Toys for Glass/Perspex Cages

[steven025]

Hi All,

New owner of a pair of degus. I received them from the rspca about 9 or so months ago now.

When we first got them, we put them in a wire cage, as we were recommended that by the rspca. However, they tend to wee and poo outisde the cages edges, aswell as the bedding and hay coming out the sides.

I am switching to a glass/perspex cage, and am just wondering about toys and other things. As i know degus are the climbers i would like to install shelves and wall based toys as they like that in their current cage, however being glass or plastic there would probably be no way to attach them, so does anyone know what to do about this, or what kind of toys can be put in these cages??

I have tried to "Potty Train" them so to say, but they do not seem to follow put no matter how hard i try, potentially due to the previous owners mistreating the degus themselves.

Thank you in advance

[savvy]

Welcome to the forum.

I'm sorry to have to tell you that degus cannot be kept in glass/perspex housing due the lack of ventilation and the moisture content build-up this causes. The really need a wire cage.

Plus I doubt that a glass/perspex cage would be large enough to house degus as they need a LOT of running space 1 meter plus and lots of different levels, ledges don't count as running area. Please take a look at our cage size recommendations so you can work out how big a cage they need.

But, all is not lost. If fallout from a wire cage is an issue, then you can put perspex strips along the outside of the cage, along the length of the ledges, at about 3 inches high to try to keep everything in the cage. This will allow for adequate ventilation and give the degus lots of climbing space.

I would also suggest reading through the stickies at the top of each section.

Apologies for being brief, my battery is down to 3% and I needed to reply.

[moletteuk]

Welcome Steven025!

Another option is to make an upstand around all your shelves from wood. This should be very effective at keeping the mess inside but they will chew it so you you would need to buy extra and bank on having to replace it periodically.

Or you could look into making a wooden cage or perhaps adapting a vivarium type setup with extra ventialation.

Have a browse through our 'show us your cage' thread deguworld.proboards.com/thread/6918/show-cage?page=31