggies go. He has a little coconut house under the back shelf. Bendy bridge not yet covered in this one.



Coconut house and round hay house with two holes in - he likes these a lot! Unfortunately the hay house keeps falling over when he tries to climb on it.



All finished. His vine branch is in the same corner but on top of the left shelf now and has an apple cracker dari thing wedged in it, which Charlie spent ages nibbling.



I have a video of him exploring the cage in a very unfazed, laid back fashion! But haven't had chance to process it yet. I think it helped letting him have a good play in it the other day. After a few hours asleep in his pet carrier I think he half expected a change!

[flowerfairy]

That looks totally amazing. Lucky Charlie.

[Pebbles82]

I think it looks a bit higgledy piggledy lol - but it's a safe set up for him I reckon and I can't believe how much more floorspace he has - the whole extra 20cm at the end plus two more shelves and a slimmer wheel the Sputnik on the right is a bit redundant really. He can get into it, but it doesn't 'go anywhere'. It's there mainly so he can't fall onto the bendy bridge.

[Jenibelle]

I LOVE his bench!

[Pebbles82]

Ha ha - yes he's had that for ages. It's actually serving a useful purpose now as it's a step up to the back shelf. I don't think they make the red ones any more, but they make natural wood ones. But you can still get the red one from German Amazon

Kerbl Wooden Bench Nature, 18 x 11 x 12 cm: Amazon.co.uk: Pet Supplies

Kerbl 82769 Holzbank für Hamster bunt 18 x 11 x 12 cm: Amazon.de: Haustier

They make guinea pig sized ones as well of the bark one (Uk Amazon). He's had that bench since he was a baby and used to sit on it and have a wash when he didn't have much else in his cage. I saw it on someone else's layout and nicked the idea!

[icklemunch]

Looks amazing lucky boy. Never seen one of those orange wheels before, where are they from please?

[Pebbles82]

That's the Silent Runner wheel - quite new. It's made by Exotic Nutrition in the US but the Sugarglider shop in the Uk sells them It was a replacement for our 12" Wobust wheel which was massive in the cage. The silent runner is 12" but slimmer (about the same depth as the Karlie wonderland wheel) and you can get fittings to attach it to the cage. I really like it! Not as good quality as the Wodent wheels but it's ok.

[CMB]

Nice cage setup. I'm considering getting that cage for my next hamster (robo or dwarf) as there is more layout options than a tank style cage.

[Pebbles82]

I think so. A tank style might be better for a dwarf though - the cage is quite high